Lookout Misfortunes Continue As Birmingham Wins

Chattanooga Now 1-4 With Third Straight Loss As Barons Prevail, 7-3

  • Saturday, July 2, 2022
  • John Hunt

They shot fireworks at AT&T Field for the second straight night as 4,264 baseball fans gathered to celebrate the Independence Day weekend.

We all have lots of reasons to celebrate as we enjoy the freedom to watch minor league baseball in a nice ballpark, but a victory by the host Chattanooga Lookouts wasn’t included.

The Lookouts didn’t have much to cheer about as their struggles continue.

Facing the division-leading Birmingham Barons for the fifth straight day, the Lookouts lost their fourth game and third in a row as the Barons struck early and often en route to a 7-3 victory.

Poor pitching and a lack of hitting have been the biggest culprits in recent days and those two factors came into play again as the Barons scored all seven runs in the first four innings and finished the game with 14 hits.

Chattanooga’s offense was again all but nonexistent as three Birmingham pitchers limited the Lookouts to just six hits and three runs, including just one hit in the final five innings.

Lookouts manager Jose Moreno knows that the main goal in minor league baseball isn’t necessarily to win baseball games, but that’s always a positive when you do.

“I can promise you that we try hard every day to get better.  Our main goal is to develop these young players and we’ll stick with that plan, but we have to do a better job overall with our pitching and our hitting,”Moreno said before the fireworks began.

“Birmingham has an aggressive team as they’re really good right now, but we just have to keep working, knowing that one day soon we’ll turn things around,” he concluded on a positive note.

Southpaw Connor Curlis got the start and the loss as he didn’t pitch nearly as well on Saturday as he did in his last outing.

He allowed seven runs on eight hits in three-plus innings as he never seemed to develop any rhythm with his delivery.

The Barons scored twice their first time up before adding three runs in the second.  Two more in the fourth were the last of the game for them, but that was more than enough as the Lookouts have been struggling to score in recent days.

Moises Castillo had a two-run single in the first for the Barons while Raudy Reed  had a solo homer and Tyler Neslony an RBI-double for the big blows in the second.

Alex McGarry drove in Chattanooga’s first run with a single in the first while Nick Quintana had a run-scoring double in the fourth, followed by an RBI-single by Ivan Johnson.

With the exception of a leadoff single by T.J. Hopkins in the ninth, Baron pitchers retired 14 straight Chattanooga hitters in the final five innings.

Reed had a big night at the plate with four hits, including three straight doubles following the homer in the second. 

Jose Rodriguez had three hits as well.

No Chattanooga player had more than one hit.  In addition to McGarry’s single, Quintana’s double and Johnson’s single, Michael Siani had a single in the third.  Allen Cerda had a double in the fourth and scored ahead of Quintana’s double.

Southpaw Sam Peralta picked up the win as he allowed no runs and no hits while striking out five in 3.1 innings.

These same two teams will wrap up the series on Sunday night with the first pitch set for 6:15 as fireworks are again planned at the end.

BIRMINGHAM  230 200 000 – 7 14 0

CHATTANOOGA  100 200 000 – 3 6 1

Burke, Peralta (4), Denlinger (8) and Skoug; Curlis, Pidich (4), Stockton (6), Nutof (8) and Free.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

                                                                                         

 

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