CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Rocket City Trash Pandas momentum from the end of last week’s series failed to carry over in a 5-0 loss to the Chattanooga Lookouts on Tuesday night at AT&T Field. With the shutout loss, the Trash Pandas have now been held scoreless 16 times this season and five times against the Lookouts.
Chattanooga collected a pair of solo homeruns to jump ahead as outfielder Austin Hendrick and catcher Daniel Vellojin went deep in the second and third innings respectively.
Neither starting pitcher allowed a run after that as Rocket City’s Brett Kerry (L, 2-3) ended his night with five innings of work. He allowed three hits and struck out five.
Meanwhile, Chattanooga’s Kevin Abel (W, 6-8) tossed seven shutout frames while allowing four hits and striking out five.
The right-hander tossed 101 pitches on the night, exiting the game with his team ahead 2-0 after seven.
Chattanooga put three more runs on the board against Trash Pandas reliever Jake Smith in his Double-A debut. A run-scoring single from infielder Austin Callahan, followed by a sacrifice fly off the bat of infielder Ruben Ibarra and an RBI single from outfielder Quincy McAfee put the Lookouts ahead 5-0.
The Trash Pandas were held hitless against the Lookouts bullpen who closed out the series opener. Rocket City ended the night 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
McAfee was the lone hitter for either team with multiple hits as he finished 2-for-4 with an RBI. Chattanooga ended the game with seven hits as a team.
Rocket City will look to battle back against the Lookouts on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 6:15 p.m. CT.. Josh Caray will have the call on Talk Radio WZZN 97.7-2 FM HD-2, WAAY 31.6 The Grio and streaming on MiLB.TV, the MLB App, and Bally Live!