THE SERIES ... Lakeland swept Dunedin in three games on July 4-6 at Joker Marchant Stadium and leads the season series seven games to five. The Flying Tigers have won five of the six games played in Lakeland. Game two of the most recent series was the longest game played in the minors (to that point) with the Flying Tigers emerging with a 2-1 in 21 innings. Ironically, that game was eclipsed by a Gulf Coast League game that went 24 innings over three days (due to rain) and featured two of Dunedin and Lakeland’s organizational brethren. The GCL Blue Jays got by the GCL Tigers, 6-5 in that marathon.
THE FLYING TIGERS (12-37, 6th place, 19.0 GB; 45-73-1 overall) ... Lakeland swept a doubleheader from Tampa last night, winning game one 3-2 in eight innings as Ben Verlander singled in the eventual winning run in the top of the eighth inning. Game two featured the masterful pitching of Kevin Ziomek who held the Yankees to one run on two hits through 6.2 innings in a 3-1 win. The twinbill win was the first by Lakeland since taking a doubleheader from Brevard County on June 22. The Flying Tigers are now 3-12 since Aug. 5 and 7-31 since sweeping Dunedin July 4-6. Lakeland has been held to three or fewer runs in each of the last seven games.
THE BLUE JAYS (21-30, 5th place, 11.0 GB; 53-68 overall) ... Dunedin is also coming off a doubleheader sweep, shutting out Brevard County, 4-0 and 3-0 in yesterday’s action. Each of the Blue Jays last three wins have been the shutout variety as the club also beat the Manatees 4-0 on Aug. 16. Dunedin is now 14-5 since July 31 winning seven of those games via a shutout. The Blue Jays features the league’s top closer in Wil Browning who has an FSL-best 18 saves.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS (HOME SERIES)
THU., AUG. 20 – LHP Endrys Briceno (0-2, 4.70 ERA) ... Briceno has allowed three earned runs in each of his last two starts. In his last outing on Aug. 10 vs. Clearwater, he gave up three runs on seven hits in 4.0 innings with a pair of strikeouts and three walks. Briceno has made starts since joining Lakeland on July 24 after sitting out almost all of last year and most of this season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Briceno has not face Dunedin this season.
FRI., AUG. 21 – RHP Brennan Smith (4-5, 3.20 ERA) ... Smith gave up season-highs of nine hits and six runs in his last start on Aug. 16 vs. Tampa. He had allowed more than three runs in only one previous start. Smith has whiffed exactly four batters in each of his last six starts. With 18 runs surrendered in his last five starts, he has a 5.40 ERA since July 21. Smith has one relief appearance (1 R, 5 H, 3.0 IP) vs. Dunedin this season and one start (July 6, 1 R, 5 H, 6.0 IP, 5K, 0 BB).
SAT., AUG. 22 – LHP Jairo Labourt (0-3, 7.78 ERA with Lakeland; 2-10, 5.22 overall) ... Pitchers look over opponent’s on a scouting report, but Labourt may have an edge, having pitched for Dunedin for most of this season before coming to the Tigers organization as part of the David Price trade. Labourt, who was originally signed as a free agent by Toronto in 2011, has allowed four or more runs in each of his four starts with Lakeland and has given up six or more hits in each as well.
FLYING Z ... With his four strikeouts in game two of last night’s doubleheader, Kevin Ziomek increased his FSL lead with 128 strikeouts on the season. The 128 also moved Ziomek into third place on the Lakeland strikeout list (since 1978). The southpaw now trails Jose Lima, who is second with 132 punchouts. The Lakeland record of 134 strikeouts was set by Rich Lacko in 1987 and equaled by Jordan Tata in 2005. 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.
THE BALL’S IN YOUR BETAN-COURT ... Javier Betancourt has hits in 14 of his last 18 games and is 23x70 (.329) during that stretch with just five strikeouts in the 18 games. He is hitting .289 at home and .235 on the road and has a .283 post All-Star Break batting average.
ONE MORE FOR 1,900 WINS (thru 8/19) ... Dave Huppert enters tonight’s game ranked 17th among minor league managers in terms of wins with an 1,899-1,771-1 record. His next win would be the 1,900th of his career. 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. 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 291-310-1 record at Lakeland, including a FSL championship in 2012.
UP AND DOWN ... Over the last 12 games, Jiwan James has had at least one base hit in games 1-3-5-7-9-11 while going hitless in games (2-4-6-8-10. He is 11x24 (.458) in the odd games with four multi-hit games and 0x22 in the even games. James is hitting 84 points higher on the road (.288) than at home (.204).
CONSISTENCY ... Francisco Martinez ended the month of July with a .271 batting average. Almost three weeks later, his average stands at .272 on the season. The first baseman/DH is 19x68 (.279) in his last 17 games with seven runs scored and five runs batted in. Martinez is batting .287 since the All-Star Break. He has a team-best 35 multi-games this season and is one of just three players to have had a 5-hit game (doing so on July 16 against Bradenton.
PIRTLE OUT OF HIS SHELL ... Brett Pirtle took a while to get rolling, but now has hits in his last three games played, going 3x9.
MULTI-POWELL ... Curt Powell has had two or more hits in eight games since July 30 with a high of three base knocks on Aug. 10. He has a lofty .389 home batting average while just a .239 mark on the road. Powell posed a .342 average before the All-Star break, and is hitting .282 since.
RATTLIN’ REAVES ... Jared Reaves has hits in each of his last four games going 5x12 with a pair of doubles.
BATTLIN’ BEN ... Ben Verlander has hits in five of his last six games (6x22). He began the 2015 campaign with a .313 average in April, but has not top .206 in any month since.
STATS ARE FOR -— ! ... Lakeland and Dunedin are tied for last in the Florida State League with .236 team batting averages. The Flying Tigers’ staff ERA of 3.62 is second highest in the league while the Blue Jays mark of 3.85 is the highest in the FSL.
NO RUNS, FORREST, NO RUNS ... Lakeland has scored three or fewer runs in 70 of the team’s 119 games this season. In the 421 innings Lakeland has played since July 1, the Flying Tigers have been in the lead for just 77 frames. Lakeland has scored the fewest runs (387) of any full season minor league club.
OH-NO, A ZERO ... The fact that Dunedin has posted seven of their nine shutouts this season in its last 19 games, doesn’t bode well for Lakeland that has been blanked a FSL-high tying 16 times (Palm Beach has also been shutout 16 times). The 16 blankings, five of which have come in the last 19 games, is the most for any Lakeland team in the last 20 seasons.
UP NEXT ... Lakeland continues its six-game homestand with a three-game set against Brevard County Aug. 23-25.
JUST TWO MORE ... Following this six-game homestand, the Flying Tigers hit the road for six contests in eight days before returning home for the final two home games of the 2015 season, hosting Tampa on Aug. 3-4.
THURSDAY THROWBACK ... On this date last season, Lakeland has a record of 18-40 and went on to finish the half with a 20-50 mark.
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