Don't masquerade with the guy in shades oh no

Bonds was at it again yesterday, hitting his fifth homer of the week against Las Vegas, but it wasn't enough. The Rat Pack held on for a 7-6 victory despite a scare in the ninth. Ryan Zimmerman was 4-5 with 4 RBIs in the game and Anthony Reyes improved to 4-10 despite zero strikeouts, a 2.00 WHIP and four earned runs in six innings.

Vancouver snapped their seven game slide by beating Philadelphia 3-2. Chris Carpenter had his best start since being acquired by the Iron Fist - a complete game yielding only four hits and two runs, with seven strikeouts. The effort was only the second complete game of the season for Vancouver. Sardine City is the only team not to have a complete game all season and there are two teams that have only one on the year.

When Corey Hart was released by Las Vegas back on May 12th, Hart was devastated. Hart was drafted in round four and expected to be a big part of the team's plans. Hart was only hitting .212 when he was released but he did have 4 RBIs in his last game with the club. Vegas told him "It ain't enough". "I gave it everything in my heart" said Hart soon after. Hart was ready to give up his baseball career, but he remembered his personal motto to "Never Surrender". So as Hart walked home that night, he threw on his sunglasses and said "You got it made with the guy in shades oh no". Las Vegas decided that they had made a mistake and resigned the rookie. GM Eric Wickstrom called up Hart and told him "I am by your side". Hart was reportedly so happy that he was "dancing with his mirror".

Liriano-no? Almost

Yesterday was a light day - there were only four games.
Brett Myers was solid again yesterday, only allowing one earned run in 6.2 innings, but still lost, dropping to 0-12 on the season. That sort of thing tends to happen when your opponent almost throws a no-hitter against you! Francisco Liriano held the Rat Pack hitless over eight but, after walking the leadoff batter in the ninth, manager Graig Nettles pulled Liriano for specialist Chad Qualls, who promptly gave up the first hit of the game to Marcus Giles. Mariano Rivera came in to shut the door, but gave up a three-run homer to Ryan Zimmerman. Suddenly the lead was very shaky, but Rivera retired the next three batters in order. Liriano was upset that he didn't get to go for the no-no, but after 118 pitches and a DL stint recently in his past, Nettles wasn't going to take any chances. Liriano finished the night 8 IP, 1 ER, 0 hits, 3 walks, and 11 Ks.

Randy Johnson mowed down the Mudcats, limiting them to two runs over six innings and striking out nine. Johnson improved to 7-2 on the season and is now only 27 strikeouts away from 3000 and seven wins from 200 for his career.

D.C. edged Philadelphia after dropping the first two games against the Animals. Alfonso Soriano was 3-4 with two homers and three RBIs. Adam LaRoche had four RBIs in a losing cause.

The Sharks pounded away on Cole Hamels and the Straphangers. Hamels was not pitching badly, but left with an undisclosed injury in the fifth. Hamels picked up the loss and is now 2-10 on the season, but will miss at least two weeks. No word on who his replacement will be. Meanwhile, Kenny Rogers had a solid outing after returning from AAA to replace the injured Roy Oswalt. Rogers pitched 8.2 innings while surrendering only one earned run.

Blog Bits: In case you missed it, Greg Maddux's last start put him over 3000 innings for his career... Mike Piazza passed Edgar Martinez (1949) for eighth all-time on the hits list. Piazza now has 1950. Tony Gwynn is next with 1960.

Bonds heats up

The Holiday weekend certainly was good to Arkansas' Barry Bonds. Bonds smacked two homers in a 12-4 drubbing of South Boston and then hit two more in the second game, a 10-8 loss. Bonds now has 20 homers on the season.

Johan Santana became the first 10 game winner in the DMBL, improving to 10-1 on the season as Philly shut down D.C. 12-2 in the first game fo their doubleheader yesterday. Santana pitched seven innings, allowing only four hits and two runs, while striking out seven. Santana is the current leader for the coveted Pitcher's Triple Crown (10 wins, 2.57 ERA, and 128 Ks). Jimmy Rollins continues to be an asset for the Endzone Animals, 2 RBIs in game one, and 3-5 in game two. Rollins is now batting .438 in four games with Philly, with 4 doubles, one homer, 4 RBIs, 2 stolen bases, and 1.375 OPS.

Las Vegas' Chone Figgins had two stolen bases against Marietta in the second game of their doubleheader. The first was his 100th of his career.

Vancouver dropped their seventh straight yesterday, losing both ends of the doubleheader with Hillsborough. Their offense has been shut down by Hillsborough and Arkansas, while their pitching couldn't hold the powerful Newark offense in check in the games before. "If we score a lot, we give up a lot, if we hold them, we can't score" said manager Darren Daulton. Vancouver next faces Philadelphia Wednesday, then plays a three-game set with D.C. and another three with Honolulu. "We better get our act together" Daulton continued "or we're in a lot of trouble."

First-place trade

Big trade yesterday between the two first place teams. Newark gave up Jimmy Rollins and Brandon Lyon and Philly gave up their second round pick and Rafael Soriano. Rollins immediately took over for the injured David Eckstein and started contributing: 1-3 with a stolen base in game one and 2-4 with a homer in game 2. Eckstein may return from the DL and find that he has no job left. In fact Eck's locker was temporarily moved to the janitor's closet when Rollins arrived. "They got no respect for me. Don't they know that I'm a scrappy fan favorite?" said Eckstein.

Pedro Martinez shutout Vancouver this morning on three hits, beating fellow legend Greg Maddux. Pedro improved to 9-3 on the season. Maddux and Pedro rank #1 and 2 on the all-time wins list. By the way, the loss was Vancouver's fifth in a row, sending them into fifth place overall.

Manny Ramirez's double in yesterday's game against Vancouver was his 400th, becoming only the sixth player in DMBL history to reach the feat. He is only a few behind Jeff Bagwell (406) and Larry Walker (407), both retired, so expect Manny to climb ahead to fourth by the end of the year. The all-time leader is Edgar Martinez (493).

Don't forget, we'll be off for the weekend and return Monday with a doubleheader.

Underrated Overbay

D.C.'s Lyle Overbay has been red-hot lately. After hitting a walk-off grand slam yesterday, Overbay continued his hot hitting with a 4-5 night against Hoboken yesterday, including two more homers. Overbay is now 7-9 with 3 HRs and 6 RBIs in his last two games.

Nomar Garciaparra barely got his glove dusted off before he was forced to leave last night's game with another injury. The first injury kept Garciaparra out for a month and this one may be close to that long. Once again, Shea Hillenbrand and Troy Glaus will fill in for Nomar.

Another more harmful loss was Honolulu's Roy Oswalt, who will miss a month with his injury. Kenny Rogers, who was recently demoted, will fill in for Oswalt. Oswalt was struggling a bit this season (5-5, 5.31) and the time off may help him.

Brett Myers was looking to take another loss yesterday despite an excellent performance, but his offense bailed him out. Myers had limited South Boston to five hits over 8.2 innings, surrendering only two runs and striking out five. However, he was locked in a duel with the Gang's Nate Robertson, who had not given up any runs at that point. Robertson was going for the complete game shutout, but the Rat Pack had something else in mind. Robertson allowed singles to the first two batters he faced and then newly-signed Endy Chavez came through with a double that scored one. Huston Street was brought in to close the game. After an intentional walk to create a force situation, Street gave up a sac fly to tie the game, then, with two outs, Chone Figgins roped a single into right to score the winning run.

Newark and Vancouver slugged it out last night through eleven innings. The game went back and forth until Nick Johnson won it with a two-run homer in the eleventh. Manny Ramirez also hit two homers (one of which tied the game at 11) and was 4-6 with 3 RBIs. Billy Wagner blew his eighth save for Vancouver.

Note tonight there will be a double header followed by an early morning game tomorrow. There will be no games on Saturday and Sunday.

Backman's Blunder

The Cutters and Jon Garland were cruising to a 1-0 victory yesterday over the Bushslappers, when they hit a bit of a snag. Manager Wally Backman decided that after Garland let Carl Crawford reach on a single that it would be time to go to the pen. Garland had pitched brilliantly, allowing only 4 hits and one walk, but he was already at 115 pitches. Backman went to Juan Rincon to close the game for some reason. Rincon walked two of the next three batters and served up the grand slam to Lyle Overbay. Game over. So where was Izzy? The Hoboken closer had not pitched in the last two days so he should have been available. "We did not feel that the matchup suited Izzy's talents" said Backman after the game. "Juan had expressed a desire to close, so we gave him one."

Newark roughed up Vancouver's pitching yesterday 18-6. Five of the six pitchers gave up runs and Wes Littleton was lost for two weeks. "A bullpen shakeup is coming" said pitching coach Erik Hanson. Alan Embree was signed off the waiver wire to fill in. "We needed a lefty to help us through the Newark series" said manager Darren Daulton.

Vlad Guerrero and Jim Edmonds recently drove in their 1000th career run. They became just the 17th and 18th in DMBL history to achieve the feat. Next on the list is Honolulu's Jason Giambi at 948. Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado (930) would need a big year to do it this season. New Jersey's Mike Piazza moved further up the list, tying Gary Sheffield at fifth with his 1263rd RBI last night. Juan Gonzalez holds the #4 spot at 1283, so we may have another Piazza update soon.

Black Magic Pitchers

It was a battle of Santanas yesterday in Arkansas. Guitarist Carlos Santana played the National Anthem and former wrestler Tito Santana threw out the first pitch. It was Johan Santana that came out on top however. The Philly hurler threw a complete game 4-hit shutout and struck out seven Falcons. Johan improved to 9-1 on the season. It was not a good day for Ervin Santana, however. The Falcon starter threw seven innings, giving up five runs on 10 hits to lower his record to 3-8.

Marietta's Mike Mussina picked up a win against New Jersey yesterday. Mussina struck out nine in eight innings. Mussina (1871) passed Kevin Brown (1868) for seventh on the all-time strikeout list.

Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia was impressive in his second game back from injury. C.C. limited the Mudcats to only three hits and two runs in a complete game effort. Sabathia improved to 4-2 on the year. In the game, Ryan Howard hit two homers (25 and 26) to take the league lead in homers and drove in 5 runs (Howard is third in RBIs).

D.C.'s winning streak came to an abrupt end as South Boston shellacked the Bushslappers 10-2. Despite the fact that South Boston was missing starters David Roberts and Alex Rios, the Gang exploded. Adrian Beltre, starting for one game for Rios, went 3-3 and Dan Uggla hit a three-run homer, while Dontrelle Willis won for just the third time on the season. After starting off 1-8, Willis has now won his last two starts.

Slap Happy

The Bushslappers are on a roll. The Slappers have now won six in a row and 10 of 11 and are sitting in fifth place overall, 1 1/2 games behind Honolulu. D.C. lost closer Jonathan Papelbon over the weekend and the effect was felt in their most recent game. With an 8-3 lead in the ninth, Joe Nathan and Dan Wheeler proceeded to blow the game and surrendered five runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie it at 8 and send the game to extra innings. Finally in the 12th, Jose Reyes bailed them out with a triple and was sac flied by Matt Holliday. Papelbon will miss around two weeks.

When David Eckstein went down with injury in Sunday's game against Arkansas, everyone was sure that Philadelphia GM Anthony Pucci would have Khalil Greene's number handy. Greene had recently been cut by the Animals, but the club decided to go with Bobby Crosby instead, opting to sign Scott Baker instead of Greene. "I already had my ticket to Philly in hand when I saw the news on Sportscenter" said a heartbroken Greene. "I just can't believe he would do that to me!" Crosby, a former Arkansas Golden Falcon is 2-4 so far in the two games since Eckstein's injury.

Look for a new This Week in the DMBL article later tonight.

Initial Results

Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia made his first appearance since injuring himself a month ago. Sabathia was solid in his return (6.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 K), but lost to a superior A.J. Burnett in a battle of the initials. A.J. scattered three hits and one earned run in eight innings and struck out eight Hitmen. Mariano Rivera closed out the ninth for his sixth save. Incidentally, Hillsborough released outfielder Juan Pierre to make room for Sabathia. Pierre was struggling this season, but had been a member of the organization and was a regular since 2003.

Speaking of initials, trade talks are heating up in Sardine City as B. J. Ryan has been hotly pursued. Rumors are running wild, but possible fits are Marietta and Hoboken, the latter's bullpen being a disaster so far this season.

The Weekend Ahead: The Brett Myers watch continues Saturday as the much-maligned pitcher looks to end his winless streak against Vancouver. Philly and Newark take turns throwing each others' Johnsons at each other. Randy goes for Newark Friday and Josh starts Saturday for Philly. Newark faces second-place Honolulu after the Philly games. If Newark survives unscathed from the two series, there may be no stopping them.

The DMBL All-Star ballot is now posted so make sure you vote!

Mighty Michael Young

The Mudcats ended Newark's 11 game winning streak yesterday behind the power of Rocco Baldelli. Baldelli hit two homers and drove in four to help the Cats stop the Sugar Bears 7-4. Starter Carlos Zambrano was shaky despite the 6-2 lead handed him. Zambrano walked nine in 4.2 innings, though he only allowed two hits. The bullpen, which had been so awful just one night earlier, proceeded to shut down the Sugar Bears. Almost all of the culprits from Tuesday's debacle contributed to the victory - David Weathers got the W and Scott Linebrink got the save, while Fuentes had to settle for a hold.

Vancouver's Michael Young decided to put his team on his back and carry them to victory singlehandedly. Young was 2-4 with 2 homers and drove in all 6 runs for the Fist, including a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth to give the team the lead. "I'm sick and tired of these chumps not hitting" said Young after the game. Vancouver only managed five hits in the game. Starter Greg Maddux, who pitched seven solid innings but got a no-decision, now stands at 2991 innings in his career.

Things got wild in Hoboken yesterday as the Cutters eked out a 12-11 victory over New Jersey. The Cutters got off to a quick 8-0 lead after three, but the Buddahs were not done. Team Buddah scratched and clawed to bring the lead down to 8-7, but the Cutters scored three more in the bottom of the seventh to open up an 11-7 lead. The Buddahs then rallied in the top of the eighth to tie the game at 11. After holding the Buddahs in the top of the ninth, the Cutters looked to be in position to win the game after two straight singles to lead off the ninth. But Mike Cameron hit into a double play, clouding the chances for the Cutters. Omar Vizquel came through, however, and singled in the winning run. Ichiro had his second straight 4-hit game and Mike Piazza also had four hits and moved into ninth place all-time with his 1942nd career hit.

Sugar Bears mount comeback for 11th straight

The Sugar Bears squeaked out a 10-9 victory over Carolina yesterday for their 11th win in a row. Marlon Anderson once again led the way with a 4-4 line and Carlos Guillen hit two solo home runs. The Mudcats actually led the game 9-3 entering the eighth inning, but then all hell broke loose. Chipper Jones led off the inning with a solo homer, then Super Marlon hit a double, followed by a single and a walk. Scott Linebrink was called in to stop the rally, but instead walked in the fifth run for the Sugar Bears. He struck out the next batter, but gave up a two run single to Jim Edmonds. The closer was now needed. Brian Fuentes came in with the score 9-7 with runners on first and second, facing the red-hot Manny Ramirez (this week's Hitter of the Week). Manny took Fuentes deep to left center and gave the Sugar Bears the 10-9 lead and the win.

Hoboken was crushed by New Jersey 14-3 yesterday. Yuniesky Betancourt and Adam Kennedy, those two powerhouse offensive stars, each had four hits, including 4 RBIs from Betancourt. Ichiro Suzuki also had four hits. The only home run came from Hoboken's Chris Duncan. The Cutters did not help themselves out in the game at all. Hoboken committed five errors, including two by Duncan (who must have tried to make it up with the homer), though they only resulted in two unearned runs.

Las Vegas' quest to turnover their entire bullpen is now almost complete. After Vegas cut Taylor Tankersley yesterday, only one member of the opening day bullpen remains: closer Chris Ray. Tankersley ran his ERA up to 9.10 and deserved the exile, but Will Ohman, Juan Cruz, and Ricky Nolasco were wondering what they did to deserve their fates. Meanwhile, the newest addition to the Vegas pen, Ryan Franklin, earned his first save of the season yesterday against Marietta.

Josh Barfield was happy to return to the Straphangers clubhouse yesterday. The second baseman was activated from the DL yesterday after the club insisted that he get some additional rehabilitation time in AAA Brooklyn. "We wanted him to be a 110% for the Honolulu series" said manager Bucky Dent.

The Schmidt hits the fan

Another fine outing from Honolulu's Jason Schmidt yesterday. The Sharks provided plenty of run support, scoring seven runs in the first inning and another two in the second. Vegas starter Anthony Reyes surrendered all nine runs in his 2.2 innings pitched. Reyes, whose ERA keeps rising and rising is now standing at 8.13 - almost Brett Myers territory. Schmidt, on the other hand, pitched six shutout innings, allowing only six hits and one walk, while striking out six. Schmidt improves to 9-2 on the season, becoming the first nine-game winner in the DMBL.

The Sugar Bears pounded away on Hoboken again last night. Leading the way, none other than Marlon Anderson. Anderson was 3-4 with 4 runs and 7 RBIs. This marks the third time in four tries that the Sugar Bears have scored more than ten runs against the Cutters. Hoboken has now lost five in a row and has fallen one game below .500.

Sardine City's Josh Barfield has been sitting on the disabled list all weekend, waiting to be activated. The team doctors have pronounced Barfield fit to play as early as Saturday, but ownership has not activated him yet. Maybe it has something to do with Julio Lugo heating up over the last few games. Lugo is now batting .293 during his stint with the Straphangers. Barfield only hit .255 so far this year. "If they want to keep Julio, then cut me, man!" said an irate Barfield in an interview yesterday. But clubhouse officials are mum about the reasons for keeping Barfield on the DL. "We're not taking any chances with Josh, especially not when our club is hot" said second base coach Willie Randolph. When reminded that the team is actually in a three-game skid and lost six of seven, Randolph retorted "whatever, we got too many coaches on this team anyway."

Manny Happy Returns

When Manny Ramirez hit his 23rd homer of the year yesterday against New Jersey, it tied him with Mike Piazza for #6 on the all-time list. It was Ramirez's 394th homer of his career. Ramirez also is sitting at 397 doubles for his career. When Ramirez hits 400 in both categories he will be only the second player (Barry Bonds being the first) to accomplish the feat.

Speaking of Newark, the Sugar Bears are now on a 9-game winning streak that has opened up a 9 1/2 game lead over the Honolulu Sharks for first in the Hanover Division. The Sugar Bears won an interesting 6-0 game yesterday in extra innings against New Jersey. Randy Johnson and Tom Gorzelanny started the game for their respective teams, but the offenses couldn't score any runs. Gorzelanny's earlier effort should be noted. The rookie held the league's mightiest offense to a mere two hits in nine innings of work. Gorzelanny walked six but allowed no runs in his effort. After pitching his nine innings, Gorzelanny was lifted in favor of Todd Jones. Jones immediately gave up two singles, then a sacrifice bunt, and then two more singles before being lifted in favor of Mike Wuertz who gave up the Manny Ramirez three-run homer to give the Sugar Bears a 6-0 lead.

One of the hottest teams has been the D.C. Bushslappers. With yesterday's 3-1 victory over Vancouver, the Bushslappers have finally reached the .500 mark for the first time this season. The Slappers have won 3 in a row and 12 of their last 14 games. John Maine improved to 6-1 on the season by holding the Iron Fist to one run on three hits and striking out 8 in 8 innings.

Tanking Tankersley

The Sugar Bears swept the Rat Pack with a 16-2 pounding yesterday. The Sugar Bears outscored the Rats 35-8 in the three game series. This time it Taylor Tankersley getting his final season numbers ruined. Tank gave up 9 runs on two hits and 7 walks in only 1/3 or an inning. Mark Teahen, the only out recorded by Tankersley - a strikeout victim no less, should feel like the biggest loser. "I guess I should have taken a pitch or two" said Teahen after the game with tears in his eyes. "Even little girls and grandmas were making fun of me." Tankersley also threw a wild pitch and hit a batter in the inning. It was the Sugar Bears sixth straight win and the Rat Pack's seventh straight loss.

Jason Schmidt was on top of his game yesterday as he mowed down the Hoboken Cutters to the tune of 12 strikeouts in 7 innings. The Sharks won the game 9-2 and are sitting alone in third place overall, 1/2 a game up on Vancouver. Schmidt becomes the first pitcher to reach eight victories this season.

Schmidt wasn't the only pitcher mowing down batters yesterday. South Boston's Aaron Harang also K'ed 12 Vancouver players en route to a 9-1 victory.

Wallowing in the Myers

Brett Myers, what's the matter, pal? Are you upset with the Rat Pack or something? Do you want to be traded? It's ok, you can tell me... Brett Myers was smacked around again, this time by the Sugar Bears, surrendering 13 runs in 6 1/3 innings. Myers is now at 0-11, the worst start in DMBL history. His 10.62 ERA is the worst among all regular DMBL starters. Myers' team isn't helping him at all. His 3.2 run support per game is horrendous. The Vegas pen is one of the worst in the league. But it all doesn't explain the poundings that Myers takes game after game.

It all started innocently enough. In his first start Myers was not good, but it wasn't horrible either - 6.2 IP, 4 earned runs. But it kept climbing, little by little...5 runs in 6 IP, 7 runs in 6 IP, 7 runs in 4.2 IP! Myers seemed to be coming back to earth in his sixth start against New Jersey, but then he got blasted in his next three starts against Vancouver, Marietta and Hoboken. In those three starts, Myers was 0-3 with a 20.25 ERA and 3.28 WHIP! Look at those numbers in their raw form: 10 2/3 innings, 30 hits, 24 earned runs, 5 walks! Ouch.

"I just need to get that one win under my belt and I'll be OK" said Myers after the game yesterday. "I don't think the team has any confidence in me anymore."

We'll be keeping a watch on Myers in his next start - Sunday against Honolulu and Jered Weaver.

Gang trades Carpenter

In case you missed it last night, the South Boston Gang traded star pitcher Chris Carpenter to Vancouver for Prince Fielder. South Boston had been in negotiations with Marietta as well, but decided to fill the gaping hole at first base instead. The Gang, who had tried out Ty Wigginton and Dan Johnson at first base the past two years, needed a fixture at the position vacated when the club did not protect Mike Sweeney a few years back. Fielder who was drafted twice by Vancouver and is finally playing in his first year in the DMBL lost his starting job to fellow rookie Conor Jackson. "Although we think Prince will be a tremendous player in the future, we felt like we needed to go for it all" said Vancouver owner Yaro Zajac. South Boston has announced that more changes are possible. The Gang has a lot of depth at the middle infield positions and could deal some of those players. Meanwhile, Vancouver has sent Jake Peavy off to AAA Tacoma to work out his kinks and to make room for Carpenter. Carpenter will start tonight's game against - who else? - South Boston.

The Golden Falcons broke their losing streak yesterday by edging Carolina 7-6. The Falcons won despite only 7 hits thanks to 8 walks issued by the Cats' pitching staff and a 5-run eighth inning...oh, and no Brad Lidge in the game.

Sardine City won a close pitchers' duel last night in Marietta. Rookie phenom Francisco Liriano took his first loss off the year despite only allowing 2 runs in 8 innings. Chris Capuano pitched a gem for the Straphangers - 6 IP, 4 H, 8 K, 0 runs - and the bullpen shut the door on the Mighty Men.

Newark's Randy Johnson closed in on two giant milestones last night. Johnson pitched six innings allowing only three hits and an unearned run. With the win, he now has 6 wins on the season and 192 in his career. With Newark's powerhouse offense behind him, Johnson should hit the 200-mark some time over the summer. His two strikeouts also move him closer to 3000 for his career. Johnson is now only 52 Ks away from the mark. It's possible that the Unit will hit both milestones in the same start, so stay tuned...

Another Sugar Blowout

Newark pounded the Falcons 26-6 yesterday. It was the third time this season that the Sugar Bears scored 20 or more runs. Bobby Abreu tied the record for most runs scored in a game with six. The record is held by three other players, most recently by Carlos Delgado, then of Vatican City, against Philadelphia back in June of 2000. Jim Edmonds and Nick Johnson each had 6 RBIs. The Sugar Bears had 24 hits and were walked 13 times. Starter Javier Vazquez got the run support, but couldn't make it out of the fifth inning. Scot Shields got the win in relief to improve to 3-0. Falcons starter Ervin Santana was charged with 16 earned runs in 4.2 innings (yes he outlasted Vazquez!) with 8 walks and one strikeout. Brad Lidge was awful again, surrendering six earned runs on five hits and five walks in just 2/3 of an inning. That's the second time in a week's span that saw Lidge fall completely apart (the last time being in Santana's previous start against Honolulu). Lidge now has a 13.50 ERA on the season. It was the sixth loss in a row for the Falcons.

The Bushslappers kept their streak intact, winning their fourth straight against Las Vegas, 4-3. The Slappers are now only three games under .500. John Maine improved to 5-1 despite a ho-hum effort and Alex Gonzalez went 3-4 in his final game replacing Jose Reyes.

Jeremy Bonderman pitched a gem for the Hired Hitmen, but didn't factor into the decision as Hillsborough dropped their game to New Jersey 3-2 in 13 innings. Bonderman pitched 8 innings, allowing only one run on three hits while striking out nine. Reliever Takashi Saito blew the save opportunity in the ninth and Chad Cordero took the loss in the 13th when Luis Vizcaino walked the bases loaded.

Jorge Posada was 5-5 for Marietta in a losing effort to Carolina. Posada hit two homers and drove in three runs, but it wasn't enough as the Mudcats outslugged the Mighty Men 10-8.

Welcome back!

This is a good week for the doctors as a lot of players will make their returns from injuries.

Jose Contreras returns for Team Buddah who has been suffering with Matt Morris in the rotation. Morris has given up 13 runs in his two starts and is 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA on the season. New Jersey also gets Nomar Garciaparra back at the end of the week after almost a month. The Buddahs have somehow stayed on the brink of contention and this ought to help a bit, if they can avoid any further injuries.

Jose Reyes returns for D.C. just in time to ride their recent hot streak. D.C. has won three in a row and eight of their last ten to move up to ninth place overall. Reyes was replaced in the lineup by Alex Gonzalez who batted a solid, though empty .286 with 5 runs and 5 RBIs in seven games.

Hillsborough will get Alex Rodriguez back and it couldn't come any sooner. The Hired Hitmen have been in a slump, losing two in a row after a three-game winning streak ended a seven game losing streak. Nick Punto had taken over for Rodriguez at third base and was also adequate, batting .429 (9-21) over the seven games with 4 runs scored and an RBI, but again, it was pretty empty - all nine hits were singles.

Catcher Mike Napoli should rejoin the Cutters later in the week. Josh Bard has been taken out of his DH role and backup Yorvit Torrealba (0-7) was signed to give Bard a rest.

Finally Sardine City will be happy to welcome Josh Barfield back after enduring Julio Lugo's miserable offense (.214 AVG, .464 OPS). If you take out Lugo's 4-5 game against Hillsborough, he's hist an even more atrocious .135 (5-37)! Sardine City has already gotten a red carpet out in preparation for Barfields return. Lugo is likely to be released for the fourth time this season.

Bad day for pitchers

Two teams were crushed yesterday at home. Honolulu routed the Golden Falcons 18-5. Brian McCann had two homers and five RBIs and Jeff Francis improved to 7-1 on the season. Falcons starter Ervin Santana lasted just 2 innings and gave up six runs, but the real damage was done by reliever Brad Lidge, who surrendered eight earned runs, in addition to allowing both of his inherited runners to score. Lidge and Santana combined to walk eight batters and surrendered eight hits and 14 earned runs in 3.1 innings.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the Sugar Bears pounded the Iron Fist to a 17-5 tune. Nick Johnson was 4-6 with 6 RBIs and three homers and Manny Ramirez was 4-5 with one homer. Starter Ben Sheets was ripped apart - 1.2 IP, 6 ER, 6 hits. Vancouver also allowed six unearned runs in the contest. Javier Vazquez was the beneficiary of the run support and improved to 4-2 by limiting the Fist to three hits over six innings, though he did issue five walks.

New Jersey's recent acquisition Matt Guerrier pitched in his first game for Team Buddah and was impressive in 5.1 innings, surrendering no runs and four hits, while striking out three. It wasn't enough because starter Brad Penny was shelled (6 runs, eight hits in 1.2 innings).

Want more starter shellings? How about D.C.'s John Maine who gave up six runs and eight hits in two innings against Hoboken? At least Maine didn't get a loss as the Bushslappers came back to win the game.

How about Sardine City's Tom Glavine who gave up five runs and five hits in two innings in a loss to Hillsborough? The Straphangers ended up using eight pitchers in the game, including Brandon Claussen who was the team's emergency starter earlier in the year.

So did anyone pitch well yesterday? Las Vegas' Chris Young pitched seven scoreless innings against South Boston in picking up the win to improve to 4-4. Young struck out 10 Gangsters. Speaking of Las Vegas, Brett Myers will try to break the hex over him tonight as he tries to win his first game of the season. Myers is currently 0-9 on the year with a 10.38 ERA. "If he doesn't turn things around, I may send him to the pen next year" said team owner Eric Wickstrom.

More Morneau for Arkansas

Arkansas' Justin Morneau had two homers to lead the Falcons to a 10-3 victory over Las Vegas. Morneau now has 19 homers on the season and leads the DMBL in that category. Morneau is also sitting in fourth in batting average (.355) and third in RBIs (46) and is looking like an early Mitchell Award candidate.

Marietta finally put the brakes on the Newark Sugar Bears' 6-game winning streak yesterday. The Mighty Men outslugged the Sugar Bears 10-6 thanks to former Sugar Bear Jim Thome's 5 RBIs.

Hillsborough is now officially in free-fall mode after dropping their seventh straight game yesterday. The loss of A-Rod for the week is not going to help, but playing their next two series against Sardine City and New Jersey might. D.C. squeaked by with a 6-4 victory yesterday and is now only a game and a half behind the Hitmen. After a rough start, the Bushslappers are finally starting to look alive, winning six of their last eight.

The second part of Phil Plantier's Rookie Watch is up on the site. This time he looks at the Hanover Division rookies.

Wagner blows

Well by now everyone knows that Alex Rodriguez's consecutive games streak is over at 1054 games. The streak started back in 2000, lasted through four ownership changes, a position change from shortstop to third base, and several playoff appearances. Honolulu's Miguel Tejada now holds the longest current streak at 930 games. Nick Punto will replace A-Rod for now, unless another replacement is signed off the waiver wire.

Billy Wagner had his 50th career blown save and sixth of the season. Wagner inherited a 6-3 lead in the ninth inning, but Wagner was wild. Wagner walked the first two batters he faced, then hit Reed Johnson, then threw a wild pitch. Wagner allowed three runs to score, all without a single base hit and left the bases loaded. Chris Britton was brought in and got Vernon Wells to line out, but the winning run scored on the sacrifice.

Perhaps in the most unlikely pitchers duel of the season, Carolina's Jason Jennings and South Boston's Dontrelle Willis battled it out for eight innings before Ramon Hernandez broke the tie with an RBI-single. Jennings lowered his ERA to 7.69 and Willis to 8.55.

Grief too much to bear for Reyes

Perhaps no one was affected by the news of Josh Hancock's demise more than teammate Jose Reyes. Reyes tried to play through the pain yesterday, but after legging out a double in the top of the 10th, Reyes asked to be taken out of the game. "I just couldn't go on pretending nothing was wrong" said Reyes after the game. Despite the fact that Hancock pitched in the game, and pitched well (2.1 IP, 0 runs), Reyes still opted out. "Maybe it was seeing him out there, a lifeless shell of what he was, that pushed him over the edge" said manager Kevin Elster. Reyes will take the rest of the week off to grieve. When asked to comment on the situation, the Josh Hancock zombie could only respond "brains....".

Meanwhile in Vancouver, Granderson-mania is running wild. The recently recalled rookie was 2-2 last night with a triple, raising his average to .800! Granderson has been subbing for the injured J.D. Drew. Granderson was so excited that he had to leave the game last night and will probably be rested tonight against lefty Johan Santana.

Hoboken's Vicente Padilla improved to 5-0 yesterday after an impressive 7 inning start in which he limited the Straphangers to two runs on eight hits and three walks. Padilla struck out seven.

Jered Weaver made his return from injury yesterday and looked good despite not factoring into the decision. Weaver pitched 8 innings, allowing 9 hits and 4 runs (2 earned), one walk and eight strikeouts. Reliever Tom Gordon blew the save for Weaver after the Sharks went up by one on a three-run ninth inning, but Gordon couldn't hold on to the lead and Team Buddah scored two to win the game on a Jacques Jones RBI-single in the ninth.