Mission Notes vs. Dunedin (July 8-10)

THE FLYING TIGERS ... Lakeland enters the Dunedin series with a 4-7 record in second half. The Flying Tigers’ last outing at Clearwater on July 7 was cut short by rain in the middle of the fourth inning with Lakeland ahead 1-0. The game will resume as part of a doubleheader August 12 at 5 p.m. in Clearwater. The Flying Tigers split the first two games at Clearwater dropping the series opener, 10-6, despite four homers, and came back with a 12-0 win behind the pitching of Charlie Furbush and Lester Oliveros in game two. The club trails division leading Dunedin by 4.0 games. Overall, Lakeland is 33-43 and ranks eighth with a .247 batting average and ninth in runs scored. The staff ERA of 3.64 ranks seventh while the pitching corps is last in the league in team strikeouts.

DUNEDIN ... Dunedin is leading the North Division with an 8-3 record and has a half-game lead over Clearwater. The Blue Jays are 7-3 in their last ten games and are coming off a 5-1 win over Daytona on July 7. Moises Sierra (.336) and Darin Mastoianni (.325) are 1-2 in the league in batting average while Kenny Rodriguez is fifth with a 2.43 earned run average. Mastroianni is second in the FSL with 32 stolen bases while Andrew Liebel is fourth with 77 strikeouts. The Blue Jays are second in the league with a .264 team batting average and have scored the most runs of any FSL team. However, the team ERA of 3.82 is third worst in the FSL.

THE SERIES ... Lakeland has won four of the five meetings with Dunedin this season taking two of three in Lakeland on May 4-6 as Andy Dirks went 8x10 with six runs batted in in the three games and then sweeping two games in Dunedin. The third game of the series in Dunedin was rained out and lost to schedule as the two clubs did not meet again in the first half.

LAKELAND’S PROBABLE STARTERS:

• July 8 - Andrew Hess (3-6, 3.13 ERA) - Andrew Hess ranks 10th in the FSL with a 3.13 ERA and is 1-4 in his last six starts with a 4.14 ERA in those games with 15 strikeouts and 12 walks. However, he is 1-1 with a 0.69 ERA in his last two starts. In his last start he worked 6.2 innings scattering four hits while allowing one earned run against Tampa on the road July 3. Hess is 1-3 with a 2.83 ERA at home and 2-3 with a 3.35 ERA on the road.
• July 9 - Mauricio Robles (2-1, 5.28 ERA) - Mauricio Robles is coming off his best outing as a Flying Tiger having tossed 6.2 shutout innings on July 4 at home in front of 5,248 fans. Against Tampa that evening, he allowed just four hits while striking out five and walking three. That effort allowed him to chop 4.07 points off his ERA and dropped it to 5.28 on the season after allowing nine earned runs over 8.2 innings in his first two starts at Lakeland.
• July 10 - Matt Hoffman - (2-4, 7.09 ERA) - Matt Hoffman was tagged for five earned runs over 6.2 innings pitched against Sarasota on June 28 in his last start. He has a 1-2 mark and a 10.67 ERA at home and is also 1-2 on the road, but with a 4.34 ERA away from Joker Marchant Stadium. He is 1-4 with a 9.00 ERA since debuting at Lakeland with seven shutout innings on May 21.

BOMBS AWAY ... Four Flying Tigers went deep in Lakeland’s 10-6 loss to Clearwater on July 5. Chris Carlson, Devin Thomas, Michael Bertram and Audy Ciriaco all hit home runs marking the first time since June 22, 2008 that Lakeland has had four homers in the same game.

GRAND SALAMI ... Michael Bertram hit a grand slam in the eighth inning of the Flying Tigers’ 12-0 win at Clearwater on July 6. It was Bertram’s ninth homer of the season (all against righthanders) and Lakeland’s third grand slam of the season (the other two came off the bat of Audy Ciriaco). Bertram was 3x5 in the July 6 game with three runs scored and has collected a base hit in four straight games and six of his last seven games. Of his nine season homers, six have come in the sixth thru ninth innings.

FSL’S HR LEADER ... Chris Carlson has three hits in his last three games from July 4-6 - all home runs - to take over the league lead with 12 round trippers. Strangely enough all three came in the fourth inning of each game (he has five total in the fourth inning this season). He has seven homers against righthanded pitchers and five against lefties. He also ranks fourth in the FSL with a .476 slugging percentage. After hitting his first eight homers at Joker Marchant Stadium, Carlson has hit three of his last four on the road. Five of his last six hits have been homers.

GAGNIER STAYS IN FIRST ... L.J. Gagnier is currently tied for the league lead with Darin Downs of Charlotte with 79 strikeouts.

NEW RECEIVER ... The Flying Tigers have added a third catcher to the roster as Billy Alvino joined the club on July 5 from the Gulf Coast Tigers and is 3x8 (.375) with three runs scored in his first two games in a Lakeland uniform.

AUDY GOOD ... Audy Ciriaco is hitting .360 (31x86) with five doubles, three homers and ten runs batted in since June 9 to raise his batting average 54 points. He has ten multi-hit games during that stretch and has now played 74 of the Flying Tigers 76 games at shortstop.

HOT HENRY ... Justin Henry is hitting .364 (12x33) his last eight games with four doubles and eight runs batted in and is hitting .323 (27x83) since June 10 with eight multi-hit games.

THE RIVER JORDAN ... Jordan Newton is hitting .343 (8x23) with five doubles and a triple his last seven games with 11 multi-hit games this season.

DEVIOUS DEVIN ... Devin Thomas is hitting .333 (17x51) his last 13 games with six multi-hit games with seven runs batted in.

JOLLY JOE ... Joe Tucker is hitting .357 (10x28) his last nine games to raise his batting average 75 points.

FABULOUS FURBUSH ... Charlie Furbush has not allowed an earned run in his last 11.2 innings pitched over two starts.

100 AND COUNTING … Andy Barkett is in his second season with Lakeland with an even 100 wins in a Flying Tigers uniform. Barkett enters the Dunedin series with a 100-113 record (67-70 in year one). In his rookie season as manager, he led Oneonta to a 44-32 record in the New York-Penn League in 2007.

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Views expressed in “Mission Notes” are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lakeland Flying Tigers.