Perhaps it was the odds as much as the Montgomery Biscuits that were responsible for the Chattanooga Lookouts’ Southern League baseball loss Sunday at AT&T Field.
Chattanooga got a strong outing from starting pitcher Tyler Duffey, but for the first time in more than two weeks the Lookouts’ offense went stagnant in a 2-1 loss.
The Lookouts’ run, which came in the first inning and was unearned, was their lowest output in a game this month. They had averaged 6.6 runs per game in the previous 16 games.
“When you’re 14-2 in the month of May,” Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said, “you’re going to lose sometime.”
The Biscuits’ No. 3 batter, Richie Shaffer, came through with a two-out single with a runner on third in the top of the ninth inning that proved to be the difference.
Tommy Coyle, who struck out in his first three at-bats, singled to right to start the ninth off losing pitcher Madison Boer (0-1). Leadoff batter Boog Powell got a sacrifce bunt down with two strikes before Leonard Reginatto’s groundout moved Coyle to third, bringing up Shaffer.
“There were guys more of a problem than him coming up,” said Mientkiewicz, whose two pitchers Sunday held the Biscuits’ Nos. 3-5 batters to a combined 1-for-12 before Shaffer delivered. “If you watched the game you saw we held those guys down most of the game. He hit a ground ball up the middle and won the game.”
Duffey pitched seven innings and gave up seven hits and three walks. The Biscuits’ run off him came in the fifth, which began with Powell hitting a triple to the right-center-field gap. After two of Duffey’s season-high 12 strikeouts, Johnny Field hit a pop fly down the right-field line that a sliding Travis Harrison appeared to have caught, but the ball ended up trickling out of his glove.
“We’ve got to score more runs for him,” Mientkiewicz said of Duffey. “He got out of a lot of jams. We also had the ball in right field that could’ve been caught. He did his job.”
Jorge Polanco and Carlos Paulino were each 2-for-3 for SL North-leading Chattanooga (23-14), with one of Polanco’s hits coming in the first. Byron Buxton reached on an error and scored the Lookouts’ run when Adam Walker walked with the bases loaded.
Parker Markel was the winning pitcher and one of five to pitch for Montgomery (16-21). Bryce Stowell earned his first save of the season with a perfect ninth, although Lookouts hitting coach Chad Allen was ejected for complaining about the called third strike against first batter Michael Gonzales.
The third game in the series of five is scheduled to start at 11:15 this morning.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.