It takes some Chattanooga Lookouts a full season to get adjusted to the Southern League.
Maybe pitcher Chris Withrow needed a season and a half.
Withrow had his fourth consecutive solid outing of the second half Tuesday night at AT&T Field, allowing two runs in six innings during a 3-2 loss to Huntsville. The No. 4 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization entered with a scoreless-innings streak of six and extended it to 11 before allowing leadoff home runs to Stars starting pitcher Cody Scarpetta in the sixth inning and to Zelous Wheeler in the seventh.
“You learn to not go out there and make the same mistakes twice,” Withrow said. “Last year was full of mistakes, and this year I’m trying to minimize them and take it a pitch at a time and let the innings take care of themselves. I’m doing a better job of commanding my fastball, getting ahead of guys, forcing early contact and getting some ground balls.”
The 22-year-old right-hander from Odessa, Texas, was taken out of the game following Wheeler’s homer and did not factor in the decision. Withrow is 3-5 with a 4.04 ERA through 14 starts, but he has allowed just five earned runs in his four second-half starts and has amassed 13 strikeouts in his last two outings.