Thanks to an explosive two home run performance from third baseman Romy Gonzalez, the Birmingham Barons coasted to a 7-1 victory over the Chattanooga Lookouts on Wednesday night.
Gonzalez finished 2-for-3 at the plate in the win and recorded his second two-homer effort of the season. The 24-year old also went yard twice on June 11th versus the Montgomery Biscuits.
In Birmingham’s first at-bat of the game, Gonzalez stepped to the plate and launched a home run to left-center field to give the Barons a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Barons wouldn’t score again until the bottom of the sixth, but thanks to impressive pitching from starter Emilio Vargas, the Lookouts would also remain scoreless over this stretch.
Vargas pitched 5.1 innings without recording a single earned run, which was good enough for the right-hander to earn the win on the mound. Andrew Perez pitched the next 1.2 innings and kept Chattanooga’s offense at bay to record his second hold of the season.
To lead off the bottom of the sixth, Joel Booker singled on a line drive to right field. In the next at-bat, Romy Gonzalez would reach first base on a walk. Yasmani Grandal would then single on a ground ball to score Booker, and Carlos Perez followed by hitting a single of his own to score Gonzalez.
With the lead now sitting at 3-0, the Barons weren’t done scoring yet. Ian Dawkins would single on a ground ball to left field, but thanks to a throwing error by Lookouts’ left fielder Drew Mount, two runs would score for Birmingham to extend their lead to 5-0 at the end of six.
In the bottom of the seventh, Romy Gonzalez would put the nail in Chattanooga’s coffin by clobbering his second home run to left center field, pushing the Barons’ lead to 6-0. The Lookouts would score one run in the top of the eighth, but the Barons would answer back by scoring a run of their own in the bottom of the frame.
Birmingham dominated this game from the start, which was a surprise after seeing these two teams come down to the wire on Tuesday night. Birmingham would win the first game of this series by a score of 4-3, thanks to a clutch eighth-inning RBI single from Ian Dawkins.
The Barons improve to 46-39 with the victory, and are now 2-0 in this home series versus the Lookouts. Game 3 of the series will take place on Thursday night at 7:05 pm CT.
Photo credit: Caleb Probst/FutureSox
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box on the right-side bar (or at the bottom on a mobile device) and click create subscription. Our list is completely spam free and you can opt out at any time. Also, consider supporting FutureSox on Patreon! You can get early access to special articles and Patreon-only posts, in addition to more benefits.
Shop our exclusive merchandise! Show your support with FutureSox apparel.