THE SERIES ... The Flying Tigers host the defending Florida State League champions Cubs for two games on Monday and Tuesday at 6:30 pm and then stage their annual Education Day game at 10:30 am on Wednesday in the series finale. Last season, Daytona easily captured the season series, winning 13 of the 18 meetings.
THE FLYING TIGERS (13-10, T-2nd, 5.0 GB) ... Lakeland comes into this season after having split their last eight games and having not won, or lost, more than one game in a row during that stretch. Jake Thompson is fifth in the Florida State League with a 1.20 earned run average and fifth with 28 strikeouts. Lakeland has improved its batting average to .230, but still ranks tenth in the FSL. The staff ERA of 3.39 is fifth best. The Flying Tigers maintain the FSL’s best fielding percentage at .981 with a league-low 17 errors. Lakeland catchers have combined to throw out 10 of 25 would-be base stealers for a .400 mark, second best in the league.
THE CUBS (9-14, 5th, 9.0 GB) ... Talk about a turnaround. Daytona began the season with a 2-13 record, but has since won seven of their last eight, including four straight. In their four-game sweep of Brevard County, the Cubs outscored the Manatees 17-7. Bijan Rademacher is fifth in the Florida State League with a .348 average while Tim Saunders is third with eight stolen bases. Felix Pena is eighth with a 1.55 ERA and pitched the only complete game in the league this season. Daytona is fourth in the league with a .264 team batting average and sixth with a 3.67 staff ERA. Daytona’s catchers have thrown out just two base runners while opponents have swiped 19 bases.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS
4/28 - RHP Yorfrank Lopez (1-2, 7.00 ERA) ... Lopez surrendered six runs on nine hits over 3.0 innings on April 23 – his shortest outing of the season – and has now allowed 11 earned runs on 13 hits in 8.0 innings in his last two starts. He has struck out 11, but also walked 11.
4/29 - RHP Edgar De La Rosa (0-3, 2.42 ERA) ... De La Rosa is still looking for his first win after five starts this season. After dropping his first three outings and posting a 3.75 ERA, he has a 1.29 ERA his last two starts – both resulting in a no decision.
4/30 - LHP Josh Turley (0-0, 2.60 ERA) ... Turley makes his second start of the year after making his rotation debut on April 25 at home against Tampa. In that game, he rebounded from giving up three runs in the first to hold the Yankees scoreless over the next four, finishing with seven strikeouts.
DAYTONA PROBABLE STARTERS
4/28 - LHP Rob Zastryzny (1-1, 6.38 ERA) ... Zastryzny gave up four runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings in taking the loss in his last start on April 23 at Clearwater. It was the third start he has allowed four runs and his fourth he has surrendered six or more hits. He did strike out five in that game for his third start with five or more Ks. Zastryzny is from Edmonton, Alberta, but played collegiately at the University of Missouri.
4/29 - RHP Yao-Lin Wang (0-3, 7.94 ERA) ... Like his Lakeland counterpart is this game, Wang is looking for his first win of the season after three losses. In his last start on April 24 at Brevard County, he allowed three runs on three hits with four walks in 4.0 innings. His ERA took a big hit on April 19, allowing five earned runs in just 1.1 innings of work against Tampa. Wang is from Tai-Tung, Taiwan.
4/30 - RHP Felix Pena (1-3, 1.55 ERA) ... Pena left his last start after giving up five hits and four walks in 3.0 innings. He had gone 6.0 or more innings in each of his previous four starts. Pena threw the league’s only complete game of the year on April 14 at Dunedin, taking the loss despite holding the Blue Jays to one run on three hits.
THE WRIGHT STUFF ... Lakeland outfielder Chad Wright singled twice at Tampa on Sunday to extend his hit streak to an FSL-best 14 games. Wright is 23x57 (.404) during the streak which began April 10 against Brevard County. Wright’s two singles on Sunday marked his third straight game with two hits and is now 12x25 (.480) with six runs scored his last six games. His 14-game hit streak is the longest for a Flying Tiger since Nick Castellanos put together an 18-game streak from April 29-May 17, 2012. Wright was 2x22 in his first six games to start the season.
TWO R’S, TWO L’S, TWO HITS ... Connor Harrell has two hits in game five times this season, including his last game on Sunday. He has at least one hit in eight of his last ten games and is 12x41 (.293) during that stretch. Harrell also homered in two games of the Tampa series and had seven runs batted in against the Yankees.
DIXON HEATING UP ... Dixon Machado has eight hits in his last four games, going 8x17 (.471) during that quartet of games with three runs scored.
BIG MAC ... Jeff McVaney has hits in eight of his last nine games going 12x38 (.316) in that stretch of games. In the four-game Tampa series, he was 5x15 (.333) with five runs scored and six runs batted in—four of which came in the April 25 game at Tampa.
BATS ALIVE ... Lakeland had 11 hits on Sunday at Tampa, marking the fifth time in the last nine games the team has had double digits in hits. The Flying Tigers are batting .266 (89x334) in those the last nine games, and have averaged just under five runs per game. Also, after not hitting a home run in the first eight games of the season, the Flying Tigers have hit eight dingers in the last 15 games.
GOING GREEN ... Austin Green is 6x16 (.375) his last four games. Green has gunned down eight of 19 base stealers on the season for a .421 percentage, fourth best among FSL catchers.
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR ... The Cubs roster features 10 international players including Gioskar Amaya (Bejumas, Edo Carabobo, Venezuela ); Pin-Chieh Chen (Kaohsiung City, Taiwan ); Willson Contreras (Puerto Cabello, Venezuela); Marco Hernandez (Santiago, Dominican Republic); Felix Pena (San Pedro De Macoris, Dominican Republic); Starling Peralta (Nagua, Dominican Republic); Tayler Scott (Johannesburg, South Africa); Arodys Vizcaino (Yaguate, Dominican Republic); Yao-Lin Wang (Tai-Tung, Taiwan); and Rob Zastryzny (Edmonton, Alberta)
THE NAME GAME ... Daytona has had its share of players with unusual names in the past – Rebel Ridling (2012); Taiwan Easterling (2011); Smaily Borges (2010); and Starlin Castro (2009) – and this year is no different as outfielder Rock Shoulders joins the group.
HUPPERT CLIMBS THE LADDER ... With Lakeland’s 9-2 win at Tampa on Saturday, Flying Tiger manager Dave Huppert became the fourth winningest coach in Lakeland franchise history with 214 wins. With a 214-210 record at Lakeland entering this series, he needs 24 more wins to pass Jim Leyland (237-177, 1976-78) and move into third place. The all-time Lakeland record for wins is held by Dick Tracewski who amassed a 392-402 record from 1970-1975.
MOVING INTO THE TOP 20 ... Already the winningest active manager in the minor leagues, Lakeland manager Dave Huppert can move into the top 20 for all-time wins by a minor league manager with two more victories. Entering this series with a career-record of 1,822-1,672, Huppert trails Bert Niehoff who finished with a 1,824-1,713 record from 1922-1954 with 12 different teams.
UP NEXT ... Following this series, Lakeland will play just two home games in the first 15 days of May hosting Dunedin on Saturday, May 3 and Tampa in a second Education Day on Thursday, May 8. The club, however, makes up for lost time with eight home games May 16-23.
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