THE SERIES ... All three games in this series will be played at Joker Marchant Stadium with 6:30 pm start times. Lakeland will then be at home on Friday-Sunday with games against Dunedin.
THE FLYING TIGERS (26-23 second half, 3rd, 2.5 GB, 62-52 overall) ... Lakeland has dropped two in a row and four of the last six games to fall to third place, 2.5 games out of first and 1.5 games out of second place. The Flying Tigers remain second in the league with a .265 team batting average, just one point behind Daytona. The club has played the fewest games of any Florida State League team this season at 114. Lakeland is tied first in the league with a .976 fielding percentage.
THE CUBS (22-26 second half, 6th, 6.0 GB, 52-64 overall) ... Daytona has also lost back-to-back games and five of its last seven contests. Rubi Silva is seventh in the league with a .302 average, fourth with 127 hits and tied for first with 11 triples. John Andreoli leads the FSL with 50 stolen bases – 12 more than any other player. Ronald Torreyes strikes out once in every 15.88 at bats, second best in the league. Matt Loosen is one of the three players tied with 10 wins – most in the league – and has the lowest opponent batting average (.200) of any FSL starter. He also ranks third with 8.37 strikeouts per nine inning and second with 10.87 baserunners allowed per nine innings. Austin Kirk is second with a 3.13 ERA. The Cubs lead the Florida State League with a .266 team batting average, but have the second highest staff ERA of 4.16 on the season. Daytona has committed the second most errors of any league defense.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS ...
8/14 - RHP Drew VerHagen (0-2, 3.78 ERA) ... VerHagen surrendered three runs in 3.0 innings pitched in his last game on Aug. 9 at Daytona. He allowed just two hits in that game, but walked four. VerHagen has not worked past 4.0 innings for Lakeland and is 0-2 with three no decisions. He was whiffed nine batters in 6.2 innings in his last two outings. This will be just his second home appearance.
8/11 - LHP Alex Burgos (8-10, 5.22 ERA) ... Burgos worked 2.0 innings of relief in his last appearance on Aug. 9 at Daytona. After being tagged for eight runs in 4.0 innings on July 28, he has not allowed a run in 8.2 innings over his last two appearances. This is just his sixth home start (2-2, 2.48 ERA) compared to 16 road starts (6-8, 6.20 ERA). Burgos is 1-1 with a 5.11 ERA in three appearances (two starts) versus Daytona.
8/12 - RHP Luis Angel Sanz (10-3, 3.45 ERA) ... Sanz puts his perfect 7-0 home record (2.89 ERA) on the line as well as a six-game win streak. He has allowed just four runs in his last 36.0 innings over six starts for an impressive 1.00 earned run average. Sanz has struck out 11 batters in 11.0 innings in his last two starts and a total of 24 in his last five outings. He is 1-1 with a 7.30 ERA in three games (two starts) against Daytona this season.
THIS YEAR ... The Flying Tigers have won nine of the 15 meetings between the two clubs, but the Cubs have won three of the last five. Both Tyler Collins and James Robbins have 18 hits in the series. Collins has three doubles, two triples and a pair of homers with 10 runs scored and 12 more driven in while Robbins has scored 12 runs on five doubles and three home runs. Lakeland his hit 13 home runs in the series while the Cubs have hit just three round trippers.
A DOZEN LEMONS, PLEASE ... Marcus Lemon brings an 11-game hit streak into this series in which he is 22x47 (.468) with 12 runs scored. He has had six multi-hit games in the series and twice had four hits in a game (Aug 2 vs. Bradenton and Aug. 10 at Clearwater). Overall, Lemon has had five games with four hits – most of any Flying Tiger player – and 18 multi-hit games.
SANZ-SATIONAL ... Luis Angel Sanz is in a three-way tie for the league lead with 10 wins and is eighth in the league with a 3.45 ERA. His winning percentage of .769 is best in the Florida State League. Sanz also leads Lakeland with 77 strikeouts.
WHAT A RELIEF ... Tyler White ranks third among league relievers with 10.76 strikeouts per nine innings while Matt Crouse is second among relievers with 9.51 baserunners allowed per nine innings.
HANDY WITH A BAT ... Tyler Collins remains tenth in the league with a .295 average; second with 31 doubles; fourth with 182 total bases; and fifth with 123 hits. Collins had a four-game hit streak snapped on Sunday and is now 5x19 (.263) with four runs scored the last five games
CURT-SIE ... Curt Casali has hits in four straight games and is 5x16 (.333) during that span.
MEAN GREEN MACHINE ... Dean Green had a five-game hit streak snapped on Sunday. Prior to that contest, Green had back-to-back three-hit games and was 9x22 (.409) with 10 runs batted in his last six games.
WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PEREZ ... Hernan Perez saw his six-game hit streak come to an end on Sunday. He is now 8x26 (.308) his last seven games.
REINA ON HIS PARADE ... Adolfo Reina has five hits in his last 11 at bats for a .454 average.
LUIS, LUIS ... Luis Castillo had three hits, including two doubles, on Sunday and is 5x12 (.417) in his last three games.
TOP GLOVE ... Hernan Perez leads all Florida State League shortstops with a .978 fielding percentage and has committed just nine errors in 417 total chances.
HARD TO MOW DOWN ... Dixon Machado is the fifth hardest batter to strike out in the league with one strikeout every 8.29 plate appearances.
HARD TO MOW DOWN - PT. 2 ... As a club, Daytona has struck out the third fewest times any FSL club while Lakeland is right behind with the fourth fewest strikeouts. The statuses look to be safe in this series as the Cubs pitching has struck out the third fewest batters (770) and the Flying Tigers hurlers have mowed down the fifth fewest (779).
KEEPING IN THE PARK ... Fans of the long ball may want to skip this season as Lakeland has hit the fewest homers of any Florida State League club with 53, followed by Daytona which has 56 dingers.
SPEED TO BURN ... However, if you like stolen bases, this is the series for you. Daytona has swiped the most bases of any club (183) while Lakeland has stolen 122 bases to rank fourth in the FSL.
GLAD TO BE HOME ... The Flying Tigers are 11 games over .500 at home this season (31-20), but having a losing record on the road (31-32)
MLB REHAB ... Joining the Flying Tigers on a MLB rehab assignment is Detroit Tiger reliever Daniel Schlereth, who is working his way back from left shoulder tendinitis.
WINNINGEST ACTIVE MANAGER ... Manager Dave Huppert, who was just named to the Florida State League Hall of Fame, recorded his 1,700th victory as a minor league manager on Sunday, June 3 when the Flying Tigers posted an 11-1 win at Jupiter. He is in his second season with Lakeland and his 24th season as a minor league manager. Huppert, who became the winningest active manager in the minor leagues with Lakeland’s sixth win on April 19 of this year, brings a 1,734-1,587 record into the Daytona series.
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