Heiker Meneses, playing shortstop in Jorge Polanco’s absence, had three hits (including a triple), two runs scored and three RBI.
photo by Tim Evearitt
Jackson, Tenn. - Greg Peavey and Heiker Meneses led the Lookouts to a 6-2 victory against the Generals Wednesday at The Ballpark at Jackson. The Lookouts took a five-game sweep while the Generals suffered their seventh consecutive loss.
After falling into a tie with Tennessee following a six game losing streak at home a week ago, Chattanooga currently leads the Southern League's North Division by 3 1/2 games over the Smokies.
Peavey (5-2) earned the win for Chattanooga (35-23) after six shutout innings in a quality start. He escaped a couple late jams, stranding a runner at third base with a strikeout in the fifth and leaving two runners aboard in the sixth after a fly out. Peavey allowed just two hits and one walk, striking out three during a stellar scoreless appearance.
Greg Peavey collected his fifth win on six innings of scoreless pitching.
The lineup looked a little different without Jorge Polanco, who went 1-for-3 with the Twins, but the result was the same: a win. Polanco has been returned to the Lookouts and should be in the lineup Thursday night.
Byron Buxton was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Travis Harrison moved into Polanco’s two-hole and tripled. Miguel Sano was 2-for-5 from the five-spot, including a double.
Buxton, the No. 2 pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, is hitting .274 with six homers, 30 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Sano, a big guy at 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds, is hitting .254 with 10 homers and 36 RBIs.
Max Kepler went 0-for-3 with a walk. This continues an extremely rough stretch for Kepler. He's just 4-for-34 in his last ten games and his batting average has fallen 29 points during that stretch.
Third baseman Miguel Sano committed his 13th error.
Jackson (22-36) was unable to control Meneses, who was responsible for each of the first five Lookouts runs. His two-out single in the second drove in Sano to put Chattanooga in front, 1-0. He scored a run of his own during the fifth inning on a Buxton sacrifice fly. Later, Meneses added a two-run triple in the sixth before scoring on a sacrifice fly from Steve Wickens to push the lead to 5-0.
Chattanooga stretched the advantage to 6-0 with another run in the top of the seventh. The inning began with a Travis Harrison triple and a Max Kepler groundout. Adam Brett Walker II, coming off three strikeouts in his first three plate appearances, stroked a single to bring in Harrison for an insurance run.
DJ Peterson put Jackson on the scoreboard with a two-run homer off DJ Johnson in the ninth inning. That trimmed the deficit to 6-2. Peterson's third home run of the season would be Jackson's only offense.
Lookouts reliever Nick Burdi, whose fastball topped out at 99 MPH, also had a shutout appearance with four strikeouts in two innings pitched.
Box
The Lookouts move on to Birmingham for a five-game series with the third-place Barons Thursday night at 8:05 p.m. ET
Note: The Tennessee Smokies' scheduled contest against the Birmingham Barons on Wednesday afternoon was cancelled due to unplayable field conditions resulting from a malfunction of Smokies Stadium's sprinkler system.
Overnight Tuesday, the Smokies' sprinkler system malfunctioned, causing parts of the field to take on water. Following several attempts by the Smokies' grounds crew to repair the field throughout the day Wednesday, a decision was made by personnel from both clubs to not play the game.
Nick Burdi threw two innings of shutout ball in relief of Greg Peavey.
photo by Tim Evearitt