Bye Bye Vancouver

This will be the last post for three weeks so good luck to all the playoff contenders.

Vancouver continued their massive choke job, getting swept by Las Vegas and then losing the first two to Philadelphia by one-run margins. The Iron Fist have now lost five in a row and are four games out of the final playoff spot. Ben Sheets has been benched in favor of Rich Hill, but the squad is limited as far as how many changes they can make.

D.C. moved back into the sixth spot after defeating Hillsborough in two close 11-inning contests. Last night D.C. scored four runs in the 11th to win 9-5 and this morning won 3-2 on Frank Thomas' RBI single. D.C. is now up by two on the Hitmen with one more head to head game left.

Marietta has now won three in a row, including two straight against the Sugar Bears. The Mighty Men are very close to locking up a playoff spot and are in good shape to take the top wild card seed. Meanwhile, Newark's losses mean that they cannot break the record for most wins in a season (120, set by Arkansas) and at best, can finish with the second best record of all time - that is, if they don't lose anymore games.

D.C. ends streak, Vancouver chokes

Just a few notes before we get to the games. Tonight will be a double header, followed by an early game tomorrow morning. After that, game play will be kind of spotty, since I'll be in Romania. There will be a one-week absence at some point during next week. After tomorrow's blog post, there will be no more posts for 3 weeks, probably after the season is done. I am not sure how well I will be able to FTP from Romania, so it's possible that I may not be able to play the games until I get back. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Hoboken lost to Arkansas yesterday 11-5. Hanley Ramirez and Mike Napoli each had two errors, leading to the Cutters giving up a costly six unearned runs. Napoli, in particular, wore the goat horns today, considering he left the game due to injury in the second inning. Perhaps he was dying of shame? Dan Haren, meanwhile, held the Cutters in check, pitching six innings and surrendering only two runs while striking out ten.

Hoboken's loss gave the Sharks a chance to move up in the standings into fourth. The Sharks took full advantage with a 12-10 win over Carolina. Adrian Gonzalez had a huge day, going 4-5 with 5 RBIs. Jason Jennings once again was shelled - six runs in just 1/3 of an inning, making the shutout in his last outing a distant memory.

D.C. finally broke their losing streak with a 10-3 thrashing of Sardine City. John Maine gave the Slappers eight solid innings and Esteban German (5-6) and Alfonso Soriano (3-5 with 4 RBIs) provided the offense. The Slappers totalled 20 hits in the rout.

Hillsborough held off D.C. with a 9-0 win over Marietta. Felix Hernandez pitched seven innings of 3-hit ball and struck out seven to earn the win. Ryan Howard hit his 59th home run of the season and Robinson Cano was 4-5 with three runs scored.

Vancouver is pulling their biggest choke job after dropping their second straight game to Las Vegas. This time the Fist were pounded 11-2 and held in check by El Duque, Orlando Hernandez. Hernandez pitched seven innings and struck out eight, while surrendering only one run on four hits. Surely when Vancouver saw the Rats on their schedule they figured they had three easy wins, but now, they've dug themselves a hole and face the first-place Endzone Animals next.

Vancouver, D.C. fail to pick up ground

Things pretty much stayed the same yesterday in the playoff race. Vancouver and D.C. both failed to take advantage of inferior opponents and lost a chance to move up in the standings.

Vancouver lost 4-1 to the Rat Pack. Former Iron Fist Brett Myers continued his resurgence with a 7+ inning effort to improve his record to 9-16. If you remember, Myers started the season 0-12 and is now 9-4 since then.

Meanwhile D.C. lost a pitchers' duel to Sardine City, 2-1. Chris Capuano outduelled Kelvim Escobar. Capuano seemed to be somewhat lucky, surrendering 10 hits in 6.2 innings, but the Slappers failed to drive in any of the runners, save a solo home run from Jose Reyes. For D.C., it was their eighth loss in a row.

Hillsborough also failed to capitalize, getting pounded by Marietta 10-3. Justin Verlander was pounded for seven runs in 3.2 innings. Jorge Posada hit a home run and drove in three runs.

Hoboken was the only team to help themselves out yesterday, winning 6-3 over Arkansas. Scott Kazmir pitched 8.2 innings, holding the Falcons to three runs on five hits and striking out eight. The Cutters moved percentage points ahead of Honolulu into fourth place.

Endzone Animals clinch first-ever Division title

The Philadelphia Endzone Animals clinched a playoff spot with their first victory over Sardine City yesterday, then clinched the division with the second victory. It was the first division title for the Philadelphia franchise. The Endzone Animals started out by replacing the Lisbon Diabos back in 1998, going by the name the Philadelphia Eagle Wings. The Eagle Wings became the Endzone Animals in 2001. The Philadelphia teams struggled early on, but by the mid-2000s there was a glimmer of hope. Finally in 2005, the team finished with their first winning record and clinched their first playoff berth. They lost their series to Honolulu in five games. The Animals missed out on the playoffs last year, despite posting a winning record, but have been in control of the Morris Division for most of this season.

Things got tighter for the sixth spot over the weekend. Hillsborough is currently sitting in sixth, percentage points ahead of D.C. The Bushslappers, who were only a few games away from Marietta recently, are in freefall mode, losing their last seven games, including two losses to Honolulu on Sunday. The Sharks' bullpen shut out the Slappers 5-0 after starter Jason Schmidt was forced to leave after tweaking a muscle in the first inning. But the Shark pen held the Bushslappers to only 4 hits and struck out 11. In the second game, the Sharks were bailed out by scoring seven runs in the final three innings to win 8-4. Brian McCann hit two homers in the contest. The Sharks are now sitting in the fourth playoff spot, 2 1/2 games behind the Mighty Men.

Meanwhile Hillsborough and Hoboken split their Sunday games. Hillsborough took the first game 11-9 as Brad Hawpe drove in five runs and Juan Encarnacion hit a three-run homer. Hoboken rallied to take the second game 6-5. The Cutters were trailing by one in the ninth but Geoff Jenkins hit a solo homer to tie the game. Mike Cameron hit a double that scored Miguel Cabrera to win the game. Hoboken is now sitting comfortably in fifth, only a game out of fourth and 2 1/2 up on Hillsborough.

Vancouver and Jake Peavy shut down Marietta 5-1 to stay one game out of the final playoff spot. Peavy pitched six innings and held the Mighty Men to one run on four hits and Jason Bay was 4-5. Marietta has now lost five of their last six and begin a critical series with Hillsborough today.

Sharks take a bite out of Vancouver's playoff hopes

Hoboken finally lost, 8-0 to South Boston. Dontrelle Willis hurled 7 shutout innings, giving up only four hits and two walks. Vladimir Guerrero hit two homers and drove in four runs to give the Gang enough offense for the victory. The Cutters fell back into a fifth place tie.

Honolulu completed their sweep of Vancouver with a 12-7 smackdown yesterday. Ben Sheets was crushed for seven runs in two innings and Adrian Gonzalez went 3-5 with a homer and three RBIs. The Sharks moved into fourth place, while Vancouver's playoff hopes seem to be disappearing by the day.

Hillsborough defeated Las Vegas 4-1 to remain the top outsider, only 1/2 game back of sixth. D.C. was idle and remains tied with Hoboken for fifth. Justin Verlander pitched a complete game 3-hitter, surrendering only one unearned run to improve to 14-8 on the season.

Arkansas and Carolina remain somewhat alive in the playoff chase, both shutting out their opponents yesterday. Arkansas blanked Marietta for the second straight day, 4-0 behind Curt Schilling. Schilling allowed 10 hits but struck out 10 Mighty Men. Carolina meanwhile had an unlikely shutout from Jason Jennings, who had been getting smacked around this year. You may remember him giving up 20 runs to the Sugar Bears back on April 2nd and 13 runs on July 2nd to D.C. (maybe he shouldn't pitch on the second day of the month?). Jennings held the Sardines to four hits over nine innings.

Marietta, by the way, has now lost three in a row and is not sitting as comfortably at the top wild card seat. Luckily for them there is a lot of shuffling going on in the lower ranks. With Vancouver, Hillsborough, and Newark coming up next on their schedule, the Mighty Men will have to prove that they belong.

Mathews' cycle

Although the league doesn't officially track cycles, it is a rare feat. Sardine City's Gary Matthews became the first player since 2005 to hit for the cycle in yesterday's 11-1 pounding of the Mudcats. Matthews hit a single in his first at bat, getting the easy one out of the way. Matthews struck out in his second at bat (getting the 0-base hit?). In the fourth innings, Matthews hit a double that scored two runs. At this point the fans still didn't sense that anything special was going on... In the sixth inning, Matthews hit a two-run shot to left field to give the Sardines a 7-1 lead. But the hardest component of the cycle was still needed. Luckily for Matthews, Justin Speier threw a meatball down the plate that Matthews lined past center fielder Grady Sizemore that scored Freddy Sanchez. It looked like an easy double but Sizemore had trouble playing the carom off the wall and Matthews went for it and made it easily. Matthews ended the day 4-5 with 5 RBIs. Tom Glavine earned his 9th win of the season and his 169th career, moving him into a tie for sixth all-time with Kevin Brown.

The last player to hit for the cycle was Eric Chavez, then with Vancouver, in August of 2005. Chavez achieved the feat a few days after Albert Pujols did the same. There were actually three players to hit for the cycle that year - Las Vegas' Carl Crawford did it early in the season. The first player to hit for the cycle was Todd Hundley of Toledo in 1998.

Meanwhile in the playoff race, Hoboken won their fifth straight and moved into fourth place overall, while D.C. continued their slide and moved into a fifth-place tie with Honolulu. Hillsborough and Vancouver both suffered ill-timed losses. Hillsborough falls into seventh with the loss and Vancouver is now sitting 2 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot. Honolulu has now won seven of eight games against Vancouver this season.

Hoboken, Honolulu improve their position

Hoboken kept at it with a 5-0, 2-hit shutout of South Boston yesterday. Boof Bonser gave the Cutters 7.2 innings and struck out nine. Chris Duncan's three-run homer in the third gave the Cutters all the runs they needed. Hoboken moved into sole possession of fifth place, a half game ahead of idle Hillsborough.

Meanwhile Honolulu took game one against Vancouver by a 2-1 margin. Cliff Lee outduelled Jake Peavy to improve to 5-7. Honolulu moved into a virtual tie with the Hitmen, though Hillsborough is percentage points ahead of the Sharks. Vancouver slipped back to 1 1/2 games out.

Newark pounded the crap out of D.C. yesterday 18-0. Slapper fans criticized the Sugar Bears for beating up on the reanimated corpse of Josh Hancock (2 IP, 9 H, 8 ER), but Newark manager Don Mattingly pointed out that no one showed them any mercy when zombie Darryl Kile took the mound for them several years ago. Carlos Guillen was 4-5 in the game and Jim Edmonds and Nick Johnson each had four RBIs.

Hoboken wins while contenders falter

Hoboken continued their tear, winning 11-2 over the Mudcats. The win was the Cutters third in a row and their seventh of their last eight. John Garland evened his record at 12-12 while pitching 7.2 solid innings and Bill Hall was 2-3 with 2 RBIs and a homer. The win severely cripples the Mudcats' playoff hopes. Meanwhile Hoboken is dearly holding on to the sixth spot, though they are actually tied for fifth with Hillsborough. The Hitmen hold the tiebreaker over the Cutters.

It was not a good day for the other wild card contenders.

The Bushslappers continue to be caught in an unfortunately timed slump, losing 6-5 to Marietta. D.C. has now lost six of their last eight and are only 1 1/2 games up on sixth-place Honolulu. Honolulu meanwhile was smoked 10-5 by South Boston and Hillsborough was obliterated 11-1 by Newark. Only Vancouver could manage a victory yesterday - an 8-7 squeaker over Team Buddah.

Juan Cruz bounced back from his recent rough outing by pitching seven shutout innings against the Straphangers in yesterday's 4-0 victory. Cruz allowed six hits and two walks while striking out six to improve to 4-2 on the season.

Look for a new Numbers Crunch tonight.

Liriano-Santana battle heats up

Hillsborough has been steadily sliding down the standings and now sits a mere 1/2 game ahead of Honolulu in sixth place. The Sharks are holding a half a game lead on the Cutters, while Vancouver lingers just two games back of the Hitmen. Even D.C. could be bumped out of a playoff spot if they hit an extended slump. The Bushslappers are only 2 1/2 games up on the seventh-place Cutters and have been pretty shaky lately. So while the top three are pretty comfortable in their respective positions, the bottom three could change a number of times in the next few weeks.

Johan Santana won his 16th game last year, becoming the second in the DMBL to reach the mark. His teammate, Erik Bedard recorded his 16th win Thursday. Bedard will pitch today and try for win #17. Santana meanwhile has the best winning percentage in the DMBL at 16-2 (.889) and leads the league in strikeouts (222).

Santana's biggest competition for the Ben McDonald award, and arguably the favorite is Marietta's rookie Francisco Liriano. Liriano pitched a complete game one-hit shutout of D.C. yesterday to improve to 14-2 while striking out 14 and walking just one. Liriano currently leads the league with a 2.28 ERA (a full run lower than second-place Santana). Esteban German's double in the sixth was the only hit for D.C.

Wild Card race gets tighter

The playoff race got tighter yesterday. Honolulu beat Arkansas 12-7 thanks to big days from Miguel Tejada (4-5), Brian McCann (3-5, 4 RBIs), and Johnny Damon (3-5). The Sharks jumped all over Falcon starter Juan Cruz in the second inning, scoring seven runs. Cruz only surrendered three hits, but walked six batters in his 1 2/3 innings of work.

Meanwhile Hoboken won their fourth straight with a 12-6 win over D.C. The Slappers jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a six run third inning, but the Cutters crawled back and took the lead with a six-run inning of their own. Mike Jacobs and Chris Duncan each had 3 RBIs.

Finally, Vancouver dropped their opening game against Newark 6-2. Randy Johnson earned his 199th career victory. Johnson will be the fourth to reach 200 with his next victory and the third to achieve the feat this year. Curt Schilling of Arkansas is the next active player with 190 career wins, but it looks like he'll have to wait til next year. Newark also became the first team to win 100 games this season and the eighth time in the franchises twelve year history that they have hit the century mark.

So Vancouver fell out of a playoff spot and into eighth, a half a game behind Hoboken and Honolulu. Hoboken remains percentage points up on Honolulu, since the Sharks have played more games than the Cutters. D.C. remains one game up on Hillsborough for fourth place after the Hitmen dropped a 7-4 loss to the Sardines.

Mudcats mull over Zito fate

Barry Zito pitched six shutout innings as Carolina shut out the Buddahs 4-0. Zito, a longtime star for the Mudcats and former Listach award winner, has struggled for the Cats this year with a 7-15 record and 6.41 ERA. Zito's struggles have so alarmed the Mudcat ownership that they are thinking of not protecting the left hander next season, or at the least having him spend the season in AAA to regain his form. Zito has rebounded in the past after a horrible 2005 season in which he went 4-13 with a 7.10 ERA, but Mudcats pitching coach Sid Fernandez thinks a year off might do him some good.

Hoboken has gotten hot just when they needed to, winning three straight including yesterday's 7-4 win over D.C. John Garland pitched eight strong innings to improve to 11-12 and Chris Duncan had 3 RBIs and a homer to lead the Cutters offense. The Cutters have now moved into a 7th place tie with the idle Honolulu Sharks, just 1/2 a game out of the final playoff spot.

Philly's six-run eighth inning gave the Endzone Animals all they needed to defeat the Mighty Men 6-2. Francisco Liriano pitched a brilliant seven innings, limiting the Animals to only three hits and no runs but gave way to relievers Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. The usually reliable Rivera ended up giving up six straight hits and a walk before retiring the final out. Marietta has now lost three straight, but has not lost any ground, since D.C. has also lost three straight.

Reinforcements arrive for playoff rosters

Arkansas pounded out a 10-7 victory against D.C. yesterday. Justin Morneau had 4 RBIs and the Falcon bullpen pitched 4 1/3 innings to bail out starter Dan Haren. The Falcon Nation held their collective breaths as Kenny Lofton had to leave the game in the fifth inning, but the news out of Arkansas is that Lofton will return for the Falcons next game Thursday.

A 6-run fourth inning propelled the Hoboken Cutters to an 8-6 win over Marietta. Mike Napoli went 2-4 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs as the Cutters moved to within one game of the final wild card spot.

Philly doubled up South Boston 6-3, though Johan Santana just missed becoming the first 16 game winner this season. Santana pitched seven solid innings though he was trailing for much of the game until Philly rallied to tie it in the sixth.

Many teams shored up their rosters in anticipation of a playoff run. Newark signed a third catcher in Brian Schneider, while Hoboken picked up second baseman Jose Valentin. Philadelphia re-signed veteran Todd Walker who had filled in earlier in the season.