Duncan Davitt went four innings, allowed two hits, and struck out five. Ben Peoples followed with two perfect innings and four more strikeouts. Through six at Truist Field on Tuesday afternoon, the Charlotte Knights and Nashville Sounds were tied at zero.
Then Wikelman Gonzalez entered.
Luis Lara led off the seventh with a first-pitch solo home run — his third of the season and the first run scored by either team. A bases-loaded walk to Jett Williams later in the inning forced in the second run. In the eighth, Jeferson Quero hit a three-run home run to push the lead to 5-0. Jacob Gonzalez answered with a solo shot off Blake Holub in the bottom of the eighth. That was Charlotte's afternoon.
Final: Nashville 5, Charlotte 1. The Sounds took Game 1 in front of a 7,400-plus Education Day crowd.
The Math
Davitt and Peoples went six innings and allowed zero runs, two hits, and nine strikeouts between them. The next two innings gave up five. Neither half of that is disastrous on its own. The sequence was.
Worth noting: Peoples did not allow a baserunner. Four of the six outs came on strikeouts.
On the Nashville side, Logan Henderson went 3.1 innings, walked two, struck out three, and left with the game still scoreless. The Sounds' bullpen did the rest. Jacob Waguespack struck out four over 1.2 innings. Brian Fitzpatrick and Will Childers each threw scoreless relief.
Debuts and a Double
Two Charlotte Knights made their first appearances at Truist Field on Tuesday. Rikuu Nishida had three hits. Ryan Galanie led off the seventh with a double and the inning ended with the Knights still trailing 2-0.
Quero finished 3-for-4 with three RBI: double in the second off Davitt, single in the seventh, three-run home run in the eighth. The kind of line that turns a two-run game into a five-run margin in a single at-bat.
What Comes Next
The Knights arrived at Truist Field off a Jacksonville series that ended with a 9-4 win Sunday. Tuesday was a different kind of game — six scoreless innings from the pitching staff, one run on a home run that mattered less than it would have on any other afternoon.
Game 2 goes Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.
The question is what the rest of the homestand looks like.