Back and forth they go.
The Chattanooga Lookouts have alternated wins and losses for nearly a week, and they continued the trend Tuesday night with a 6-2 setback against Tennessee at AT&T Field. The loss dropped the Lookouts to 20-19, while the Smokies improved to 23-16.
"I think the league is pretty even right now, and I think it's tough to get a streak like we had earlier in the season," Lookouts manager Carlos Subero said. "We're playing a good team, the best offensive team in the league. We're going into tomorrow with an opportunity to win the series, even though we had that tonight."
Before the game, a moment of silence was held for Harmon Killebrew, who died Tuesday. Killebrew played for the Lookouts in 1957-58 and went on to hit 573 career big-league home runs.
Tennessee's bats pounded out 15 hits in support of Smokies starting pitcher Robert Whitenack. The 6-foot-5, 185-pound right-hander from New York worked seven innings, giving up three hits while striking out five.
The 22-year-old began this season at high Single-A Daytona, where he went 3-0 with a 1.17 earned run average, and is now 4-0 with a 2.40 ERA in the Southern League.
"His stuff moves a lot, and that's what keeps him so effective," Lookouts right fielder Kyle Russell said.
Tennessee wasted no time in striking Tuesday, as Rebel Ridling's one-out single up the middle in the first inning scored Marwin Gonzalez and D.J. LeMahieu. The Smokies extended their advantage to 3-0 in the fifth when Luis Flores doubled to left field and scored on Jae-Hoon Ha's triple to right.
Flores singled to left in the sixth to score Matthew Spencer and put Tennessee up 4-0.
The Lookouts didn't score until the ninth, when they opened with a Scott Van Slyke walk, an Alfredo Silverio triple to right-center and a Russell single to left. The triple was Silverio's seventh, which leads the league.
Chris Withrow (0-4, 6.12 ERA) is scheduled to start this morning's 11:15 series finale for the Lookouts, with Trey McNutt (1-2, 2.29) scheduled for the Smokies.