Three's a crowd for Gerber, Flying Tigers

Mike Gerber had some words of wisdom for his Flying Tigers teammate Joey Pankake at home plate after the former homered back-to-back with Kade Scivicque on Tuesday.

"I told him, 'Now it's your turn,'" Detroit's No. 4 prospect said. "And then he laughed."

But then Pankake did go yard, marking Lakeland's third straight home run in the opening frame en route to an 8-3 win over visiting Fort Myers. The trio of long balls came at the expense of Minnesota's No. 3 prospect Tyler Jay, who had not allowed a run since May 24 and had surrendered just two home runs all season.

After falling behind in the top of the inning, Lakeland wasted no time in regaining the advantage. With one out, No. 16 Tigers prospect A.J. Simcox doubled to right field. Scivicque, the Tigers' No. 18 prospect, stroked his second home run of the season to left. Gerber followed suit with his sixth tater of the year to left-center and Pankake clubbed his eighth to left complete the trifecta.

"We knew what was going on after those first two went out," Gerber said. "Only a few pitches later, Joey crushed it. It was really cool to see. I had never been a part of anything like that before in my career. I've seen it on television a bunch of times, but that's it. So it was pretty neat to be a part of something like that.

"In that situation, early in the game, we knew he liked to throw his fastball quite a bit. We knew he'd want to come right at us and not mess around. So after seeing Kade put a good swing on his homer, I simply tried to do the same and thankfully I was able to." 

Gerber singled again in the third for his fifth multi-hit effort in the last 10 games. He walked with the bases loaded in the fourth to plate Simcox, then struck out looking in the seventh. The 23-year-old has raised his average from .204 on May 17 to .251.

"It wasn't quite the start [to the season] that I wanted," the Creighton product said. "But I've been working on things and I'm finally feeling more comfortable at the plate. That's led to me squaring more balls up and ultimately more success."

So what will Lakeland's triumvirate do for an encore? Can four straight homers be in their future?

"That would be nice," Gerber quipped. "We'll see. We'll see."

Despite having a 6-2 lead, Lakeland starter Artie Lewicki was unable to earn the win. Detroit's No. 20 prospect surrendered three runs on seven hits while striking out seven over four innings. Malvin Martinez (1-0) gave up one hit and a walk while striking out four in 2 2/3 shutout innings to pick up the victory.

Jay (5-5) was charged with a season-high six runs on eight hits and a pair of walks with three strikeouts in three innings.

Minnesota's No. 4 prospect Nick Gordon raced for an RBI triple for Fort Myers.