The Knoxville Smokies entered the weekend at Covenant Health Park looking to shake off one of their ugliest home losses of the season and responded with back-to-back wins over the Chattanooga Lookouts on Sept. 4 and 5.
Friday, Sept. 4: Smokies right fielder Alex Ramirez wasted no time Friday, blasting a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. The Lookouts responded with a run in the top of the second frame, and both teams traded runs through the middle innings.
The Smokies went into the bottom of the sixth inning down 3-2 and exited the inning ahead 5-3. Knoxville added two runs in the seventh inning and another in the eight, finishing the game with an 8-3 win.
Saturday, Sept. 5: Ramirez got the scoring started again Saturday with a two-run
double in the fourth inning. The score remained 2-0 until the eighth, when left fielder Carter Trice added an RBI double. Trice then stole third and scored on a Chattanooga throwing error as the Smokies pulled away for a 4-0 win.
Upcoming games, promotions at Covenant Health Park
Knoxville is ahead 3-2 in the series after winning Friday and Saturday. The Smokies have just one regular season game remaining at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6. The first 500 children through the gates at Covenant Health Park will receive a free squeezable cube.
Smokies record in the Southern League North
The Smokies have already clinched a playoff spot by capturing the first-half title and are in first place in the Southern League North.
Southern League North standings
- Knoxville Smokies (32-29 second half, 70-60 overall)
- Rocket City Trash Pandas (31-30 second half, 66-63 overall)
- Birmingham Barons (31-30 second half, 58-73 overall)
- Chattanooga Lookouts (21-41 second half, 57-73 overall)
Southern League South standings
- Pensacola Blue Wahoos (39-22 second half, 75-55 overall)
- Columbus Clingstones (33-29 second half, 62-64 overall)
- Montgomery Biscuits (32-29 second half, 67-63 overall)
- Biloxi Shuckers (26-35 second half, 61-65 overall)
Ryan Wilusz is the business growth and development editor for Knox News. Email: ryan.wilusz@knoxnews.com; Cell: 865-317-5138; Instagram: @knoxscruff.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Back-to-back wins give Smokies momentum entering home finale, playoffs
