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.