Rally falls short for Lookouts

Despite a furious late-inning rally, the Chattanooga Lookouts fell to the Tennessee Smokies 8-6 Tuesday night at AT&T Field, leveling both teams’ Southern League second-half records at 3-3.

The visitors jumped on Chattanooga starting pitcher Tony Santillan for single runs in the second and third innings and five in the third for a 7-0 lead. The Lookouts scored two runs in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to get close, but the Smokies’ Wyatt Short closed the door with 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief to get his sixth save.

Chattanooga’s Mitch Nay was 3-for-4 and hit a pair of two-run homers, giving him eight for the season, to spark the rally. The Smokies rapped out 16 hits, with Jared Young, Charcer Burks and Christian Donahue getting three each.

The game’s biggest hit came from Vimael Machin, whose fourth-inning grand slam made it 6-0. Two batters later Jhonny Pereda chased Santillan with an RBI single and a 7-0 lead.

After Nay’s first tworun blast in the sixth, Chattanooga got an RBI single from Chris Okey, a double by Stuart Fairchild in his Lookouts debut and a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Michael Beltre to get within four.

After Nay’s second tworun shot in the eighth, Caltan Daal doubled with two outs, but Short came on to get Okey to ground out to end the threat and then worked the ninth around a leadoff single by Beltre to secure the save.

The Lookouts and Smokies continue their five-game series this morning at 11:15.

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress. com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22