Brandon Drury was essentially a throw-in portion of the package that brought Justin Upton from Arizona to Atlanta before the 2013 season. But the D-backs have certainly come to realize the tremendous potential possessed by Drury, who delivered a decisive sixth-inning double in Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Braves at Turner Field.

Drury’s RBI double off Bud Norris enabled Shelby Miller to notch his first win since the D-backs acquired him via the blockbuster trade completed with the Braves in December. Miller halted his early-season woes while limiting his former team to two runs and four hits over six innings.
Freddie Freeman drilled a two-out, solo homer in the first inning and the Braves provided Julio Teheran another run of support in the second inning. But Erick Aybar’s error helped the D-backs complete a game-tying two-run second inning against Teheran, who surrendered one earned run over five innings but was not nearly as sharp in this 101-pitch effort as he had been in his past two outings. The Braves have now lost 14 of their first 15 home games.

The Braves wrap up the series with the Diamondbacks on Sunday at Noon (CT) and Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast on the Braves Radio Network

Zach Neal turned in eight dominant innings to lead the Sounds to a 2-1 win over the Memphis Redbirds in front of 9,316 fans Saturday night at First Tennessee Park.

The right-hander limited Memphis to just one run on three hits in his eight frames. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out four in his fourth win of the season. The eight-inning effort is the longest start by a Sounds hurler this year.

Neal cruised through the first two innings before Memphis scored the game’s first run in the third. Tommy Pham lined a two-out base hit up the middle to score Alberto Rosario to give the Redbirds a 1-0 lead.

The Sounds bounced back quickly with a run of their own in the fourth. Jake Smolinski collected a two-out walk in front of Andrew Lambo. The designated hitter then lined a pitch from J.C. Sulbaran into the right-center gap for a double that chased Smolinski around from first with the tying run.

Neal went back to work and was unhittable the rest of the way. When he retired Greg Garcia to end the third, it was the start of 16 consecutive batters set down in order.

Matt McBride started the seventh with a base hit off Memphis reliever Justin Wright and moved to second on Matt Olson’s groundout. It was then Bruce Maxwell who came through with the go-ahead run-scoring single. His line drive bounced off of Wright and trickled into left field to allow McBride to cruise home and make it 2-1.

Neal returned for the eighth and punctuated his big night by striking out the final two batters he faced – David Washington and Alberto Rosario.

Lefty Patrick Schuster got the ball for the ninth and worked around a two-out walk to slam the door for Neal and the Sounds.

Over his last two starts, Neal has allowed one run over 15 1/3 innings and has pitched the Sounds to wins of 3-0 and 2-1.

Game three of the four-game series is set for Sunday afternoon at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Daniel Mengden (1-0, 0.00) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Jeremy Hefner (2-0, 3.42) for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m.

The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.

Zack Greinke tossed six quality innings as the D-backs snapped a six-game losing streak by beating the Braves, 7-2, on Friday night at Turner Field in the first game of a three-game series.

The D-backs gave Greinke (3-2) some early run support thanks to an RBI single by Nick Ahmed in the second and they capitalized on an error by Braves third baseman Reid Brignac to score a pair of runs in the third. David Peralta had an RBI single in that third inning, and Brandon Drury added his sixth home run of the season in the sixth.
“We didn’t help ourselves with catching the baseball,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. “You have to catch the ball behind [Blair]. The veteran guys can cover it up, the Greinkes can cover it up a little bit and he did today but some of the younger guys you can’t. You can’t extend innings.”
The Braves finally managed to break through against Greinke in the sixth when Adonis Garcia and Tyler Flowers each had RBI singles. It was not enough to spare Aaron Blair (0-2) from the loss. Blair was facing the team that drafted him and dealt him to Atlanta this past winter. After the game, the Braves optioned Garcia to Triple-A Gwinnett and activated Ender Inciarte off the disabled list.
The D-backs stumbled into Atlanta on a six-game slide and were in desperate need of a victory against the team with the worst record in baseball. Greinke did what aces are supposed to do — deliver a quality outing to help stop a bad streak. That’s the pitcher the D-backs were expecting when they signed Greinke to a six-year, $206.5 million deal last December.
Blair wasn’t sharp with four walks in his five innings, but he again competed and gave the Braves a chance to rally. Blair, who has now pitched at least five innings in each of his first three Major League starts, allowed three runs (two earned), and threw 92 pitches, including 54 strikes — both career highs.
The Braves had their ninth game this season with at least 10 hits, but also their 13th double-digit-strikeout game. It was the second straight 10-plus strikeout game for Atlanta and its sixth in the last 10 games. The Braves had seven such games over their first 18. Friday was the fifth time the Braves had at least 10 hits and at least 10 strikeouts. All of them have been at Turner Field and they are now 0-5 in those games.
The Braves throw their ace, Julio Teheran, against the D-backs at 6:10 p.m. CT tonight in game #2 of the series with Arizona. While Teheran is winless on the season, he’s pitched seven innings in back-to-back starts, allowing only one run and eight hits in those two starts, and is 3-1 with a 2.17 lifetime ERA against the D-Backs.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of the game beginning at 6 PM.

A six-run second inning paved the way for the Memphis Redbirds in a 7-6 win over the Nashville Sounds in front of 8,123 fans Friday night at First Tennessee Park.

The Sounds plated runs in four separate innings after the Redbirds took a commanding 6-0 lead, but the rally fell short in yet another one-run loss.

The scoring in the six-run inning started right away when Anthony Garcia doubled and Jonathan Rodriguez singled to make it 1-0.

Three of the next four batters reached safely to load the bases for Jacob Wilson. The third baseman launched a 2-2 pitch from Dillon Overton off the left field foul pole for a grand slam and 6-0 lead.

With nobody on and two outs in the bottom of the second, Nashville’s Chad Pinder sparked a rally with a sharp single to left. Andrew Lambo reached on an error and Rangel Ravelo walked to load the bases.

This time it was Nashville’s turn to do the damage with the bases full as catcher Bruce Maxwell lined a bases-clearing double to left-center to cut the deficit in half at 6-3.

Over the next two innings, the Sounds continued to dig into the Redbirds’ lead. Renato Nunez brought home a run in the third with a single up the middle and Tyler Ladendorf singled home a run in the fourth to make it 6-5.

Rodriguez was at it again for Memphis when he belted a solo blast in the fifth to give the Redbirds a 7-5 lead. The Sounds brought it to within a run again in the seventh when Matt Olson’s single to right scored Renato Nunez who previously doubled.

The bullpen trio of Ryan Brasier, Daniel Coulombe and Tucker Healy kept it close by putting up three scoreless frames in the later innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, Sam Tuivailala retired Joey Wendle to start the inning but then issued back-to-back walks to Max Muncy and Nunez. The final pitch on the walk to Nunez was wild and allowed Muncy third base.

Tuivailala bounced back to strike out Olson for the second out, then got Chad Pinder on a fly out to right to end it.

Game two of the four-game series is set for Saturday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Zach Neal (3-1, 3.14) starts for Nashville against right-hander J.C. Sulbaran (2-2, 4.18) for Memphis. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.