Lookouts host Montgomery in divisional playoff tonight
The Chattanooga Lookouts began this season with most of the top pitching prospects in the Minnesota Twins organization.
They begin the Southern League divisional playoffs tonight with a starter who simply doesn’t lose.
Zack Littell will take the mound at AT&T Field against Montgomery, and he will do so after having assembled a 19-1 record during the regular season. The 21-year-old is 5-0 in seven starts since joining the Lookouts in late July, when he was traded to the Twins by the New York Yankees for veteran bigleague starter Jaime Garcia.
“It’s awesome, and having 19 wins looks really cool,” Littell said, “but at the end of the day, I don’t have that much control over it. If I pitch well and get a win, then great, and if I pitch well and get a loss, it is what it is.
“It just speaks more to the teams I’ve been on and the hitters they have more so than how I have performed.”
Littell began this season with New York’s high Single-A team in Tampa, where he went 9-1 with a 1.77 earned run average in 13 appearances, including 11 starts. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder was promoted to the Double-A Trenton (N.J.) Thunder of the Eastern League and went 5-0 with a 2.05 ERA in seven starts before the trade.
Throw in an 8-1 record in his final 12 appearances last season at high Single-A Bakersfield in the California League, when he was in the Seattle Mariners organization, and Littell owns a staggering 27-2 mark in his last 29 decisions.
“I saw him last year when he was with Clinton (Iowa) in the Midwest League, and he won a lot of games for them, too,” Lookouts manager Jake Mauer said. “He’s a guy who’s a starting pitcher in every sense, because he gives you a chance, and that’s all you ask of your starters. You’re not always going to have your best stuff, and there will be some days when nothing feels right, but you’ve got to give your team a chance.
“He’s been on a great run and has been very consistent.”
Littell was an 11th-round pick of Seattle in 2013 out of Eastern Alamance High in Mebane, N.C., which is 20 miles from Chapel Hill. He was acquired last November by the Yankees through a trade and went through that unnerving experience again several weeks ago.
“It’s crazy, because it is so out of nowhere,” Littell said. “You’re just sitting there one day, and a couple minutes later you’re not a Yankee anymore. It’s a weird thing, but it’s also awesome to be traded, because it means somebody wants you enough to give up one of their guys.
“I’ve enjoyed it over here so far.”
Littell would enjoy things even more with a Southern League championship, and he is excited about having the opportunity to get things started. Dereck Rodriguez is scheduled to start Thursday night’s second divisional series game for the Lookouts.
“Playoffs are what everybody wants to play for at the end of the year,” Littell said. “We’re playing to win the whole season, but development is first. I don’t know if development necessarily takes a back seat in the playoffs, but there seems to be more focus on winning as many games as you can to get out of here with a championship.
“It makes the lowest points of a season worth it when you can win it all.”
Littell has a 2.81 ERA with the Lookouts and insists he is not throwing the ball as well as he was earlier in the year.
As for his one loss this year? Littell can reel off his pitching line — one unearned run in 5 2/3 innings.
“I honestly don’t think about it, and I didn’t know my wins were getting up there until I got here,” he said. “Again, I think it’s a credit to all the teams I’ve played on. I’ve pitched well enough to get a few wins, but a lot of it has to do with the guys I’ve been with and how they hit.
“I’ve been on three different teams this year, and they’ve all been hit, hit, hit. It makes it easy to pitch when it’s like that, which is why this season has been a blast.”