Chattanooga's Alejo Lopez dives safely back into first as Knoxville first baseman Nelson Madonado awaits the throwover. The Smokies edged the Lookouts, 5-4.
photo by Glen Austin
Chuckie Robinson was furious. The Smokies’ DJ Wilson had sacrifice bunted Nelson Maldonado and Christopher Morel over to second and third. But when third baseman Robbie Tenerowicz made a terrible throw (one of five team errors on night), Maldonado came home. Morel followed suit, although his dash to home was a much closer play. Chattanooga catcher Chuckie Robinson applied the tag, but the umpire called him safe. Robinson disagreed, said a few words, and was summarily ejected in the seventh inning of the Lookouts 5-4 loss to the Smokies.
Starting righthander and Rice University alum Ricky Salinas got himself out of some early trouble in his Lookouts debut.
He walked leadoff man Zach Davis and then was victimized by great baserunning and poor fielding after that. Davis bolted to second for the steal, and catcher Chuckie Robinson made a very high throw that went far above shortstop Michael de Leon. Davis used the opportunity to hop to third base with two outs. The 230 pound Salinas recovered nicely though, and struck out Tyler Payne to end the inning.
Salinas was not quite as fortunate in the second inning. The Smokies wore out the grass patrolled by right fielder Mariel Bautista, with Andy Weber and second baseman Christopher Morel both smashing balls into that general area for back to back doubles. Center fielder DJ Wilson showed some patience and drew a walk after that, which gave pitching coach Rob Wooten a reason to pay his starter a mound.
That short chat must have been a productive one, since Salinas settled down after that and struck out two straight after their talk. While his nemesis Zach Davis walked to drive in one run, the Smokies weren’t able to hit the game-breaking bomb or double, and Salinas once again got out of a jam. Salinas continued to pitch well in the third too, working through the side with ease.
D.J Wilson made Wooten take a second trip out to the mound, this time one long enough to force the home plate umpire to join them. Even though Salinas racked up eight strikeouts through a little over three innings, his iffy command also produced five walks and three hits. Wilson sent a flyball all the way to the Komatsu sign in centerfield, and by the time it had bounced back into the field, Morel was across the plate, and Wilson stopped at third with a triple.
But as was emblematic of the feast or famine nature of Salinas’ game, he proceeded to strike out Erick Castillo and Connor Myers both swinging on the next two at bats. And then he of course walked Zach Davis following those strikeouts. Manager Ricky Gutierrez sprinted from the dugout and pulled his starter from the game, replacing him with righthander Eddy Demurias after three and two thirds innings.
The reliever with a mid-90s fastball gave up a Miguel Amaya line drive into left, which drove in Wilson and put runners on first and second. The Chicago Cubs top-100 prospect never got any further than first though, since Demurias coaxed a ground ball out of the next batter to end the inning.
Smokies starter Cam Sanders didn’t make bats miss like Salinas did, but he exhibited much better control over the first three innings. Even though he struck out only one, Sanders did not walk a single batter and consistently got weak contact against a Lookouts lineup still missing top shortstop prospect Jose Garcia. The Lookouts finally threatened in the bottom of the fourth, putting runners on the corners with no outs after Yoel Yanqui stole second after a single into center, and then Wilson Garcia made it to first on an infield hit.
The Smokies got Yanqui out on an eventful runout that involved several tosses back and forth up and down the third base line, but the Lookouts still had runners on first and second with only one out. Third baseman Byrd Tenerowicz belted a ball into the leftfield corner on his second at-bat of the night, doubling in the two runners to make it a 3-2 game going into the top of the fifth.
In the bottom of that inning, Yanqui had a few moments to collect his thoughts before going up to bat, since the Smokies had to visit a now-mortal Sanders after loading the bases with no outs. His flyball to left didn’t leave the park, but it did go far enough to drive Lorenzo Cedrola in on the sacrifice fly, tying the game at 3-3.
Right hander Miguel Figueroa came in to pitch the sixth and struck out the first two batters he faced. But then the pitcher made a bad toss to first, and Zach Davis ended up at the top of the diamond after hitting a soft grounder. Amaya doubled a ball into left to put two runners in scoring position, and what should have been an easy inning was suddenly a dangerous one. He got out of it though once De Leon made a decisive throw to first to get out number three.
Michael Byrne’s night got off to a rough start, giving up two runs on the error-laden sequence. He rebounded a bit to get out of the inning with two strikeouts sandwiched around a double. In the bottom of the eighth, Bautista cut the lead to one when a long flyball into leftfield caromed off the wall and drove in TJ Hopkins. The Lookouts failed to rally in the eighth and ninth and went down 5-4.
Lookouts ace Hunter Greene pitches tomorrow at 7:15.
Summary:
Smokies: 0/1/0/2/0/0/2/0/0 - 5/8/2
Lookouts: 0/0/0/2/1/0/0/1/0 - 4/7/5
Sanders, Roberts (6), Lawlor (8), Uekert (9) and Payne; Salinas, Demurias (4), Figueroa (6) and Robinson, Byrne (7), Ghyzel (9) and Schuyler
You can contact the author at Joseph.A.Dycuas@gmail.com or on twitter at @joseph_dycus .