Jerry Gil didn’t sleep particularly well Monday night.

His last at-bat Monday at AT&T Field was a line drive off the head of Tennessee Smokies relief pitcher Jesse Estrada. After needing a couple of minutes on the mound, Estrada was taken to Erlanger Hospital for testing.

“If something had happened to him, I would not be able to play like nothing was wrong,” Gil said. “Thank God nothing happened to him.”

Estrada is fine according to the tests, and Gil is feeling better as well after homering to left in his first at-bat Tuesday night and igniting the Chattanooga Lookouts to a series-squaring 5-2 victory. The home run is the first this season for Gil, who came down from Triple-A Louisville last Wednesday.

Gil had elbow surgery last May and played in one game late last season, serving as a pinch runner for the Cincinnati Reds.

“I needed that home run,” he said. “I’ve been struggling after not playing last year, so I feel a little better now.”

The Lookouts improved to 18-14 and remain four games back of Huntsville and West Tenn in the Southern League’s North Division. Tennessee dropped to 12-20 and hasn’t won consecutively in 22 games.

Following Tuesday’s game, Lookouts manager Mike Goff said 22-year-old shortstop Chris Valaika will be joining the team from high Single-A Sarasota. Valaika leads the Florida State League in batting average (.363), home runs (seven), RBIs (31) and total bases (79).

He will take the roster spot of Jose Castro, who will go down to Sarasota to be the everyday shortstop.

“You can’t hold a kid back when he’s having that kind of start to a season,” Goff said. “Castro has done nothing to get demoted. It was just a case of this kid tearing it up and deserving to get pushed.”

The Lookouts also will activate reliever Justin James and send reliever Lee Tabor to Sarasota.

Following Gil’s two-run blast, Chattanooga continued to pound Smokies starting pitcher Donnie Veal, who entered with a 2-0 record and a 1.82 ERA. A third-inning throwing error by Veal enabled Mike Griffin to score from third to make it 3-0, and B.J. Szymanski’s two-run homer to left in the fourth gave the hosts a 5-0 cushion.

That was plenty for Lookouts starter Ramon Ramirez, who retired the first 12 batters, including seven by strikeout.

“His changeup has gotten a lot better,” Goff said. “They run six lefties in a row at you, so you better have something to combat them with. His changeup was very effective tonight. He and Daryl Thompson, without a doubt, have been our two most consistent guys.”

The homers by Gil and Szymanski give Chattanooga a league-leading 30, but Huntsville and West Tenn are right behind with 29.

“It’s fun knowing we are surpassing people’s expectations when it comes to getting big RBIs, especially via the long ball,” Szymanski said. “We’re just going to try to continue to do it.”

Thompson (2-1, 0.72 ERA) is scheduled to start this morning’s 11:15 game, with James Russell (0-0, 1.50) scheduled for the Smokies.

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