Mission Notes vs. Palm Beach (July 25-28)

SERIES SCHEDULE ... All four games will be played at Joker Marchant Stadium and the first pitch for each contest will be 7:00 p.m. Lakeland brings a 22-18 record against South Division teams into this series.

THE FLYING TIGERS (48-50 all, 12-16 2nd half, 6th, 3.0 GB) ... Lakeland is coming off a series in Jupiter where it was swept in four games. The Flying Tigers have now lost six of their last seven games. Sunday’s game was a 4-0 shutout by the Hammerheads, the second blanking of the series and the third time in the last six games in which the Flying Tigers have been held scoreless. Overall, the Flying Tigers have been shutout ten times this season. Lakeland has scored 17 runs in the last seven games with 11 of those coming in one contest. The Flying Tigers have a .255 team batting average and a 3.77 staff ERA.

THE CARDINALS (45-55, 16-15 2nd half, 4th, 2.0 GB) ... Palm Beach has lost five of its last eight games. Palm Beach is led by Kyle Conley who has hit .282 in 34 games while Raniel Rosario has a .277 mark in 89 games. Both players have hit seven homers. Xavier Scruggs leads the club with nine homers and Edgar Lara is next with eight round-trippers. The Cardinals have a .252 team batting average (second lowest in the FSL) and a 3.81 staff ERA.

LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS ...

• Monday (7/25) - Drew Smyly (6-3, 2.82 ERA) tossed 6.0 shutout innings in his last start on July 20, scattering five hits against Charlotte with six strikeouts and three walks. In his last three games, he has allowed just two earned runs for a 1.20 ERA and has 13 strikeouts his last two games. Smyly allowed two runs on six hits with three strikeouts in 5.0 innings in a loss against Palm Beach back on May 28.
• Tuesday (7/26) - Shawn Teufel (2-2, 3.29 ERA) was tagged for five runs on eight hits in 5.0 innings in his last start on July 21 against Jupiter. He is 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA since moving into the starting rotation on July 10 after going 2-0 with a 2.00 in 12 relief appearances. Teufel worked 2.1 innings of relief on May 26 against the Cardinals allowing one run on a homer by Kyle Conley.
• Wednesday (7/27) - Trevor Feeney (7-9, 3.97 ERA) surrendered four runs on seven hits in 5.0 innings in his last start on July 22 against Charlotte. In his two previous starts he had not allowed an earned run in 11.2 innings. Feeney worked 7.0 innings on May 29 in a win against Palm Beach giving up three runs on eight hits with six strikeouts.
• Thursday (7/28) - Mark Sorensen (0-1, 8.00 ERA) has allowed four runs of each of his two starts since joining Lakeland. In his last start, he allowed six hits in 7.0 innings with one strikeout and two walks. Sorensen was not with Lakeland in May to face the Cardinals.

THIS SEASON ... The two clubs split their four-game series on May 26-29 with the Cardinals taking games one (8-2) and three (2-0) while the Flying Tigers took games two (3-2) and four (5-3). Jordan Lennerton and Gustavo Nunez each had six hits in the series while Brent Wyatt and Tony Plagman both had four hits. Trevor Feeney and Jared Wesson each got wins in the series while Kenny Faulk saved both games.

THE IN CROWD ... Rostered catcher Eric Roof started at third base on Sunday for Lakeland. It was his first carer start a the hot corner in three seasons for Roof. Wade Gaynor, who is Lakeland’s regular third baseman, was the designated hitter on Sunday. On Friday, outfielder Brent Wyatt started at second base for the second time this season

TREYS AND DEUCES ... Corey Jones went 6-for-12 over the weekend with three hits in both games on Saturday and Sunday. He also doubled in both games. Third baseman Wade Gaynor has had two hits in each of the last three games and is 6-for-16 (.375) in that trio of games.

FIELDS BREAKS THROUGH ... Daniel Fields has singled in each of his last two games. Saturday’s single snapped an 0-for-30 slump for the Flying Tiger centerfielder.

PEAKED ROOF ... Eric Roof brings a mini five-game hit streak into the series and is 6-for-18 (.333) in those five games with a home run.

PLAGMAN PLUGGING ALONG ... Tony Plagman has had two hits each in four of his last six games with a double and a home run and is 10-for-25 for a .400 batting average in his last seven games.

GETTING OFF TO A BAD START ... Lakeland starting pitchers were victimized for 16 runs in the four games at Jupiter for a 6.55 earned run average. In the last six games, the starters have surrendered 24 earned runs for a 6.35 ERA.

CLOSING STRONG ... Meanwhile, the Lakeland relief corps has allowed just two runs in the last five games for a 1.38 ERA. Michael Morrison been scored upon just once in his last 15 appearances while Matt Little has given up just one run in his last 12 outings.

ROSTER RUMBLIN’ .... Scott Green was activated Thursday, July 21, from a lengthy stay on the disabled list and was sent to the Connecticut team.

NEW CREW MEMBER ... With the trade last week of Julio Rodriguez, Wes Thigpen was brought over from the Gulf Coast League club to serve as a back-up for the game. He was sent back to the GCL team the next day. To fill the full-time roster spot, Rob Brantly joined the club from West Michigan where he was batting .303 with seven homers and 44 RBI in 75 games. Brantly was a third-round pick by Detroit in 2010 out of the University of California-Riverside. He was a non-rostered invitee to this year’s Spring Training camp after batting .300 last year for West Michigan with hit streaks of 16 games (22-for-62, .355) and 12 games (12-for-40, .300) during the season.

GOOD TO SEE YA, BRO ... The Roof brothers are reunited as Shawn Roof joined his brother, Eric, on the Lakeland club on Friday from AA Erie. A roster spot was made available as Alexander Moreno was assigned to Connecticut. Shawn, who also played partial seasons in Lakeland in 2007, 2008, and 2009, began the 2011 campaign with the Flying Tigers playing in just two games before being promoted to Erie on April 11. He was hitting .358 for the SeaWolves back on June 20, but saw his average drop to .302 in the past month.

Y’ALL COME BACK NOW ... In the first two games at Jupiter, Lakeland faced pitchers that entered the series with a combined 3-24 record. In game one, the Flying Tigers were shutout over six innings by Chad James who lost his first 13 decisions and has now won two in a row. Up next was Edgar Olmos who was 2-11 entering the contest and left 3-11 after posting five scoreless innings. Both pitchers held Lakeland to four hits.

COUNTDOWN TO 3800 ... Lakeland entered the 2011 season with 3,744 overall franchise wins dating back to 1963. With 45 wins so far this season, the Flying Tigers now have 3,792 needing eight more victories to reach 3,800 all-time.

LAKELAND IN THE FSL ... Jared Wesson remains tied for second with 10 wins, two behind the leader Clearwater’s Julio Rodriguez ... Trevor Feeney is first with 122.1 innings pitched and third with 1.77 walks per nine innings ... Kenny Faulk is second with 20 saves ... Tony Plagman is tied for first with 71 runs batted in and is fifth with 170 total bases ... Brent Wyatt is second with a .416 on-base percentage ... Jordan Lennerton is second with 73 walks ... Lakeland has jumped back into a tie for the league lead with a .980 fielding percentage ... Wade Gaynor (3B, .954) and Brent Wyatt (OF, .994) lead their respective positions in fielding percentage. Gaynor leads all third baseman in games played (91), total chances (285), putouts (76), assists (196) and double plays (20). Wyatt is tied for the lead with 16 outfield assists.