On Thursday, September 4th the Chattanooga Lookouts began their best of five play-off series with the Huntsville Stars. Lookouts manager Razor Shines in a pre-game interview said for the season that the goal was to have the players “believe and just keep believing.” That is, believe they can win. “From the first of August,” Shines said, “ they believed and there is not a player out there who doesn’t believe we can win this thing.”

The Lookouts finished off the regular season going 7-3 in their last ten games including three out of four against the Tennessee Smokies with whom they were going head-to-head for a play-off spot.

The Lookouts have 10 former Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on their roster. Interestingly enough the Huntsville manager is Carlos Subero who had previously managed several of those former Quakes in Rancho Cucamonga. Subero was one of the first to call Lookouts pitcher Andreas Santiago after his no-hitter against the Tennessee Smokies on August 28th.

As timing would have it Subero would get a close up look at Santiago as he started the initial game in the series against the Stars. Subero stacked his lineup with seven left-handed hitters against the right-handed Santiago, four of them being switch hitters.

Shines posted his most productive lineup including Daniel Mayora, Scott Schebler, Darnell Sweeney, Corey Seager and O’Koyea Dickson. In his interview Shines said the guys were confident and, “The experience they are going to get in the play-offs is invaluable. Guys have to know what it’s about playing in the post season.”

Catcher Chris O’Brien had been named the Southern League Player of the Week and pitcher Andres Santiago was named the Southern League Pitcher of the Week for the period of August 25-September 1. O’Brien’s home run had provided the only run in Santiago’s no-hitter.

Lookouts catcher Chris O’Brien homered once again in support of pticher Andres Santiago on Thursday night. O’Brien also homered in Santiago’s no-hitter last week for the Lookouts only run.
(Photo credit – Tim Evearitt)

The Lookouts greeted right-hander Drew Gagnon with some of that confidence in the first two innings. Angel Sanchez walked in the first inning and was driven home on a double by Daniel Mayora that traveled nearly 400 feet.

In the second inning O’Brien again homered in support of Santiago. His blast to right field was quickly followed by a home run by the next hitter, first baseman O’Koyea Dickson with a shot to deep left center field.

Santiago’s nemesis in 2014 has been the first three innings. He again started slowly with walks in the second and third innings. The walk in the second inning was erased on a strikeout as catcher O’Brien threw out Nick Shaw attempting to steal second base. A walk in the third inning came around to score as Santiago gave up his first hit in 13 innings. The game was delayed an hour by wet field conditions and it is difficult to know how that affected Santiago.

In the Lookouts fifth Santiago led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Shines then went to the unexpected. Angel Sanchez laid down a great bunt and Santiago easily scored from third on the squeeze restoring the Lookouts three run lead.

Santiago was battling all evening and by the end of the fifth inning he had thrown 81 pitches, only 47 of them strikes. In the sixth inning Hector Gimenez hit a long home run to centerfield cutting the Lookouts lead in half.

Santiago finished the inning with a quality start but gave way to left-hander Michael Thomas in the seventh. Thomas pitched a perfect inning including two strikeouts but gave up a run in the eighth inning on a double, a sacrifice bunt and a ground out to shortstop. The lead was now reduced to one run.

Twenty-six year old Jhan Martinez came in to try to close out the game in the ninth inning. It seemed he had done so by getting two quick ground ball outs. However, manager Shines then brought in left-hander Daniel Coulombe to face the left-handed hitting Nick Ramirez. Another move paid off as Coulombe struck out Ramirez on three pitches.

The player of the game was Daniel Mayora who had four hits, including two doubles.
(Photo credit – Tim Evearitt)

The Lookouts took a 1-0 lead in the series with the Stars. Shines in his pre-game interview spoke about his players having fun.” Once you start to win it becomes fun. Guys are at the park at 4:00 pm and are still there at midnight. That’s when it’s fun.”

It was fun tonight as the winning run scored on a squeeze play with pitcher Andreas Santiago scoring that run.