Chattanooga Lookouts win again against Jacksonville, 9-6

photo Lookouts catcher Hector Gimenez reaches for Jacksonville's Luke Montz as umpire Brent Rice watches Monday at AT&T Field.
Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

The bizarre combination of the Chattanooga Lookouts winning and the Los Angeles Dodgers bleeding financially continues.

Several hours after the Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court, their Double-A affiliates held on Monday night for a 9-6 win over Jacksonville at AT&T Field. The Lookouts improved to 4-1 in the Southern League's second half after their fourth consecutive victory, and they have won 13 of 17 dating back to the end of the first half.

"We've just got to come out and take care of ourselves right now, because we're not up there," Lookouts second baseman Jaime Pedroza said. "We're having a great time and are playing great baseball. We're swinging the bat really well, and our pitchers have been doing well this whole year.

"Once you get everything going, it's all about having fun."

Alfredo Silverio, Brian Cavazos-Galvez and Pedroza had two-run home runs for the Lookouts, who are now at nine consecutive games with five or more runs. The homers by Silverio and Cavazos-Galvez were followed by conferrings of the umpires before they were allowed.

Silverio's third-inning homer put Chattanooga up 3-1, and Cavazos-Galvez's made it 5-1 an inning later. Elian Herrera led off the fifth with a double to right field and scored on Scott Van Slyke's one-out sacrifice fly to center, and Pedroza's two-run blast came in the sixth.

Kyle Russell, who was celebrating his 25th birthday, got into the act in the eighth inning with a solo shot to right that gave the Lookouts a 9-1 lead.

"That was fun," said Russell, who is second in the league in homers with 16. "That's the first one I've ever hit on my birthday."

The Dodgers filed for bankruptcy after Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig last week refused to allow a lucrative television contract that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt had negotiated. Selig announced in April that the MLB would assume financial control of the franchise.

Dodgers player development director De Jon Watson attended the five-game series at AT&T and talked with Lookouts coaches about the situation but did not feel the need to gather the team together.

"If they have questions, I'll answer any questions they have," Watson said. "These guys aren't really affected by anything that's going on now with the big club. There is nothing that affects what they do on a daily basis, and I don't see how it would affect any of them when they get called up to the big leagues.

"Our job is to continue to get these guys prepared to play at the major league level and to develop major-league-caliber talent."

Lookouts closer Josh Lindblom returned Thursday from Los Angeles, where he made eight big-league relief appearances and went 0-0 with a 1.69 earned run average. Lindblom said the organization's financial predicament was not a clubhouse topic during his stint there.

"The topic there was just winning games," he said. "The focus in the big leagues is just winning, whether it's by a run or four runs. That's the only thing that was really talked about in the clubhouse.

"As far as being back here, we can't worry about what happens financially. We just have to show up and work hard."

Allen Webster (0-1, 4.03 ERA) is scheduled to start tonight's 8:05 EDT opener at Jackson for the Lookouts, with Tom Wilhelmsen scheduled for the Generals (2-2, 4.94).

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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