Monday was a wild night at the Lookouts game. Wild, as in pitches.
Chattanooga scored five runs off Birmingham wild pitches, including two on one pitch, and sent a holiday sellout crowd of 6,356 home happy from AT&T Field with an 11-5 victory.
The Lookouts (43-38 overall, 7-4 second half) entered the game trailing Montgomery (7-3) by a game in the Southern League North standings in the second half. The Biscuits played later Monday night at Mississippi.
Leadoff batter Zack Granite sparked Chattanooga, going 4-for-5, stealing two bases and scoring two runs. His bunt single got things started in the bottom of the first inning.
"He's good for about two hits a night," Lookouts cleanup batter Mitch Garver said of Granite. "When he gets a hit in the first inning, he's going to have a few."
Niko Goodrum followed with an RBI double, and, an out later, Garver made it 3-0 with a home run. Garver ended up 3-for-3, walking twice and scoring four runs.
"It's good to get runs early, obviously," Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said. "We've scored a lot of runs in the first inning. The middle innings is where we've run into problems. It was good we kept it up all night tonight."
Chattanooga, which has won three consecutive, managed to score in six of its eight at-bats. Levi Michael went 2-for-4 and both times he scored was on wild pitches. Shannon Wilkerson came on in the third inning for left fielder Travis Harrison, who was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game. He ended up scoring on a wild pitch, as did Garver. Granite was the one who scored on a wild pitch from second base.
"They gave us some extra outs and made a few mistakes, and we capitalized," Mientkiewicz said. "That's what other teams did to us in the first half. We got a couple of breaks and took advantage of them."
Starter David Hurlbut (6-4) was the winning pitcher. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing five hits and one walk. Three of the five runs he allowed were earned, and he had six strikeouts.
Zack Jones pitched the final two innings without allowing a hit. He did walk one and he struck out four.
"I think the crowd definitely helped us, especially the bullpen at the end of the game," Garver said. "I'm glad we were able to give a great crowd like this a win."
The five-game series with Birmingham (34-47, 5-6) continues tonight, starting at 7:15.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.