James Jones of the Jackson Generals slides safely into third base ahead of a tag by Chattanooga Lookouts third baseman Ozzie Martinez.The Chattanooga Lookouts finally scored some runs Wednesday night at AT&T Field, but 16 strikeouts led to their undoing in a 4-3 loss to Jackson.
"We hit the ball better, and that's a positive sign, but at the end of the day, losing is losing," Lookouts manager Jody Reed said. "They had a pretty good lefty who had a good breaking ball, but you shouldn't strike out that much."
James Jones and Ramon Morla combined for five hits for Jackson and had consecutive home runs to left field to lead off the sixth inning that put the Generals up 4-3. The Lookouts managed just one hit the rest of the way in losing for the 11th time in 13 games to fall to 12-19 in the Southern League second half.
Chattanooga had gone 22 consecutive innings without a run until J.T. Wise led off the second inning with a homer to left, which hardly provided Wise any comfort after the game.
"We didn't get a win, and that's all that matters," Wise said. "The home run didn't do anything."
Wise's homer gave the Lookouts a 1-0 lead that lasted less than five minutes. In the top of the third inning, Chris Taylor singled up the middle and scored on a one-out triple to left-center by Jones, who came in when Morla grounded out to put the Generals up 2-1.
Chattanooga regained the lead in the fifth inning on Jon Garcia's single to left that scored Ozzie Martinez and Joc Pederson's fielder's choice that scored Angelo Songco. Martinez opened the fifth by singling up the middle, and Songco reached after getting hit by a pitch.
Pederson, the No. 4 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization according to Baseball America, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as his average dipped to .280. He was ejected following a called third strike in the eighth inning, one night after Reed was tossed for arguing a call at third base.
"Clearly he is frustrated, and I understand that," Reed said. "This is part of development, because the down times are going to be there."
Chris Reed (3-7, 3.88) is scheduled to start tonight's 7:15 game for the Lookouts, with Anthony Fernandez (5-5, 4.46) scheduled for the Generals.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.