Game 79: Ducks vs. Revolution

It’s Sunday Family Funday at the Duck Pond!

The Long Island Ducks wrap up their weekend series with the York Revolution at Bethpage Ballpark later today. It has been a tough series for the Flock, who have dropped the first to games to extend their season-high losing streak to seven consecutive games. Friday night, strong starting pitching from York righty Corey Thurman led the way in a 5-2 victory. Last night, a combination of defensive miscues by the Ducks and timely, situational hitting from the Revolution led York to a 5-4 come-from-behind victory.

For the second consecutive game, Long Island jumped in front in the bottom of the first inning thanks to Adam Bailey – this time on a sacrifice fly. York immediately responded with a Travis Garcia solo home run in the second to tie the game before a run-scoring wild pitch put the Revs in front in the fourth. Joash Brodin, who had been struggling entering last night’s ballgame, put the Flock back out in front in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run single. Bailey later extended the lead to 4-2 in the seventh on a RBI single.

York refused to go down quietly, however. A pair of sacrifice flies in the eighth from Chad Tracy and Salvador Paniagua tied the ballgame at eight before another sacrifice fly in the ninth from Garcia put the Revs in front. Fehlandt Lentini nearly tied the game in the bottom of the ninth on a long fly ball to left field, but it died two feet in front of the wall. Rommie Lewis worked a scoreless ninth to cap off the roller coaster ballgame.

CLICK HERE to view the recap, listen to the highlights and watch postgame comments from Kevin Baez and Brodin.

Tonight, the Ducks send Jared Lansford to the hill for his 14th start of the year. The third-year Duck enters 4-3 on the year with a 3.23 earned run average, which is good for sixth best in the Atlantic League. Lansford has been very strong as of late, tossing eight innings of one-run ball in each of his last two starts. In addition, the righty has allowed more than three earned runs in a start just once in his last eight starts.

On the other side, Scott Gorgen makes his third start with York tonight, and 11th overall start in the Atlantic League this season. Gorgen began the season with the Camden Riversharks, where he made 11 appearances (eight starts). Overall this year, the righty is 3-7 with a 7.55 ERA. Gorgen is 1-0 in three appearances (two starts) against Long Island this year, having allowed nine runs (seven earned) over 11 innings.

Here are tonight’s game notes:

Ducks vs. Revolution: Today marks the 11th meeting of the season between the Ducks and Revolution and seventh of 10 games between them on Long Island. The Revolution currently lead the series seven games to three. Long Island and York have played 145 games against each other all-time, with the Ducks holding a 73-72 advantage in the series and a 44-30 lead at Bethpage Ballpark.

Fehlandt’s on Fire: Fehlandt Lentini earned another hit on Saturday and has now hit safely 39 of his last 40 games, including 18 straight. In the 40 games, he is batting .343 (60-for-175), and in his current 18-game hitting streak, he’s hitting .305 (25-for-82). The first-year Duck currently leads the Atlantic League in doubles (27) and at-bats (336) while ranking second in hits (108) and stolen bases (31), third in runs (56) and fourth in batting average (.321).

Heating Up: Lew Ford picked up three hits on Saturday for his team-leading 11th three-hit game this year. The 2014 All-Star has multiple hits in eight of his last 15 games and has 26 hits in his last 60 at-bats, good for a .433 batting average. Ford leads the Flock with 32 multi-hit games this year and leads the Atlantic League in hits (110) and games played (78). He ranks second in batting average (.365), RBI (60), runs (60), total bases (164), on-base percentage (.436) and slugging percentage (.545).

Streaks Continue: Adam Bailey earned a hit on Saturday and now has a hit in nine consecutive games. In those nine games, he is batting .405 (15-for-37) with two homers, eight RBI and six runs. Bailey also drove in two runs for the second straight game and has 13 multi-RBI games this year. Brendan Harris earned his 12th two-hit game and 15th multi-hit game of the year on Saturday. The first-year Duck has now reached base safely in 12 consecutive games and is hitting .325 (13-for-40) during that span.

Blevins on the Bump: Despite a no-decision on Saturday, Bobby Blevins tossed his third consecutive quality start, allowing just two runs over six and two-thirds. In his last three starts, the righty has a 1-0 record with a 1.66 ERA, yielding just four runs over 21 and two-thirds innings. The Ducks have now tossed four consecutive quality starts, with their starters combining for a 3.04 ERA in that span.

Faithful Flock: Saturday’s crowd of 6,636 was the Ducks’ seventh past-capacity crowd of the 2014 season. Long Island has now hosted 634 sellouts all-time, an Atlantic League record.

On the Air: Today’s game will be broadcast live on Long Island’s home for news, traffic and weather, 103.9-FM LI News Radio. Live streaming video and audio will also be available online by CLICKING HERE. Michael Polak will call the play-by-play.

Finally, here are tonight’s lineups:

Ducks
#24 Fehlandt Lentini – RF
#2   Cody Puckett – 2B
#20 Lew Ford – CF
#13 Adam Bailey – LF
#6   Bill Hall – DH
#25 Brendan Harris – 3B
#22 Joash Brodin – 1B
#23 Jan Vazquez – C
#30  Sergio Miranda – SS

#21  Jared Lansford – RHP

Revolution
#7   Justin Greene– RF
#21 Wilson Valdez – SS
#4   Eric Patterson – LF
#2   Chad Tracy – 1B
#17  Travis Garcia – 3B
#37  Bryant Nelson – DH
#11  Ofilio Castro – 2B
#34  Salvador Paniagua – C
#12  Sean Smith – CF

#16  Scott Gorgen – RHP

Stay tuned here for updates throughout the game as the Ducks look to snap their season-long seven-game losing streak.

UPDATE (5:31): TOP 1: Eric Patterson gives the Revolution the lead with a two-run home run. 2-0 York.

UPDATE (6:44): BOT 4: A pair of two-out RBI singles from Joash Brodin and Jan Vazquez tie the ballgame at two!

UPDATE (8:04): TOP 8: York regains a 3-2 lead on a two-out RBI double from Salvador Paniagua.

UPDATE (8:38): FINAL: York takes the series finale 3-2. Recap to follow shortly.