The Chattanooga Lookouts are showing no signs of playing out the string.
Travis Harrison's home run to left-center field in the second inning Sunday afternoon helped catapult the rampaging Lookouts to a 6-0, seven-inning blanking of Pensacola and a third consecutive win to open the Southern League's second half. Chattanooga improved to 4-0 Sunday evening with another 6-0 win in the second game of the doubleheader.
The Lookouts, who rolled to the North Division first-half championship with 10 wins in their final 11 games, have now won 14 of 15.
"We always want to win, no matter what," Harrison said. "We don't need to win, but we're natural competitors and always want to. Losing is no fun no matter where you're at, so we play to win."
Chattanooga, which comfortably has the league's best overall record at 46-28, has lost one time since June 9.
"It's been a good few weeks," right fielder Edgar Corcino said. "We've made the playoffs, which is nice, and the guys are excited. We expect to win every time, have fun and play the game right.
"When you do that, usually good things happen, and that's pretty much what we've been doing."
The Lookouts added to Harrison's solo shot when LaMonte Wade's two-out single to center in the fourth inning scored Dan Gamache and Alex Perez. That would be more than enough offense for Chattanooga starting pitcher Dereck Rodriguez, as the son of Hall of Famer Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez struck out six and allowed just two hits in six innings.
Chattanooga got off to an even quicker start in the second game, when T.J. White's two-out single to center in the first inning scored Nick Gordon. The Lookouts made it 2-0 in the second inning when Harrison doubled to left and scored on a wild pitch, and it became 4-0 in the third on Levi Michael's double to left that scored Wade and Harrison.
"We've been playing well," Harrison said. "The pitchers have been throwing good, and we've been getting timely hits. Sometimes we get a lot of hits, and that works, too. We're keeping the momentum we had late in the first half, and hopefully we can keep it going."
Harrison, who homered in the first game and reached all three times in the second, was a member of Chattanooga's 2015 Southern League championship team, but he isn't into making comparisons at this point.
"We have a long way to go," he said. "When it comes to playoff time, it's usually about the best team at that given moment. We just need to keep playing the way we are, and we should be all right."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.