THE SERIES ... The last time these two
teams met was on the final day of the first half. Lakeland
shutout Brevard County 1-0 in ten innings in the first game of the doubleheader on June 24. In game two, the two squads were tied at 2-2
after eight frames before rains came
forcing the game to end in a rare tie. Overall, Lakeland leads the series by a slim 6-5-1 mar- gin. The Manatees won five of the first seven meetings while Lakeland won the next four in a row before the tie. Francisco Martinez has
17 hits in the series,
including a pair of homers,
while Javier Betancourt has 15 base knocks
vs. Brevard County.
THE FLYING TIGERS (14-38, 6th place, 19.0 GB; 47-74-1 overall) ... Lakeland has won four of the last five and is 5-14 since Aug. 5 and 9-32 since July 4-6. Lakeland
is 3-60 when trailing after seven innings
and 31-1 when leading after eight frames. The Flying Tigers have the worst record in the league when scoring first in a game (34-24) and the third worst record (26-20)
when scoring last. Lakeland is 14-21 in one-run games
this season and 7-10 in extra
innings.
THE MANATEES
(24-30, 4th place, 10.0 GB; 53-70 overall) ... Brevard County took the last two games of its three-game series at Clearwater, winning
6-5 and 5-1 after dropping
the opener 11-1. The Manatees are 4-5 since Aug. 14. Garrett
Cooper is seventh in the
Florida State League with a .299 average and first with 32 doubles and a .443 slugging per- centage while Clint Coulter is tied for first with 14 home runs and sec- ond with 186 total bases. Coulter and Cooper ranks first
and second with 44 and 42 extra base hits, respectively. Chris McFarland
has 135 hits which ranks third while Omar Garcia is second in the league with 49 stole bases. Jorge Ortega, who is slated to start the opening
game of this season,
is third in the FSL with a 2.48 ERA while tossing a league-best five complete
games, including a pair of shutouts.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS
SUN., AUG. 23 – RHP Jonathan Maciel (4-8, 5.01 ERA) ... Maciel gave up a pair of runs on seven hits in 6.0 innings in his last start on Aug. 19 at Tampa, but did not get the win. He has now allowed
just the two runs in his 10.1 innings pitched over his last two starts and is 0-0 his last three outings. Maciel is 1-6 at home with a 6.32 ERA while posing a 3-2 record
and a 3.90 ERA on the road.
MON., AUG. 24 – LHP Kevin Ziomek
(7-10, 3.70 ERA) ... Ziomek came within one strike of tossing a no-hitter
in his last start on Aug. 19 at Tam- pa. He retired the first 12 Yankee hitters in a row before issuing a walk to open the fifth. That runner was erased when the next batter hit into a double play and Ziomek faced the minimum before Miguel Andujar singled on
a 0-2 pitch with two outs in the seventh to break up the no-no and chase
the Lakeland lefty.
Ziomek has allowed just four earned runs in 27.2 innings over his last four starts with 28 strikeouts
and seven walks. TUE., AUG. 25 – LHP Endrys Briceno
(0-3, 7.78 ERA) ... Briceno gave up one unearned
run in 5.0 inning of three-hit
ball in his last start on Aug. 20 vs. Dunedin. It was his first win since July 31, 2013 as he has spent
most of the last two seasons on the
DL following Tommy John sur- gery. Briceno
has twice worked a season-high 5.0 innings this season and
struck out a season-high four batters in his second start on July 30.
STRUGGLING STAFFS ... Lakeland
is 10th in the league with a 3.56 staff ERA while Brevard County is 11th with a 3.58 mark. The Manatee
staff has thrown an amazing minor-league best 11 complete games—five more
than any other Florida State League staff.
FLYING Z
... Kevin Ziomek leads the FSL with 128 strikeouts on the sea- son. The 128 Ks also moved Ziomek into fourth place on the Lakeland all- time strikeout list. The southpaw now trails Jose Lima, who is third with 132 punchouts. The Lakeland
record of 152 was set by Bernie Beckman in 1970. Ziomek is shooting to become just the second Lakeland pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts since Duane Below became the first with 126 in 2008. Ziomek also is tied the league lead with 24 games started and 136.1 innings pitched.
CURT-SEE ... Curt Powell has had two or more hits in nine games since July 30 with a high of three base knocks on Aug. 10. He has a lofty .387 (48x124)
home batting average while just a .239 mark on the road.
Pow- ell posed a .342 average
before the All-Star
break, and is hitting
.289 since, including a .353
batting average in August.
SERIES-LY SPEAKING ... Javier Betancourt went 6x11 in the recent Dunedin
series and scored in each game. Last night, the Lakeland
second baseman doubled and tripled and drove in one run. Betancourt has hits in 15 of his last 18 games, going 25x68 (.368) with eight runs scored.
MARTINEZ ... Francisco
Martinez is third in the FSL with
185 total
bas- es. He has hits in each of his four previous games (6x15)
before going 0x3 in last night’s contest.
In his 23 starts at first base, Martinez has a .286 average,
nine points better than his .277 mark at third base and 36 points better
than his .250 average as a DH.
UP AND DOWN ... Over the last 15 games, Jiwan James has had at least one base hit in each odd-numbered game. He was hitless
in evened num- bered games before getting two hits on Friday. He is 16x34 (.471) in the odd games with five multi-hit games and 2x25 (.080) in the even games. James is hitting
just .211 at home, but bats .288 on the road, and has post- ed a season-high monthly average of .303 in August.
BATTLIN’ BEN ... Ben Verlander has hits in eight of his last nine games (8x30, .268), including
the last five straight (5x18, .278). On Wednesday, he had a game-winning RBI in game one of a doubleheader while Friday night,
he clubbed a two-run
homer in Lakeland’s 4-1 win. He began the 2015 campaign with a .313 average in April, but has not topped .206 in any
month since.
YOU LEAD, WE’LL FOLLOW ... In the 448 innings Lakeland
has played since July 1, the Flying Tigers have
been in the lead for just 92 frames.
WHERE THERE’S A WILL ... Although he gave up a two-run
double to the first batter he faced in 3.2 innings of relief last night, Will Clinard settled down and struck out the next five batters before finishing with a career-best seven punchouts.
He has now allowed just two runs in his last 16.2 innings over seven appearances.
MAYBERRY E.R.A. ... Whit Mayberry has not allowed a run in his last four outings and just two tallies in his last 14.2 innings and nine outings with 14 strikeouts and four strikeouts. His season ERA has dropped to 1.09 over his 13 appearances with 24 strikeouts in 24.2 innings
with just seven
walks.
THE SKIPPER (thru 8/22) ... Dave Huppert is in his 28th season and leads all active minor league managers with a 1,901-1,772-1 record and ranks 17th among all-time
minor league managers.
Next up for Huppert on the all-time
win list is Cal Ermer who is in 16th place with a 1,906- 1,728 record from 1947-1984. Ironically, Huppert
played under Ermer in 1981 when the two were with Toledo,
a Triple-A affiliate
at that time of the Minnesota Twins. A 2012 FSL Hall of Fame honoree,
This is Huppert’s fifth season with the Flying Tigers and he has a 293-311-1 record at Lakeland,
including a FSL championship in 2012.
UP NEXT ... Lakeland
has Aug. 26 as an off day and then plays at Dunedin
Aug. 27-29 and at Brevard County Aug. 30-Sept. 1 before taking Sept. 2 off. The Flying Tigers’ final two games of the season take place Sept. 3-4 against Tampa before concluding the 2015 campaign
with a pair of game at Tampa
Sept. 5-6.
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