Mission Notes vs. Bradenton (July 8-11)

SERIES SCHEDULE ... Lakeland hits the road for four games at Bradenton beginning Friday at 7 pm. Saturday is also at 7 pm while Sunday moves up for a 5 pm start. It’s back to 7 pm for Monday’s series finale. All four games can be heard via the internet. Check the Marauders website for the audio link.

THE FLYING TIGERS (41-41, 5-7, T-5th, 2.0 GB) ... Lakeland climbed back to .500 on the season by downing Dunedin 11-5 in its last game on Wednesday, despite collecting just nine hits. Blue Jay pitchers issued 11 walks in the game including five in the eighth inning. Wade Gaynor led the club with a 3-for-4 night and three runs batted in while Tony Plagman also drove in three runs. The Flying Tigers put up seven runs in the third frame, the third time this season the club has scored as many runs in an inning. Lakeland’s team batting average of .259 is eighth in the league while the 43 team home runs is fourth fewest in the FSL. The 3.84 staff ERA is fifth best in the FSL.

THE MARAUDERS (39-46, 9-6, T-1st, 0.0 GB) ... Bradenton had a chance to take over sole possession of first place on Thursday, but split a doubleheader with Palm Beach. After taking the first game by a 6-4 score in extra innings, the Cardinals took game two 8-4. Heading into the All-Star break on a four-game losing skid, the Marauders came out of the break with a seven straight wins and nine victories in their first eight games back, but have split their last 10 games. Jarek Cunningham is the reigning Florida State League Player of the Week for the week of June 27-July 3 and is fourth in the FSL with 15 homers and second with 23 doubles. For the week, Cunningham had eight hits, including three doubles and three home runs and drove in 10 runs. Aaron Baker is third in the league with 60 RBI. Robbie Grossman has the most walks (72) of any FSL player – 14 more than Lakeland’s Jordan Lennerton who is in second place with 58. The Marauders are second in the FSL with a .271 team batting average and have scored the most runs of any league team (420) as well as hitting the third most homers (64) and stolen the third most bases (76). The staff ERA of 4.01 ranks ninth in the league.

LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS ...

• Friday (7/08) - Jared Wesson (9-5, 4.33) worked five innings in his last start on July 2 at Clearwater holding the Threshers to one run on four hits. He has won two of his last three and has six wins in his last nine starts. Wesson has limited his walks to just four over the last two games after having back-to-back games with six walks each.
• Saturday (7/09) - Drew Symly (4-3, 3.24 ERA) was chased after three innings of work in his last start on July 3 at Clearwater, giving up seven runs – four earned – on seven hits. It snapped a four-game win streak for Smyly and was hit first loss since May 28. In his last three starts he has a 2.81 ERA and a 1-1 record with one no-decision.
• Sunday (7/10) - Luke Putkonen (0-4, 6.60 ERA) will be looking for his first win in 2011 for the Flying Tigers. Putkonen made his first start for Lakeland on June 9 after starting the season at AA Erie. He gave up four earned runs on seven hits in his last start on July 4 against Dunedin with three strikeouts and three walks. He has allowed at least three runs in each of his five starts for Lakeland.
• Monday (7/11) - Trevor Feeney (6-8, 4.26 ERA) took the loss in his last start on July 5 at home against Dunedin, giving up three runs on four hits over 7.0 innings. Two of the four hits were of the long ball variety as Feeney has allowed five homers in his last four starts and 13 dingers on the season. He is 2-3 with one no-decision and a 2.49 ERA in his last six starts.

THIS SEASON ... Lakeland took three of four games in the first series between these two clubs on May 22-25 in Lakeland. The Flying Tigers won games one and four by identical 4-3 scores and game two by a 5-2 count while the Marauders’ lone win was a 9-0 shutout in the third meeting. One big highlight of the series was a triple play turned by Lakeland in the series opener on May 22. The Flying Tigers have hit just .220 while the Marauders have a .250 mark in the four games.

RETURN TO OLD FORM ... At the start of the season, Tony Plagman was driving runs on a seemingly nightly basis and then cooled off somewhat. He may be returning to his old ways having racked up seven runs batted in over the last four games on four hits including two doubles and a homer and is now second in the FSL with 61 RBI, just two behind the leader, Justin Bour of Daytona. Plagman has 14 multi-RBI games this season including two games with four runs batted in and six games with three RBI.

MULTI-HITTERS ... Recently promoted Gustavo Nunez had 21 games with two or more hits and still leads Lakeland in that category. Close behind is Avisail Garcia, Tony Plagman, Brent Wyatt and Jordan Lennerton, each having 19 multi-hit games. Garcia has had a team-high four games with four hits and three games with three hits. Plagman has had six three-hit games while Lennerton and Wyatt have had three hits in four and three games, respectively. Both players have had one four-hit game each.

NO RICKEY HENDERSONS HERE ... No one is going to confuse this year’s version of the Flying Tigers with a big base stealing team. Avisail Garcia’s stolen base on Thursday was just the second swipe of a base by a Lakeland player in the second half of the season. Heading into Friday’s games, the Flying Tigers had a league-low 33 stolen bases as a team in 2011. In contrast Tyler Bortnick of Charlotte and Pedro Zapata of St. Lucie are tied the league lead with 24 thefts each. Charlotte and Brevard County each have over 100 team stolen bases.

IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN ... Thursday’s rain out was the first suffered by Lakeland at home this season. The scheduled game with Dunedin will be made up as part of a 5 pm doubleheader on August 30, which marks the Blue Jays’ next visit to Lakeland.

THAT’S SOME BULL ... The bullpen was not scored upon in the first six games of the second half, but has allowed 12 runs in the last six games.

FESTIVE FOURTH ... Lakeland drew 5,349 fans on the Fourth of July, but unfortunately all of the fireworks came after the game as the Flying Tigers fell 5-2 to Dunedin. The attendance was around 1,400 fans higher that the average Independence Day crowd (over the last six years) and was the largest Fourth of July attendance since 2005.

LAKELAND IN THE FSL ... Jared Wesson is tied with nine wins ... Kenny Faulk is tied for second with 19 saves; third among relievers with 11.34 strikeouts, and fifth with 1.62 walks ... Tony Plagman is second with 61 runs batted in ... Brent Wyatt has climbed back into second with a .422 on-base percentage ... Jordan Lennerton is second with 58 walks ... Trevor Feeney is first with 105.2 innings pitched and fourth among starters with 1.53 walks issued per nine innings ... Lakeland is tied with Clearwater for the league lead with a .982 fielding percentage ... three Flying Tigers lead their respective positions in fielding percentage: Corey Jones (2B, .980); Wade Gaynor (3B, .957); Daniel Fields (OF, .994) ... Julio Rodriguez has thrown out 37.5 percent of opposing would-be base stealers, a mark which ranks second among all league catchers.

YA GOTTA LOVE THE MINORS ... Where else other than Minor League Baseball can the first 1000 adults attending Saturday’s game at Bradenton receive a free Marauders’ shot glass?