Hoping to make a push toward overtaking the Chattanooga Lookouts at the top of the Southern League North Division, the Tennessee Smokies opened a three-game series with a 13-3 win over the leaders Monday night at AT&T Field.
While neither of the league’s top home run hitters in Kyle Schwarber or Adam Brett Walker II made a run on the other in the power standings, the Smokies took advantage of three errors and 11 walks to cut their deficit to two games in the North standings.
The loss for the Lookouts was their fourth in five games.
“Whenever we get to play a team that’s in first, we love the opportunity to make an impact in the standings,” said Smokies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who drove in his 32nd run of the season. “It’s always fun when we get to play Chattanooga, especially when we are in a race.”
After a red-hot month of May, in which Chattanooga won 21 games and averaged 6.6 runs per game, Miguel Sano evened the score in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run blast that cleared the left-field scoreboard and the clock tower on top as well.
The moonshot gave the 6-foot-4, 262-pound third baseman his 10th home run of the season and the league-leading 47th for the Lookouts, as well as their 24th at home.
Sano joined Walker as the first two teammates to reach double-digit home runs in the 10-team league.
“I think we have found some guys that definitely have a lot of power,” said Walker, who added to his SL-leading extra-base-hits total (25) with a double in the eighth. “We try to stay aggressive at the plate and get good pitches to hit. We want to drive the ball around the park, and a lot of them have been going out of the park for us.”
After receiving praise from Lookouts pitching coach Stu Cliburn for throwing first-pitch strikes and commanding the fastball over the previous month, the exact opposite occurred for Chattanooga’s pitchers Monday.
Losing pitcher David Hurlbut (0-2) along with two relievers walked 10 batters in the first seven innings, which helped the Smokies to an 8-3 lead after a four-run seventh.
Jeffry Antigua claimed his third win for Tennessee (28-23) and struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and three runs.
Wilson Contreras accounted for three of the Smokies’ dozen hits, and Stephen Bruno drove in three runs in front of a road crowd of 5,302 fans.
In just his second appearance for Chattanooga (29-20), J.T. Chargois only allowed a walk in the ninth while touching 100 mph four times.
Lookouts shortstop Jorge Polanco extended his hit streak to eight games.
“We had a good month of May at the plate,” said Polanco, who went 40-for-110 (.364) in the 29-game stretch. “We just can’t get down on bad nights and have to continue the fight.”
First pitch tonight is scheduled for 7:15 with Alex Wimmers (2-0, 5.54 ERA) taking the hill for Chattanooga and Frank Batista (5-1, 1.51) for Tennessee.
Contact Patrick Maccoon at sports@timesfreepress.com.