The Chattanooga Lookouts might be cooling down a bit in the summer heat.
The Birmingham Barons beat the Lookouts 9-6 Thursday night in front of 2,043 at AT&T Field, Chattanooga's third loss in four games and second straight.
The Lookouts are still an impressive 66-37 overall and remain firmly in first place in the Southern League's North Division standings with a 24-9 mark in the season's second half. But the first-half division champs, who are already guaranteed a place in the postseason, have struggled this week to complete the comebacks that seemed to come so easily at times over the past few months.
On Thursday, the Lookouts matched the Barons' 11 hits and put together a three-run sixth inning to cut Birmingham's lead to 7-5. But the Barons answered in the seventh on Hunter Jones' RBI triple and added another run two batters later as Jones came home on a groundout.
Chattanooga's LaMonte Wade hit a one-out double in the ninth, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on T.J. White's two-out single, but that was it as Drew Hasler coaxed a groundout to end the game.
For the second straight night, the Lookouts led 1-0 after the first inning - Levi Michael homered this time - before falling behind, though they cut Birmingham's lead to 5-2 in the fifth on Michael's RBI double.
In the sixth, the Lookouts sent seven batters to the plate and went through three Birmingham pitchers. Carlos Paulino's bases-loaded single scored Max Murphy, but Alex Perez was out at home. Nick Gordon followed with a triple to right field that brought in Travis Harrison and Paulino.
Game four of the five-game series is tonight at 7:15, with postgame fireworks and a stadium bag giveaway scheduled for Superhero Night at the park. The scheduled starting pitchers are Birmingham's Spencer Adams (7-9, 3.98) and Chattanooga's Fernando Romero (9-6, 2.68).
The Lookouts haven't lost three in a row since a five-game slide in late May against Birmingham and at Biloxi.