Chattanooga Lookouts' Chris Reed continues home hard luck

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Chattanooga Lookouts shortstop Miguel Rojas (13) dives back safely to first base, while Montgomery Biscuits first baseman Cameron Seitzer (33) gets the throw late Tuesday at AT&T Field.

Chris Reed had another quality outing Tuesday night as the starting pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts.

If only he could celebrate with the home folks.

Reed, the No. 6 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization according to Baseball America, has not won at AT&T Field since being promoted to the Class AA Lookouts on June 4 of last year. The latest heartbreak came in a 3-0 loss to Montgomery in which the 23-year-old left-hander allowed two runs on six hits in eight innings and struck out seven.

"It's one of those unfortunate things, and it's just how baseball works," said Reed, who slipped to 0-4 at home this season and 3-6 overall. "It will be nice to get the monkey off my back when it does happen."

Chattanooga lost its second consecutive game to the Biscuits and dropped to 3-4 in the Southern League's second half and to 38-39 overall.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Reed went eight innings for the second time in three starts and lowered his earned run average to 3.61. His ERA was 5.49 on May 13, so it's little surprise that pitching coach Hector Berrios considers Reed the most improved on his staff.

"He has improved in every area," Berrios said. "He was commanding the baseball tonight with all three pitches. I think he got 14 ground balls and three double-play balls, and he stayed composed."

Reed, who had a 4.2 GPA at Stanford University and graduated in management, science and engineering, faced the minimum 12 batters through the first four innings. He opened the fifth by allowing a walk to Cameron Seitzer and giving up singles to Todd Glaesmann and Riccio Torrez to load the bases.

Seitzer scored when Mark Thomas grounded into a double play, but Reed got out of that mess with only a 1-0 deficit.

"I was definitely happy to keep it to one run," he said. "It's when you give up that three- or four-run inning when the game can get out of hand."

Biscuits starter Mike Colla kept Reed winless at home by allowing four hits in seven scoreless innings. The Lookouts could not capitalize on Blake Smith's two-out double to left field in the fifth inning or on two Colla walks in the sixth that resulted in runners on third and second with two out.

Montgomery scored its second run on Robi Estrada's two-out infield hit in the eighth.

"It's always tough to get a loss like that," Reed said. "You just try to keep your team in the game and let them score first, but unfortunately the Biscuits scored first."

Andres Santiago (3-5, 5.09) is scheduled to start this morning's 11:15 game for the Lookouts, with Enny Romero (6-3, 3.14) scheduled for the Biscuits.

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