THE SERIES ... The Flying Tigers head to Clearwater and Bright House Field Friday-Sunday to kick off a six-day road trip. Friday and Saturday’s games are set for 6:30 pm starts while Sunday has a 1 pm first pitch. The first 2000 fans at Friday’s game with get a Finley Bobblehead (Finley is Clearwater’s mascot). Friday is also 70s Night with a post-game concert while its Star Wars and Fireworks on Saturday.
LAST YEAR ... The 18 games between theses two clubs was a tale of two halves. The Flying Tigers won the first seven straight, including games of 13 and 11 innings, while the Threshers captured nine of the last 10 contests. Clearwater won five of the nine played at Bright House Field
THE FLYING TIGERS (2-6, 6th, 3.0 GB) ... Lakeland was shutout in three of four games of the Palm Beach series, marking the first time the Flying Tigers have been blanked three times in a series since 2010. In the one game they were not shutout, the Flying Tigers managed just one run, giving them one run scored in the last 38 innings. The sweep by the Cardinals left Lakeland winless in six home games this season (but the team is 2-0 on the road). The Flying Tigers batted .174 in the Thresher series (with 44 strikeouts) leaving Lakeland tied for last in the league with a .192 team batting average. The staff ERA of 4.13 is third highest.
THE THRESHERS (5-3, T-1st, 0.5 game lead) ... Clearwater fell 8-1 in the opening game of its series with Jupiter, but roared back to win the next three games including a 3-2 triumph in 11 innings last night. Andrew Pullin is third in the Florida State League with a .417 average while Andrew Knapp is 10th with a .343 mark. Pullin ranks fifth with a .481 on-base percentage while Knapp is tied for first with 12 hits so far. David Whitehead has the fourth lowest ERA (9.75) while Ulises Joaquin is tied for first with three saves. The Threshers’ team batting average of .252 is fifth best in the FSL while the staff ERA of 3.04 is sixth best. Clearwater has the league’s best defense (.988) with just four errors so far.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS
4/17 - RHP Tommy Collier (1-0, 0.00) ... Collier picked up a win in his 2015 season debut, tossing five shutout innings at Tampa on April 12. He struck out five and walked one in 5.0 innings and held the Yankees to one hit.
4/18 - LHP Locke St. John (0-1, 7.20 ERA) ... St. John was tagged with the loss in his first outing on April 13, surrendering four runs on five hits to Tampa. He also walked four while striking out just one Yankee batter.
4/19 – LHP Kevin Ziomek (0-2, 4.50) ... Ziomek (ZO-meck) is looking for his first “W” of the season after dropping his first two starts. On April 9, he struck out three in 5.0 innings and walked one while allowing the Yankees one earned run on three hits. On April 14, he struck out eight Palm Beach hitters, but gave up four earned runs on seven hits with one walk in a 5.0 inning stint.
ONE MAN JAMES GANG ... Jiwan James has a team-leading 10 hits and four runs scored with a team-best 16 total bases.
ENOUGH WITH THE RAIN ALREADY ... Lakeland fans sat thru a rain delay of 2:16 before getting Saturday’s game underway. Last night, the start of the game was delayed 49 minutes by rain, plus the game was stopped in the top of the third inning due to more rain. After a delay of 2:02 the game resumed at 10:10 pm with a total of 2:51 delays in the game. The game ended at 11:43 pm, some 5:13 after the scheduled start time of 6:30 pm. Ironically, Thursday’s game took just 2:22 which was the quickest game of the year.
TRIPLE-A REHAB ... Steven Moya, who began the season on the disabled list at Toledo, is rehabbing a plantar fasciitis injury in his foot. However, his comeback got off on the wrong foot, so to speak, as the rightfielder struck out in each of his four at bats Thursday.
FLYING HIGH ... Grayson Greiner has one hit in each of his last three games, going 3x12 (.250) during that span ... Jiwan James has hits in six of his last seven games and is 10x30 (.333) since going hitless opening night ... Jared Reaves has one hit in each of his four games played so far ... Ben Verlander has hits in the last two games and has collected one base hit in four of his six games played.
GROUNDED ... Javier Betancourt is 2x19 (.105) his last five games ... Bobby Borchering went 1x4 in the opening game of the season, but has gone 0x21 since ... Dominic Ficociello has three hits in his last 18 at bats (.167) ... Francisco Martinez is 2x22 (.090) the last six games ... Curt Powell began the season going 7x15 (.467) the first four games, but was held hitless in three at bats in each of the last two outings ... Raph Rhymes is 1x10 (.100) his last three games.
EIGHT IN THE EIGHTH ... The Flying Tigers have scored just 14 runs this season, eight of which have come in the eighth inning.
THE SKIPPER (thru 4/16) ... Manager Dave Huppert, a member of the 2012 FSL Hall of Fame Class, is back for a 28th season as a minor league manager. He is the winningest active manager in the minors and ranks 18th all-time with 1,873 career wins (1,873-1,743). He is in his fifth season with Lakeland and has a 265-281 record with the club, including a FSL championship in 2012.
MLB CONNECTIONS ... Clearwater pitcher Mark Leiter is the son of former Major Leaguer Mark Leiter who played 10 seasons in the big leagues, including the 1991-93 seasons with Detroit. Threshers second baseman Jesmuel Valentin is the son of 16-year MLB veteran Jose Valentin.
UP NEXT ... Lakeland continues on the road with a three-game set at Brevard County. Games one and two are Monday and Tuesday at 6:35 pm with the finale being a 10:30 am Education Day game at Space Coast Stadium.
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