THE SERIES ... Lakeland will play all four games of this series at Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium on August 2-5. Game time for Friday and Saturday is 6:35 p.m. with Sunday’s game slated for a 5:05 p.m. first pitch. The series finale on Monday is set for 6:35 p.m. The games will be carried live on the Hammerheads’ website.
THE FLYING TIGERS (46-55, 16-17, T-2nd North, 4.0 GB) ... Lakeland split a pair of games with Charlotte and lost two games to rain earlier this week. The Stone Crabs took the opener 6-3 after scoring three runs in the top of the ninth while Lakeland came back to win game two of the series 8-4 behind a combined seven hits by Devon Travis and Dixon Machado. The final two games were rained out and lost to the schedule as the two clubs do not face each other this season. Lakeland has now won three of the last four games and five of the last eight. Kyle Ryan and Wilsen Palacios rank sixth and eighth, respectively, with ERAs of 3.00 and 3.42 on the year. Ryan is also tied with a league-high nine saves while Palacios is tied with two others for fifth with 88 strikeouts.
THE HAMMERHEADS (56-52, 20-20, 5th South, 2.5 game lead) ... Jupiter fell 5-4 to Brevard County in 10 innings on Wednesday and is 4-6 in its last 10 games after having a seven-game win streak snapped on July 22. The Hammerheads are led by the top hitter in the Florida State League in Brent Keys who is hitting .351 on the season. Keys has been on fire the last two weeks, putting together a 30x68 effort for a blistering .441 average. It is no surprise that he also leads the FSL with a .425 on-base percentage and is tied for fourth with 105 hits. A Hammerhead also leads the FSL in ERA as Justin Nicolino, who was promoted to AA Jacksonville in mid-July, has a league-best 2.23 ERA. Jose Urena is one of four pitchers tied for the FSL lead with nine wins while closer Nick Wittgren has a league-leading 20 saves. Jupiter does its magic with the pitching as the club leads the league with a 3.10 staff ERA.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS
8/02 - RHP Kevin Eichhorn (1-4, 3.68) ... Eichhorn tossed five no-hit, shutout innings in his last start on July 26 against St. Lucie, but Lakeland was shutout 2-0. Eichhorn, who was on the disabled list from May 26-July 19, is looking for his first win since May 14 when he threw 7.0 shutout innings of two-hit ball at Dunedin.
8/03 - LHP Kyle Ryan (9-6, 3.00 ERA) ... Ryan was activated off the DL on August 2 after missing one start with a blister. In his last start on July 22 at Bradenton, he worked through the third inning and held the Marauders scoreless on four hits and four strikeouts. He is 3-1 his last five starts with a 1.80 ERA and 20 strikeouts and six walks. Ryan took the loss in a start against Jupiter on May 5, giving up three runs on three hits with four Ks and three walks.
8/04 - RHP Tommy Collier (2-2, 3.97 ERA) ... Collier no-hit St. Lucie over 5.0 innings in his last start on July 28. He struck out six in that game and walked two in picking up his second straight win. Collie is 2-2 with a 1.88 ERA in five starts since coming the disabled list. He has not faced Jupiter previously.
8/5 - Jeff Ferrell (4-5, 3.49 ERA) ... Ferrell did not factor into the decision in his last start on July 29 against Charlotte after holding the Stone Crabs to three runs, two earned, on five hits with five strikeouts. Ferrell is 1-1 with a 3.56 ERA in his last seven starts with the win on July 24 at Bradenton. He did not get the decision in his start versus Jupiter on May 6 despite holding the Hammerheads to one run on three hits in 5.0 innings.
SEASON SERIES ... Jupiter took three of the four games played May 5-8 in Lakeland and outscored the Flying Tigers 17-8 in the four games. The Hammerheads won the first three games by scores of 3-2, 3-1, and 9-2 while the Flying Tigers avoided the sweep with a 3-2 in game four on a Jason Krizan walk-off triple.
LOCAL PRODUCT ... Hammerhead second baseman Yordy Cabrera was a second-round pick in 2010 out of Lakeland High School by the Oakland Athletics. He joined the Marlins organization in 2012 as part of a three team trade involving Heath Bell, Cliff Pennington and Chris Young.
BEST MONTH ... Lakeland posted a 13-10 record in July with a .277 team batting average and a 3.24 earned run average – all best marks for any month of the season.
DOWN SOUTH JUKIN’ ... With the Charlotte series, Lakeland completes it foray into the South Division with a 23-14 record. The Flying Tigers won their series with Bradenton (5-3), Charlotte (4-1), Fort Myers (6-2) and St. Lucie (5-2) while losing to Jupiter (1-3) and Palm Beach (2-3).
MARTINIZING ... Francisco Martinez had carried a hot bat the last 17 games, going 26x70 for a .371 average since July 10. He is also 8x16 last four games.
VIVA LA TRAVIS ... Devon Travis has hits in 17 of his last 18 games (including a 4x5 night on Tuesday) and is 31x75 (.413) since July 9 and 24x55 (.436) last 13 games since July 14.
FLYING HIGH ... The Flying Tigers are 3-1 in the last four games played and is 47x136 as a team for a .346 average. Going back over eight games, Lakeland is 84x272 (.309) and 163x532 (.306) the last 17 games.
KEEP GOING DEEP ... From June 25 to July 13, Lakeland batters hit a total of one home run. Since then, they have gone deep 12 times in the last 13 games matching the amount of homers in 25 games in June. The club hit a total of 18 homers over the first two months of the year.
RUNS HARD TO COME BY ... Lakeland has scored the fewest runs of any FSL team while Jupiter has crossed the plate the fourth fewest times. The Hammerheads have hit the fewest home runs of any club Lakeland, despite its recent surge in the long ball department, has hit the second fewest.
ROSTER MOVES ... Chad Wright got a belated birthday present on Tuesday as the outfielder was activated off the disabled list where he had been since June 29. Wright, who turned 24 on the 27th, was batting .265 for the Flying Tigers in 65 games prior to his injury. To make room on the 25-man roster, righthanded pitcher Josh Carr was transferred to the GCL. More moves on Friday as the club welcomed back Kyle Ryan who was activated from the disabled list after missing one start with a blister while Brennan Smith was placed on the DL, retroactive to July 31.
THE SKIPPER ... Manager Dave Huppert, a member of the 2012 FSL Hall of Fame Class, is in his 25th season as a minor league manager and is the active winningest manager in the minors with a 1,791-1,638 record entering the Jupiter series. Last season, he led Lakeland to the 2012 Florida State League Championship to record his fourth overall championship and his third in the FSL. He also led the 2001 Brevard County (Brewers) to a co-championship while his 2007 Clearwater (Phillies) squad won the crown outright. In addition, he coached the Lakewood Blue Claws (Phillies) to the 2006 South Atlantic League title.
GARCIA, VILLARREAL TRADED ... Former Flying Tigers Avisail Garcia and Brayan Villareal were involved in a three-team, seven player trade on Tuesday. Garcia, an outfielder who played in Lakeland mainly in 2010 and 2011, was shipped to the White Sox while Villarreal, who pitched for the Flying Tigers in 2010, went to Boston. Detroit received infielder Jose Iglesia while pitcher Jake Peavey, the key player in the trade, went from Chicago to Boston along with three minor leaguers. Both Garcia and Villarreal had spent time in the majors.
UP NEXT ... After a day off, the Flying Tigers return to Joker Marchant Stadium on Aug. 7 to open a six-game homestand with three games against Dunedin and then three contest versus Clearwater.
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