Aaron Sleger's eight inning performance was his best yet of the 2016 season.
photo by Tim Evearitt
For just the fourth time this season, the Jackson Generals have lost a series with Sunday's 6-2 loss to the Chattanooga Lookouts at AT&T Field in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Lookouts have won three of the first four in the five-game series in their quest to make it to the Southern League playoffs again.
Aaron Slegers started for Chattanooga and picked up the win after eight brilliant innings.
The 6'10" righty dominated Jackson giving up just five hits and one run over eight innings. Slegers struck out six and walked one on his way to becoming the first opposing pitcher to make it through eight innings against the Generals in 2016.
Chattanooga took an early lead in the first and never looked back. Generals starter Ryan Yarbrough gave up a leadoff single in the first to Zach Granite before retiring Engelb Vielma and Daniel Palka. After walking Travis Harris, Yarbrough gave up a three-run homer to D.J. Hicks and the Lookouts led 3-1. Hicks has five homers in 14 games against the Generals this season compared to zero in 55 games against the rest of the Southern League.
The Generals responded in the top of the second. D.J. Peterson launched a solo homer to left, his 11th of the season and 10th solo home run, to make it 3-1 in favor of the Lookouts.
After Peterson's homer in the second, both offenses were silent over the next four innings. From the third inning through the sixth, Jackson put one man in scoring position.
The Lookouts put the game away in the seventh inning. Stuart Turner led off with a double into left and scored three batters later on a two-out single by Vielma. Daniel Palka brought in Vielma on a two-run home run to right, his third in as many games, to make it 6-1.
The two-run blast was Palka's Southern League leading 19th home run of the season. Jackson's Tyler O'Neill is second in the league with 13.
Jackson did threaten in the ninth for the second straight game. With Lookouts reliever Omar Bencomo on the mound, Benji Gonzalez and O'Neill led off with back-to-back singles. Gonzalez advanced to third on O'Neill's single before O'Neill moved to second on defensive indifference. With men on second and third and nobody out, Leon Landry struck out for the first out. Peterson recorded the second out, but it was on a sacrifice fly to move the runners over and make it 6-2. Tim Lopes grounded out to end the game with O'Neill on third and Jackson fell 6-2.
The Generals went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position Sunday. This series, the Generals have stranded 34 total while going 9-for-46 with runners in scoring position, a .196 batting average.
The Lookouts will be aiming for their third straight against Jackson on Monday in the series finale of a five-game series at AT&T Field. Generals' All-Star Brett Ash (7-3, 4.39) gets the start while the Lookouts will send Kohl Stewart (1-2, 4.89) to the hill. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 P.M.
D.J. Hicks homered for the Lookouts in the seventh inning.
photo by Tim Evearitt