Key to losing? Give up the big inning.

#43, pitcher Sam Narron (0-1) takes the mound against the Oklahoma City Red Hawks on April14th. He went seven innings, giving up nine hits and three runs and was pegged with the loss.

The Nashville Sound’s record this year so far is 7-5. They have played three series: New Orleans (H), Oklahoma (H), and Memphis (R).

Of their five losses the average margin of loss has been 7.2 runs. Compare that to the average margin of victory of 3.8 runs.

Earlier I wrote about “big’ innings and their importance to the Sounds in winning. I define a ‘big’ inning as scoring 3-or more runs in one inning. When the Sounds have big innings they are 4-1.

What about their five losses so far? In all five losses they have given up big innings. This is why their margin of loss is 7.2 innings to date.

Simply put, the key to the Sounds winning is to contain a scoring inning by their opponent to just two runs or less.

With an average margin of victory of 3.8 runs this means the Sounds are playing well in the tight games. They are doing a good job of winning the ‘hard ones‘.

But Nashville has to learn to avoid giving up the big inning. The big inning accounts for 100% of their losses so far and 42% of their total games.

They key to a Sounds good season will be keeping these big inning games by their opponents to less than 20% of their total losses.