Sunday afternoon signified the end to the Southern League's first half for the Chattanooga Lookouts, who topped Mississippi 5-4 amid a 102-degree heat index at AT&T Field.
The unofficial end of the half for Chattanooga occurred May 20 at AT&T when the Lookouts were just a half-game back of Tennessee for the North Division lead. The Lookouts fell to the Smokies 2-0 that day but lost much more when leading hitter Gaby Martinez was hit by a pitch and broke his hand.
Martinez went on the disabled list after the game, as did starting catcher Lucas May, who was trying to play with a broken wrist. Third baseman Josh Bell then missed almost a week with knee soreness, and the Lookouts endured an eight-game losing streak in which they never scored more than four runs.
"We were right at the cusp of doing some good things before we got hurt in the middle of the order," Lookouts manager John Valentin said Sunday. "For the most part, it's been about grinding it out and trying to get as many wins as possible with the young guys that we have."
The Lookouts finished the first half with a 30-39 record but will take an 0-0 mark into tonight's second-half opener in Huntsville. The Stars won the first-half North race by a game over the Carolina Mudcats.
Martinez and May were hitting .298 when they went on the DL, with Martinez's 31 RBIs ranking second in the league. A week before their departures, right fielder Jamie Hoffmann was promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque.
Hoffmann would be among four Lookouts to advance all the way to Los Angeles during the first half, joining pitchers Scott Elbert, Brent Leach and Travis Sclichting.
"We're not the Dodgers, where they lost Manny (Ramirez) but kept their own and kept going," left fielder Andrew Lambo said. "We're a younger team, and that hurt us mentally when we lost two guys like that to injuries. You saw our offense decline, but we're picking it back up, and I think we're where we need to be.
"When we get those guys back it's going to be unbelievable, but we're doing all right without them."
Lambo, the top prospect in the Dodgers organization according to Baseball America, finished the first half hitting .268 with six home runs and 22 RBIs. The 20-year-old collected his first career walk-off homer against Huntsville on April 29 and is second in the league with 21 doubles, but he had a mundane May in which he hit .223.
"It's been a learning experience," Lambo said. "Hitting with runners in scoring position has been difficult lately. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm happy that I haven't really bottomed out bad to where I can't turn it around."
The Lookouts finished the half sixth in the 10-team league in hitting and pitching. Elbert, who had a 13-day stint with the Dodgers before returning, leads the league with 87 strikeouts.
Elbert, James Adkins, Travis Chick, Josh Lindblom and Jesus Castillo remain with the team after comprising the opening rotation, with Elbert's 3.90 ERA the lowest of the bunch.
"We were inconsistent in the first half," Lindblom said. "There were signs of good things, but we would hit and wouldn't pitch, and then we would pitch and wouldn't hit. We could never get on the same page, but I think we've put that behind us these past two series."
Chattanooga enters the second half with some momentum, having won six of its last eight games. Justin Sellers amassed four hits and James Tomlin had two hits and two RBIs in Sunday's victory, which occurred before an AT&T season-low crowd of 1,696.
The Lookouts never tasted first place during the first half after beginning in a five-way tie. They're back in that tie.
"I think we've pulled together since the beginning," Bell said. "We definitely could have done a lot better considering the talent on the team, but I think it has come together at the end."
