It was the same song, just a different verse for the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Never, ever say that things can’t get worse when things aren’t going well because they can. Members of the Cincinnati's AA farm team will vouch for that.
The Rocket City Trash Pandas took a 3-2 lead in the series with a 14-2 win on Saturday when nobody was sure that it could be any worse.
Less than 24 hours later, matters got much worse as Rocket City improved to 41-40 with the fourth win in the series, exploding for season highs in hits and runs as they rolled to a 26-3 victory.
We should have known it was a bad omen when leadoff man Luis Aviles Jr. hit the first pitch for a home run.
It only got worse as Rocket City scored four in the first and three in the second before tacking on eight more in the third. The Trash Pandas batted for 45 minutes in the third inning alone as they sent a dozen hitters to the plate and collected seven hits, including a two-run homer by Izzy Wilson and five doubles.
It’s hard to believe, but the Trash Pandas didn’t score in the fourth or six innings, but they scored at least one in every other frame as they finished the day with 23 hits, including 15 for extra bases.
Starting pitching has been bad news for the Lookouts all season and it really bottomed out on Sunday when starter Mac Sceroler was replaced with two outs in the third inning after allowing 13 runs – a dozen of them earned – on nine hits. He also walked three and hit one as the Trash Pandas were off and running.
Wilson Garcia had an RBI-single for the Lookouts in the first and Drew Mount ripped a two-run homer in the second, but that’s all the scoring the home team did in a game that lasted almost four hours.
But on a day when it looked like the visiting team was having a glorified batting practice, Lookout officials should have refunded the money to the 2,167 in attendance as what they witnessed was not a good example of how minor league baseball is supposed to be played.
While Sceroler was the loser, dropping to 1-3 for the season as his ERA went from 4.50 to 8.10, Cristopher Molina improved to 2-1 with the victory in relief as he allowed just three hits and no runs in five and a third innings of work.
No doubt the Trash Pandas hate to leave town after everyone’s batting average increased.
In the two games that Rocket City lost, they scored two runs total. In the four they won, they crossed the plate an amazing 51 times, including 40 runs in the last two victories.
Aviles ripped a three-run homer in the seventh as Rocket City had five homers for the day. They also collected 10 doubles.
Wilson led the way with six hits, including a home run. He scored four times and drove in four runs as every Rocket City starter scored at least twice.
Aviles was next with four hits while Brendon Davis and David MacKinnon both had three hits. Mitch Nay, Ray-Patrick Didder and Torii Hunter Jr. all had two hits apiece.
Aviles finished with five runs batted in while Davis, MacKinnon and Wilson all drove in four.
While Rocket City had their offensive explosion, Chattanooga countered with eight hits and three runs.
Matt Lloyd had three hits, including a double in the sixth while Mount singled in the fourth after ripping his fifth home run in the second.
Matthias Dietz pitched the ninth for Rocket City and didn’t allow any hits or runs, but things got a bit interesting after he walked one and hit two to load the bases with one out. Emotions were on edge for both teams at that point, but home plate umpire Sam Burch, who was the crew chief, did an outstanding job of making sure that nothing any more crazy materialized.
Garcia hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
Both teams have Monday off while Chattanooga’s next game is Tuesday in Birmingham to face the Barons. The Lookouts stayed two games behind in the league standings after Mississippi pinned a 5-2 loss on the Barons on Sunday.
Chattanooga returns home on August 24 for a six-game series with the Tennessee Smokies followed by another six-game series with the Barons. The season will end on Sunday, Sept. 19 at the end of a six-game series with the Mississippi Braves.
ROCKET CITY 438 020 531 – 26 23 1
CHATTANOOGA 120 000 000 – 3 8 2
Hernandez, Molina (3), Dietz (9) and Cruz, Molfetta (9); Sceroler, Lopez (3), Byrne (5), Roxby (7), Pinto (8), Perez (9) and Tello.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)