Lookouts on pace for record season
The Chattanooga Lookouts have gone from really good to historically good.
Jonathan Rodriguez’s two-out, two-strike single to left field in the 14th inning Tuesday night scored Nick Gordon to propel the Lookouts to a seventh consecutive victory before a sold-out crowd of 6,368 at AT&T Field. Chattanooga came home early Tuesday morning after a six-game road sweep of Mississippi and now has won an eye-popping 21 of its past 23 games.
“It’s unusual, no doubt, and especially at this level with the competition that we play and see every day,” Lookouts manager Jake Mauer said. “So many things are involved in something like this, and it’s been fun. It’s fun watching them be competitive in every game, and if we keep getting good starting pitching like we have been, we’re going to be OK.”
Chattanooga is 53-29 overall this season and is on pace to have its best winning percentage since the existing Southern League’s inception in 1964. The Lookouts have a .646 win clip through 82 of their 140 games this season, topping the .629 rate achieved by the 1992 squad (90-53).
The 2004 Lookouts (87-53) had a .621 winning percentage.
“We’ve had better players, but I don’t know that we’ve ever had a better team, and there is a big difference,” said Larry Ward, who has been broadcasting Lookouts games consecutively since 1989. “We will win with pitching one night and then hitting the next, and it is so fun to watch. We’ll be down a couple of runs in the third inning, and I will be thinking to myself, ‘This is no big thing.’
“You have to stay the whole nine innings, because you don’t know when we’ll win. It’s unbelievable. We’ve had some really good teams, but none of them have been like this.”
Chattanooga’s best season ever took place in 1909, when the Lookouts went 84-36 (.700) and won the Southern Association championship.
The Lookouts won 10 of their last 11 first-half games to win the North Division title and clinch a spot in September’s playoffs. They have come out in the second half and won 11 of 12, proving that they plan to do anything but coast until the postseason.
“We’re just trying to stay hot, because we still have a job to do,” left fielder LaMonte Wade said. “We’re trying to get better each and every day, and you have way more fun when you’re winning compared to when you’re losing. It’s been great around here, because we’re winning, but we’re not satisfied.”
Said second baseman Ryan Walker: “I know we won and don’t have to win this half, but it’s baseball, and you play to win. We play to win for the fans and to have fun games. We have such a fun time playing together, and I think that really shows on the field.”
Wade’s single to right field in the fifth inning scored Walker and Gordon to give the Lookouts their largest lead at 5-1. Chattanooga still led 5-3 entering the eighth inning, but Tennessee tied it with RBI doubles to center by Jason Vosler and Yasiel Balaguert.
The Lookouts will try to attain their 22nd win in 24 attempts tonight at 7:15, when Dereck Rodriguez (2-0, 4.30 ERA) takes the mound for the hosts against the Smokies.
“It’s kind of our job,” Mauer said. “It’s what we’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to give yourselves a chance to win every night, and sometimes it doesn’t work, but we’ve been finding ways. There is luck involved in baseball, and we’ve had some things go right for us in this stretch that maybe didn’t earlier in the year, and that’s how baseball goes.
“You just don’t want to upset the baseball gods too much and just continue to play well.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@ timesfreepress.com or 423757-6524.