For a while Friday, it looked as though the Birmingham Barons were going to have the most baserunners in their Southern League baseball game at Chattanooga’s AT&T Field, but not the most runs. But single runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth innings changed all that.
Lookouts errors played a role when Birmingham tied the game in the sixth and went ahead in the seventh, and the Barons defeated Chattanooga 5-4 in front of a crowd of 2,326.
The Lookouts (5-2) led 4-2 going to the fifth inning of the game that was delayed starting by 31 minutes because of rain. Jason Coates had a one-out double that inning for the Barons, and when Adrian Nieto drew a two-out walk, it marked the end of the night for Chattanooga starter Jose Berrios.
Berrios struck out nine in his 4 2/3 innings of work but gave up eight hits and three walks and hit a batter. When Jeremy Farrell greeted reliever Jake Reed with a run-scoring single, it was the third run, all earned, charged to Berrios, who threw 107 pitches.
“We fell behind everybody all night long,” Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said of the ball-strike counts. “That set the tone. We’ve been fortunate, however many games we’ve played, to get that many quality starts in a row.”