THE FLYING TIGERS (31-23) - Three Lakeland pitchers combined on a three-hit shutout on Friday as the Flying Tigers downed Bradenton 3-0 at Joker Marchant Stadium. Adam Wilk tossed six strong innings holding the top-hitting team in the FSL to a pair of singles while striking out five and walking none. The win snaps a two-game losing streak for Lakeland and allows the Flying Tigers to keep pace with Dunedin which also won Friday. Lakeland now trails Dunedin by 1.5 games. Lakeland has the best ERA at 2.89 and is second with a .268 team batting average.
THE MIRACLE (23-31) ... Fort Myers dropped a 12-6 loss to Dunedin on Friday as the two clubs combined for 25 hits. The loss drops the Miracle to 23-31 and 8.0 games behind Bradenton in the South Division. The Miracle has the second lowest batting average in the FSL at .240 and ranks ninth with a 3.90 ERA.
LAKELAND’s PROBABLE STARTERS ... Sat: Charlie Furbush (3-3, 2.76); Sun: Luke Putkonen (6-2, 2.59); Mon: Mark Sorensen (4-5, 4.06); Tue: Brayan Villarreal (6-3, 3.71).
THE SERIES ... Lakeland is facing the Miracle for the first time this season and will now have played every team in the Florida State League. Last season, Fort Myers won six of the seven games played between the two clubs. Three of the scheduled dates were postponed due to rain.
KAISER AT 20 ... Kody Kaiser tripled in his first at bat last night to extend his hit streak to 20 games - the longest streak in the FSL. He is hitting .481 during the streak which began back on May 15. In his 20 games, he has scored 14 runs with 39 hits, including seven doubles, two triples and a homer along with nine walks.
KAISER TAKES OVER FSL LEAD ... With a 1x3 night on Friday, Kody Kaiser’s batting average dropped to .355 on the season. However, Bradenton’s Brock Holt, who entered Friday’s game against Lakeland leading the FSL in batting, was held hitless in four at bats to slip to .351, just one point ahead of Alden Carrithers’ .350 mark. Rawley Bishop is now at .335 to rank sixth. Kaiser also leads the FSL with 70 hits.
TWO MORE STREAKING ... Along with his 20-game hit streak, Kody Kaiser has (obviously) reached base in 20 consecutive games. It’s the longest active streak in the FSL now that Alden Carrithers streak was snapped at 32 on June 3. The second longest active streak now belongs to Billy Nowlin who has reached base in 18 consecutive games.
WELCOME BACK, BEN ... The Flying Tigers welcomed back outfielder Ben Guez on Friday. Guez opened the season at Lakeland and then was promoted to AAA Toledo after just nine games. At Toledo, Guez was batting .273 with five doubles and two homers in 23 games. To make room on the roster, Chao-Ting Tang was sent back to extended spring training.
JOSH BACK AT WORK, MAN ... The Flying Tigers activated Josh Workman from the disabled list where he had been since May 20 with a groin problem.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIK ... Pitcher Erik Crichton will turn 25 on Sunday, June 6.
DEFENSE STILL LEADS LEAGUE ... Lakeland’s .978 fielding percentage leads the FSL while Rawley Bishop (1 error in 379 total chances), Alden Carrithers, and Gustavo Nunez are tops at their positions.
CATCHING DOMINOES ... When former Lakeland catcher Max St. Pierre went on the disabled list at Toledo with a injured finger, Jeff Kunkel was promoted from Erie to Toledo. Flying Tiger Angel Flores was then sent to Erie while Luis Sanz was added to Lakeland from extended spring training.
FURBUSH FLASH ... Heading into Saturday’s games, Charlie Furbush is second in all of minor league baseball with 90 strikeouts. He trails only Mike Minor of the Mississippi Braves (AA) who has 91 punch outs on the year. Furbush has struck out 10 or more in each of his last three starts and has 54 strikeouts in his last five games. He needs 10 more strikeouts to reach the century mark and become just the 11th Lakeland pitcher in the 2000s to reach triple digits and the 31st since 1978.
ARMS FLYING HIGH ... Reliever Cory Hamilton has yet to be scored upon in eight appearances (including two on Friday) since joining Lakeland while Luke Putkonen is 5-0 with a 1.60 ERA in his last five starts.
FOUR FLYING TIGERS NAMED TO ALL-STAR TEAM ... Pitchers Charlie Furbush and Brayan Villarreal along with first baseman Rawley Bishop and outfielder Kody Kaiser have been named to the 2010 FSL Mid-Season All-Star Game and will represent Lakeland in the 49th Annual event on June 12 in Viera.
FOUR MIRACLE PICKED, ONE GOING ... Four Fort Myers players were named to the Florida State League All-Star game as well. Selected in a vote of league managers, official scorers and club sports writers were pitchers Billy Bullock, Kyle Gibson, Bobby Lanigan and infielder Yangervis Solarte. However, only Bullock will make the trip to the game as Lanigan is on the DL while Gibson and Solarte have been promoted to AA New Britain.
BIG LEAGUE BRO ... Miracle manager Jake Mauer is the brother of Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer.
SHOOTER ... Miracle Pitcher Steven Hunt was a first-round draft pick of the Twins in 2008 out of Tulane University. He goes by the name “Shooter”.
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR ... The Miracle take the World Serious, so to speak with three players from far side of the Earth. Liam Hendriks hails from Perth, Australia while Brad Tippet is also from down under, specifically Sydney, Australia. In addition, Andrei Lobanov is from Moscow, Russia.
FELLOW TIGERS ... Lakeland’s Charlie Furbush and Fort Myers’ David Martin were teammates at Louisiana State University.
DID YOU KNOW? ... When former Flying Tiger Danny Worth played at Pepperdine University, the team’s batboys were the sons of former Baywatch starlet, Pamela Anderson.
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