One month from today, college football will be underway and the NFL season will be a day away from its kickoff.
The regular season for the Chattanooga Lookouts will be over a month from today and the Southern League playoffs will be looming. So how does Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz handle the time between now and then?
"You're still trying to develop right now, but at the same time you're trying to rest guys a little more than you normally would," Mientkiewicz said before Saturday night's 9-3 loss to Mobile at AT&T Field. "In the last two weeks or 16 to 18 games, we really try to crank it up and try to get them back in that mode of playing modified games in our head that are going to get us ready for what we're up against. With a week to go, and these guys have been through this before, we try to kick it in a little bit.
"You have the typical end-of-the-year taper-off, and they know those last two or three games have no bearing on when the playoffs start. You want them to be healthy and have their legs under them, but you also want them locked in for when it really matters."
Saturday's game took place before a crowd of 3,343.
Socrates Brito hit a bases-clearing triple to left field in the ninth inning for Mobile, while Evan Marzilli and Jack Reinheimer had two-RBI nights for the BayBears. Mobile broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning when a Marzilli single to center scored Sean Jamieson.
Chattanooga took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Travis Harrison singled to left, advanced to third on Jairo Rodriguez's single to right and scored on a Heiker Meneses sacrifice. After Mobile scored twice in the top of the third, Max Kepler tripled to right later in the inning and scored to tie the game.
The Lookouts dropped to 59-49 overall and to 16-24 in the Southern League's second half after winning the North Division first-half title. Chattanooga is 13-11 since its 3-13 start to this half.
"We've done some really good things inside of games, but we've also done some not-so-smart things, and that's what is concerning," Mientkiewicz said. "At the end of the day, you're still trying to get them ready for the next level."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.