THE SERIES ... Lakeland welcomes Clearwater back to Joker Marchant Stadium for a three-game series Monday-Wednesday with all three games getting underway at 6:30 pm. The Threshers have won 10 of the previous 15 meetings between these two clubs, including five of the last six. In the last series in Clearwater, all three games were shutouts. The Flying Tigers took game one, 8-0, while the Threshers won the next two , 7-0 and 4-0. Jiwan James has 15 hits in the series, including a pair of homers, while Francisco Martinez has added 13 and three home runs. Curt Powell also had 14 hits for Lakeland. Clearwater’s Willians Astudillo has feasted on Lakeland pitcher, collecting 20 hits for a .370 average along with knocking in 12 runs, while Andrew Pullin has 13 hits, three homers, and 10 runs batted in.
THE FLYING TIGERS (9-30, 6th place, 16.0 GB; 42-66-1 overall; 27 games remaining; 14 home games) ... Lakeland was swept by Daytona over the weekend and has not won a series since sweeping Dunedin on July 4-6. Since then, Lakeland is 4-24 with two of those four wins coming against the Threshers. Thirteen of those 24 losses have been by two or fewer runs. Lakeland has scored three or fewer runs in 61 of the team’s 109 games this season and has been outscored 26-7 in the last five games.
THE THRESHERS (26-18, 2nd place, 1.5 GB Daytona; 63-51 overall) ... Clearwater, which won the first half and therefore guaranteed a spot in the postseason, has lost two of the last three to Tampa and is 3-6 the last nine games. The Threshers lost game one of a Saturday doubleheader with the Yankees, 5-3, and then took game two, 1-0. Yesterday, Clearwater scored a pair on the top of the ninth, but couldn’t tie the game, falling 7-6 to Tampa. Willians Astudillo is the top hitter in the Florida State League with a .322 average while Andrew Pullin is tied for second with 11 homers and is third with 62 RBI. On the hill, Brandon Leibrandt is 10th in the FSL with a 3.11 ERA to go with his 7-3 record.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS
MON., AUG. 10 - LHP Kyle Lobstein (0-1, 3.00 ERA) ... Kyle Lobstein, who is with Lakeland on a MLB rehab assignment, started on Aug. 5 at Clearwater, working 3.0 innings and throwing 45 pitches. He gave up two runs—one earned—on three hits with one strikeout and one walk. Lobstein has been on Detroit’s disabled list since May 24 with a sore left shoulder. Endrys Briceno, who missed all but three games in 2014 and was on the Lakeland DL until July 24 this season, should take the hill once Lobstein has met his pitch count. Briceno has made three appearances, including a pair starts for Lakeland, and is 0-1 with a 3.97 ERA. He has one previous appearance against the Threshers, allowing five runs—three earned—on nine hits in just 3.1 innings on Aug. 5.
TUE., AUG. 11 - RHP Brennan Smith (4-3, 2.70 ERA) ... Smith matched his season-high with 7.0 innings of work in a tough loss at Clearwater on Aug. 6. He held the Threshers to a pair of runs on six hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Smith has allowed five runs in 13.0 innings in his last two starts with eight strikeouts and two walks. He is 3-3 as in 10 starts with a 2.70 ERA. Smith is 0-2 with a 4.85 ERA against Clearwater.
WED., AUG. 12 - LHP Jairo Labourt (0-1, 7.20 ERA with Lakeland; 2-8, 4.88 ERA overall) ... Labourt has made two starts for Lakeland since joining the Detroit organization as part of the trade that sent David Price to Toronto. Labourt has allowed four runs in both of his starts with the Flying Tigers with five strikeouts in each game. He walked four batters in his first game and two in his last start on Aug. 7 in a loss to Daytona. At Dunedin, Labourt was 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA in three starts vs. Clearwater.
THAT’S ZIOMEK, WITH A “K” ... Kevin Ziomek locked up with Daytona’s Amir Garrett on Sunday in a match-up of the top two strikeout pitched in the FSL as both hurlers entered the game with 111 K’s. Both pitchers worked seven innings with Ziomek taking over the league-lead with five more strikeouts while Garrett recorded three punch outs. The 116 strikeouts by Ziomek is the most for a Lakeland pitcher since L.J. Gagnier whiffed 123 in 2009. Ziomek now ranks seventh on the Lakeland single season strikeout list, six behind Brian Powell and Greg Whiteman who are tied for sixth with 122 strikeouts.
ZIOMEK EARNS FSL HONOR ... Kevin Ziomek has been named the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week for the week of August 3-9. In two starts, Ziomek struck out 16 in 15.0 innings of shutout baseball. On August 4, he got the win over Clearwater holding the Threshers to two hits with a season-high 11 strikeouts. On Sunday, he struck out five Daytona batters in 7.0 more scoreless innings to take over the league lead with 116 Ks. Ziomek is in his third season after being drafted in the second round of the 2013 draft out of Vanderbilt. He joins Tyler Hanover (June 8) as Flying Tigers to have garnered FSL honors this season.
MORE STRIKEOUT STUFF ... Lakeland boasts two of the top four Florida State League starting pitchers in terms of strikeouts per nine innings. Kevin Ziomek has 8.44 strikeouts per nine frames while Jairo Labourt, who amassed almost all of his totals with Dunedin, has 7.97 punchouts per nine innings.
EIGHT BALL ... With a double in yesterday’s game, Curt Powell now has hits in each of his last eight games and is 12x32 (.375) during those eight contests with three runs scored and two runs batted in. Powell is batting almost 160 points better at Joker Marchant Stadium (.391) than on the road (.233). He has played all four infield positions and has made three starts at first base with two hits in each start for a 6x11 clip.
A SPARK ... Francisco Martinez has hits in six of his last seven games and is 8x30 (.267). He remains third in the Florida State League with 168 total bases. When he came to the plate in the bottom of the fourth in yesterday’s game, it marked the 3,000 plate appearance in his 739 games played over his eight-year career.
HITS IN BUNCHES ... Jiwan James is one of four players tied for the FSL lead with six triples. He had a seven-game hit streak snapped on Aug. 6 in which was 15x32 (.469) with two or more hits in six of those games. He is now 17x48 (.354) in his last 11 games.
ROUND-TRIPPERS ... Curt Powell’s home run in Sunday’s game was his seventh of the season, putting him second on the team behind Francisco Martinez’s team-leading total of nine. The homer was also the 45th of the year for Lakeland, a mark which is tied for fifth best in the league.
NEARING 300 ... Jared Reaves entering this series needing two more games played to reach 300 for his career of four seasons.
ALL-TIME FUTILITY ... While Lakeland’s 42-66-1 record is not good, it pales in comparison to the 1984 squad that finished 46-98, winning just 32 percent of its games in racking up the most losses in franchise history.
HALF-TIME FUTILITY ... Lakeland is on pace to finish with a 16-50 second half record. The 16 wins would be one shy of matching the Miami Miracle’s FSL-worst mark of 15-54 in the first half of the 1990 season. The Flying Tigers’ would-be .242 winning percentage would be fourth worst in league history. Lakeland finished the second half of 2014 with a franchise-worst 20-50 record. Since the end of the first half of last season, Lakeland has gone 66-115.
THE SKIPPER (thru 8/9) ... Dave Huppert ranks 17th among minor league manager in terms of wins with an 1,896-1,764-1 record entering this series. Next up for Huppert is Cal Ermer who is in 16th place with a 1,906-1,728 record from 1947-1984. A 2012 FSL Hall of Fame honoree, Huppert is in his 28th season as a minor league manager. This is his fifth season with the Flying Tigers and he has a 288-303-1 record at Lakeland, including a FSL championship in 2012.
UP NEXT ... Lakeland hits the road on Aug. 13-15 for three games at Daytona before returning home on Aug. 16-17 for three games vs. Tampa.
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