Adam Brett Walker's 31 home runs last season were the most by a Chattanooga Lookouts player since professional baseball returned to the city in 1976.
At the rate Daniel Palka is going, Walker's record could be very, very short-lived.
Palka collected his 19th home run Sunday afternoon as the Lookouts topped the Jackson Generals 6-2 before a sun-soaked crowd of 2,068. It was the third homer in as many games for the former third-round pick out of Georgia Tech, who was obtained by the Minnesota Twins last November in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
With 66 games still remaining in the Southern League's regular season, Palka is on pace to hit 36 homers.
"I'm not really thinking about that at all," the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder said. "I'm just trying to be consistent with everything, and I'm more concerned with just getting my average up."
Palka's latest blast was a two-run shot to right field in the seventh inning that put the exclamation point on Sunday's triumph. It was Chattanooga's third win in four days against the North Division first-half champions, who outdistanced second-place Chattanooga by 10 games.
The Lookouts started strong Sunday with a three-run homer to center by Dalton Hicks, who notched his fifth of the season and his first since May 20. Chattanooga starting pitcher Aaron Slegers (6-4) was sharp, allowing just one run in eight innings while striking out six.
Chattanooga manager Doug Mientkiewicz said before the series that you never know what to expect the first few days of the second half due to personnel moves and how teams respond from the three-day all-star break. Judging by this past weekend, the Lookouts seem to be handling things well.
"I feel really good starting off this half," Palka said. "It wasn't really a break that we got considering we had six hours of driving the day after the game, but it was still a good time."
Kohl Stewart (1-2, 4.82) is scheduled to start tonight's 7:15 series finale for the Lookouts, with Brett Ash (7-3, 4.39) scheduled for the Generals.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.