THE FLYING TIGERS (8-17, 45-50) - Lakeland fell 13-4 on Thursday at Fort Myers as the Miracle had big innings of five and seven runs and out-hit the Flying Tigers, 16-5. The 13 runs and 9-run margin of defeat tied seasons highs for Lakeland. The bats may have flown away as the offense has scored 13 runs in the last seven games and the team is batting just .213 in the last four contests. Prior to last night’s disaster, the starting pitchers had a 1.08 ERA in the last five games while the bullpen had a 1.59 mark. The Flying Tigers are 4-7 in their last 11 games and 8-17 this half.
THE HAMMERHEADS (9-16, 31-62) ... Jupiter pulled out a 2-1 win in 17 innings over Dunedin on Wednesday, scoring the winning run on a balk. The Hammerheads are 9-16 in the second half, one game ahead of Charlotte for the worst record in the South Division. Jupiter’s Kevin Mattison is hitting just .213 but he is tied for the league lead with 33 stolen bases. Pitcher Brad Hand leads the FSL with two complete games, both of the them shutouts (which is also tops in the league). The Hammerheads are an affiliate of the Florida Marlins.
PROBABLE STARTERS ...
Thu: Adam Wilk (7-4, 2.94 ERA, 76 K, 12 BB, 110.1 IP)
Fri: Jon Kibler (2-4, 3.06 ERA, 24 K, 9 BB, 35.1 IP)
Sat: Jacob Turner (1-1, 5.32 ERA, 15 K, 7 BB, 22.0 IP)
Sun: Luke Putkonen (6-5, 3.48 ERA, 62 K, 32 BB, 101.0 IP)
THE SERIES ... Lakeland swept the four games played between these two clubs back on May 16-19 at Jupiter, outscoring the Hammerheads 34-14 in the series. Luke Putkonen tossed 7.2 shutout innings in game one as Lakeland blanked Jupiter 3-0. In game two, Alden Carrithers and Kody Kaiser each had four hits in a 19-hit attack leading the Flying Tigers to a 15-3 win. The hits and runs in that game are season-highs for Lakeland. Brent Wyatt was the hero in game three hitting a three-run homer in the fifth inning and then singling in the go-ahead run in the 10th in a 5-4 extra inning affair. The bats were alive and well again in game four as Kaiser and Bryan Pounds each had three hits in a 16-hit surge for a 11-7 win.
YOU LOOK FAMILIAR ... Lakeland pitcher Jay Voss pitched in 10 games for Jupiter last season going 0-1 with a 2.03 in 13.1 innings pitched. He came to the Detroit organization in the Nate Robertson trade with the Florida Marlins.
ELUSIVE BACK-TO-BACK W’S ... Lakeland has not won back-to-back games since ending the first half with two wins over Daytona on June 22 and 23.
CENTURY MARK ... With his seven innings pitched in his last start against Fort Myers, Luke Putkonen joined Adam Wilk as the only two Lakeland pitchers with over 100 innings pitched. Wilk is tied for the FSL lead with 110.1 innings of work while Putkonen has worked 101.0 stanzas. They are just two of the 11 starters in the league that have reached triple digits in innings pitched.
FURBUSH CLIMBS ANOTHER RUNG ... Former Flying Tiger Charlie Furbush has moved up another notch on the organization ladder getting a call to Toledo on Wednesday. Furbush, who was 4-5 with a 3.39 ERA and 109 strikeouts at Lakeland this season, was 1-0 with a 3.24 ERA and 37 K’s for the Whitecaps.
TWO PINCH HITTERS ... Lakeland used two pinch hitters in its game on Wednesday at Fort Myers, marking the first time this season two players have pinch hit in the same game. Chris White drove in a pair of runs in his pinch-hit appearance. For White, it was his third hit in four substitute batter appearances. Patrick McKenna, who pinch ran on Tuesday, lined out in his first time in a pinch-hit role.
LATEST ROSTER MOVES ... On Wednesday, Brayan Villarreal was promoted to Erie (no replacement announced at press time). Earlier in the week, Pat McKenna rejoined Lakeland from the Gulf Coast League along with pitcher Michael Torrealba who was with Connecticut. McKenna was hitting .326 in 15 games in the GCL and was 4x7 during an earlier three-game stint in Lakeland. Torrealba was 0-2 with two saves and a 1.83 ERA at Connecticut with 24 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched. The roster spots were vacated when Jose Ortega earned a promotion to Erie and Carmelo Jaime was sent to the GCL club. In addition, Ben Guez was sent back to Toledo where he spent some time earlier this year and Bryan Pounds was activated from the disabled list.
COMINGS AND GOINGS ... Toledo’s Max St. Pierre (2001, 2002) and Erie’s Shawn Roof (2007, 2008 2009) were activated off the disabled list. The St. Pierre activation forced a move that sent Jeff Kunkel (2007, 2008 2009) back to Erie. Josh Rainwater (2006, 2007) was promoted to Toledo and Miguel Mejia (2009, 2010) was sent from West Michigan to Connecticut. In addition, Tyler Conn (2010) has announced his retirement and Angel Flores (2010) was released.
LARISH NAMED IL PLAYER OF THE WEEK ... Former Lakeland Tiger Jeff Larish (2006) has been named the International League Player of the Week for the week ending July 18. Frazier, now playing at Toledo, was 8x15 for the week for a .571 average with three homers and six runs batted in.
FORMER FLYING TIGERS UP FOR MiLB AWARD ... Alden Carrithers (2010) and Will Rhymes (2007), two former Flying Tigers, are up for the “Wonderful Terrific Monds III Award” in the Minors Moniker Madness. The award, in its fourth year, is given to the Minor Leaguer with the best name, as voted on by the fans. Fans can go to www.minorleaguebaseball.com/madness to vote for their favorite name. MiLB.com choose 64 players with unique or funny names and the players are pitted against each other in a tournament format. Rhymes goes against Diego Seastrunk while Carrithers takes on Stolmy Pimentel.
ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS
Detroit - 49-44, T-2nd in AL Central Division
Toledo - 48-50, 4th in West Division
Erie - 39-59 - 6th in Western Division
Lakeland - 8-17, 6th in North Division
West Michigan - 7-18, 8th in Eastern Division
Connecticut - 16-15, 2nd in Stedler Division
Gulf Coast - 13-14, T-4th in North Division
Dominican - 14-25, 5th in San Pedro Division
Venezuelan - 19-34, 7th in VSL
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