Loons 2014 Opening Day Preview

MIDLAND, Mich. - The Great Lakes Loons open their home season today at Dow Diamond while riding an offensive surge like few others in team history.

And with it brings the potential for Opening Day fireworks above and beyond the postgame Fireworks Loontacular.

The Loons, who take on the Cedar Rapids Kernels at 6:05 p.m., are coming off a four-game series in Fort Wayne in which they scored 34 runs and put together two seven-run innings in the process. Some teams can go an entire season without scoring seven runs in a single inning, much less twice in the same series.

Great Lakes won three of those games against the TinCaps, building a nice wave of momentum heading into this week's homestand. The Loons play Cedar Rapids today, Wednesday and Thursday, and face Quad Cities in a weekend series.
"We prepared well all spring and it showed (in Fort Wayne)," said Loons outfielder Malcolm Holland. "We're excited for the home opener and we want to continue what we've started."

Loons hitters were scheduled to square off against a former teammate today. Miguel Sulbaran, who appeared in 23 games for the Loons last year before being traded to the Minnesota Twins' organization in July, was scheduled to start for the Kernels.

But Sulbaran was traded to the Yankees' organization Monday night, and now the Loons will face right-hander Felix Jorge.

Jorge has made 24 minor league starts and has appeared in one game for the Kernels already this season, that being a one-inning relief stint. But now he'll take on the tough task of trying to cool off the league's hottest offense.

Besides scoring twice as many runs over their first four games as any other MWL team, the Loons also lead the league in slugging (.460) and OPS (.813). Their nine stolen bases rank second in the league.

"You could see it in the spring," said catcher Kyle Farmer. "Our coaches kept telling us to look for the fastball and hit the fastball, and that's been our approach. We made a lot of hard contact."

Great Lakes has four players who've driven in at least four runs - Joey Curletta (6), Jesmuel Valentin (5), Joey Chigbogu (5) and Paul Hoenecke (4). Hoenecke's .429 batting average leads the team, while Valentin, Brandon Trinkwon and Webster Rivas are all hitting .375.

Chigbogu echoed Farmer in that the Loons' fastball-first approach at the plate punished the Fort Wayne pitching staff.

"That's what we've been told to do - to look for the fastball and hit it hard," he said. "We prepared well the whole series."

"It does get contagious," added Holland. "We just kept the pressure on and you could see (the Kernels) start to get down, start to hang their heads a bit."

While the Loons offense was clicking, their pitching staff did more than hold up their end. They opened the season with a 9-0 win over Fort Wayne which included 16 strikeouts - 10 by starter Jonathan Martinez.

In all, Great Lakes pitchers struck out 39 hitters in the four-game series and walked only nine.

"You have to give a lot of credit to our pitching staff," Farmer said. "They really kept things in check. And I love catching Martinez. He had command of all three of his pitches and it made my job easy."

Today's starter is righthander Greg Harris, who makes his Loons debut. Harris, 19, pitched last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Rookie League team, going 2-3 in 10 games. He started seven games.

Harris is the son of former major league pitcher Greg Harris, one of four Dodgers with fathers who played in the MLB. The others are Valentin (whose father is Jose Valentin), Dillon Moyer (Jamie Moyer), and Alex Santana (Rafael Santana).

Cedar Rapids split its first four games at home against the Clinton LumberKings. The Kernels are managed by Jake Mauer, brother of Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Mauer.

A wide variety of activities are planned for today's Opening Day celebration, presented by Consumer's Energy, beginning with a parade through downtown Midland at 4:30 p.m. The parade will include Loons players and coaches, as well as the hilarious antics of Amazing Christopher.

The first 5,000 fans will receive a magnet schedule, courtesy of Farm Bureau Insurance. Following the game, fans will be treated to a post-game Fireworks Loontacular, powered by Dow Corning.