Sugar Bears draw first blood

The second round kicked off yesterday with the Sugar Bears hosting the Endzone Animals. Philly jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning, culminating with Adam Dunn's two-RBI double. Jack Cust then tied it all up at 3-3 in the third with a two-run homer. Things then started to fall apart for the Animals. The next inning, the first two Sugar Bears reached base and then Johan Santana threw a wild pitch which advanced both runners into scoring position. After getting Yadier Molina to pop up, Hideki Matsui came through with a single that scored both runners. Clearly rattled, Santana walked the next two batters, loading the bases. That was all for Santana. Reliever Jon Rauch got Manny Ramirez to fly out to center field, but it was enough to score the runner from third, making it 6-3 in favor of the defending champs. Jorge Posada and Albert Pujols hit back-to-back doubles in the 8th inning, but that was all that the Animals could muster for the rest of the game. Despite the loss, the Animals have to feel pretty good about the way their bullpen held off the mighty Sugar Bears offense. Rauch and Jason Isringhausen combined to pitch 4.2 innings of scoreless, 2-hit ball and struck out 7. Game 2 late tonight.

Meanwhile across the continent, in Vancouver, the Fist prepares to host the Rat Pack tonight. Vancouver sends up ace Jake Peavy against Erik Bedard. The Fist have owned the season series, including winning 9 straight against the Rat Pack. The Fist have outscored the Rats 82-53 in the season series. If you take out the early-season sweep, the Fist have held the Rats to 27 runs over the past 9 games - and that's without ever facing Peavy. Bedard did pitch one game against Vancouver, lasting 6.1 innings but surrendering 7 runs and 9 hits in a 9-3 loss back in May.

Newark/Philly starts today

Well today starts the series between Philadelphia and Newark at the Cereal Bowl. Newark sends James Shields to the mound while the Animals counter with Johan Santana. Newark owns the season series between the two teams, taking 7 of 12, including a 3-game sweep the last time the two met in Philly. The Animals actually split the series in Newark, winning 3 of the 6 games they played there. Santana will be relied on heavily in this Game 1. In three starts against Newark this season, Johan has gone 2-0 with a 3.78 ERA in 16.2 innings with a scary 1.68 WHIP and 25 strikeouts. Shields has played in two games against the Animals, but hasn't made it out of the third inning in either start - both times leaving with various injuries.

Check out the latest edition of This Week in the DMBL for Zane's picks for top hitter and pitcher of the week as well as a detailed recap of the first round.

Rats send Hitmen sleeping with the fishes

The Rats finally put the Hitmen away yesterday. The two teams battled it out and it was pretty close for a while. Carlos Pena, hitting a homer in all four post-season games, hit a solo dinger in the 2nd to start the scoring. Aubrey Huff countered with one of his own to tie the game up in the 3rd. Pena got things started again in the 4th with a double. Justin Verlander gifted the Rat Pack with a run, by first balking Pena over to third, then scoring him on a wild pitch. In the 8th with the score 3-2 in favor of the Rats, Carlos Pena, once again, hit a double that scored Ichiro. Vlad Guerrero followed up with a 2-run single that broke the game wide open for Vegas. Carlos Lee hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 8th to make the score 6-4. Carlos Marmol retired the Hitmen in order to pick up the save and send the Hitmen to the golf course.

Las Vegas will now take on Vancouver starting Tuesday. Philadelphia and Newark will battle on Monday.

Vegas regains control

Las Vegas may have ceded the home field advantage after their loss Monday, but they got it right back after yesterday's victory. The Rats' Carlos Pena homered in his third straight game - a 2-run homer in the 7th. Also, Ichiro was 3-5 with a triple for the Rats. Meanwhile, Josh Beckett pitched 7 quality innings, limiting the Hitmen to only 5 hits, 1 walk and 2 runs, while striking out 6. The Rats will try to ice the Hitmen tonight in Hillsborough.

Remember this year we will start awards voting earlier. Take the time to vote for your top 6 pitchers and top 6 batters, as well as the top 3 rookies of the year. Phil Plantier has posted a handy-dandy guide to this year's top rookies, for those who don't know who's eligible.

Philly sweeps Bushslappers

The Endzone Animals finished off D.C. yesterday with a marathon 13-inning win. It started off well enough for the Animals. Mark Teixeira lined a two-RBI single in the first inning to give the Animals a 2-0 lead. But in the third inning, the Slappers erupted to score 6 runs and took a 6-3 lead. In the fifth, after a Magglio Ordonez solo homer, Teixeira again came through with a 2-run homer to tie the game up at 6. It was soon becoming the Mark Teixeira show - in the sixth inning, Tex did it again, this time another 2-run single to put the Animals up 8-6. But the Slappers would not go away quietly. They scraped back until Jason Giambi tied the game up with a solo home run in the eighth. The two teams would battle for the next four innings, taking turns working out of various jams. The Animals took the lead for good in the 13th when Albert Pujols hit a solo home run and the Slappers went down in order in the bottom of the inning. Tex ended the game 5-6 with 7 RBIs, 2 doubles and a home run. Hillsborough-Las Vegas resumes today in Hillsborough.

Markakis powers Hitmen to tie series

Well things certainly got interesting in a hurry in the Las Vegas-Hillsborough series as the Hitmen knotted the series at one with a 4-3 victory yesterday. Ironically, Vegas was the poster child for one-run victories during the regular season, but may have used all their mojo before the playoffs. The Rats jumped out to an early lead when Frank Thomas and Carlos Pena hit solo homers in the second inning. But the Hitmen played copy cats in the third and tied it up with a pair of solo shots of their own - Nick Markakis and Dmitri Young. The score remained tied until the 7th when Markakis hit his second homer of the day - a two-run blast that gave the Hitmen a 4-2 lead. Vlad Guerrero answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning, but the Rats were still one short. Takashi Saito was brought into the game and promptly struck out 3 of the final 5 batters to earn the save. The series will resume Thursday in Hillsborough.

Philly, Vegas stomp the competition

Philly leaves for D.C. after taking a firm hold on their series with the Bushslappers. The Endzone Animals left no doubt after shutting down the Slapper bats 4-1 on Saturday then 7-2 on Sunday. Brandon Webb pitched 8 innings and allowed only one run on 5 hits, then Matt Cain won the battle of the rhyming starters (vs. John Maine) by pitching 7 innings of 4-hit ball, allowing only 2 runs and 3 walks. Maine tried in vain to best Cain, but was slain to no gain...or something like that. The series picks up again on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Vegas took a firm stand in week one against their arch-nemesis Hillsborough with a 9-0 pounding of the Hitmen. A.J. Burnett pitched 7 innings of 2-hit, shutout ball, striking out 11. Meanwhile, Matt Holliday led the team with 3 RBIs and Carlos Pena hit a double and a homer. Game two is later today.

Avast me swabbies, tis time for the playoffs

Arr, Avast ye mateys! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day today and we be gettin' inta the spirit of things. So today's blog be in Pirate-speak, ye scurvy dogs.

Tomorrow the 2008 DMBL Playoffs begin with the D.C. Bushslappers facin' the Philadelphia Endzone Animals. Now the Animals be winning the season series, but just barrrrrely - 7 games to 6. Interrrrestingly enough, the Animals be much better against the Slappers in the nation's capital, winnin' 4 of 6 there, while only going 3-4 in thar own stadium. Both teams faced each other recently, in D.C., where the Animals took 2 of 3. Philly has outscored the Slappers 69-55 in their 13 games.

Meanwhile, Hillsboro' and Vegas start thar series on Sunday. The two became bitterrr rivals way back before the season when Hitmen owner Brent Campbell stARRted trash talking with Rat Pack owner Eric Wickstrom. The Hitmen own the winnin' record in the season series, takin' 7 of 12. A closer examination of the stats tells a different story. The Hitmen established their dominance early on, winnin' their first 7 games against the Pack, but the Pack rallied back and won their last 5. We all know that the hot team usually prevails in the playoffs - it be all about momentum. Hillsborough outscored the Rats 87-67 over the course of the season.

Final Regular Season Players of the Week

Whoops, looks like I missed a post yesterday, but no fear, we have the selections for Players of the Week today!

Hitter of the Week

It was pretty hard to find good candidates this week - few had eye-popping numbers despite having two extra days to accumulate stats. Nevertheless, Philadelphia's Adam Dunn looks lik ea runaway winner for the final regular season JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week Award. Dunn led all hitters with a 1.095 slugging percentage and was second with a .538 on-base percentage. He was second in the league in RBIs (10) and tied for first in home runs (4).

It was a good offensive week for Vancouver. Mike Lowell led all batters with 13 RBIs and Andre Ethier was second in the league in slugging (.862) and tied for the lead in doubles (7). Curtis Granderson led the league in triples (3) further extending his DMBL-era record. David Ortiz had another good week, tied for the league lead in walks (10).

Other notables...Shane Victorino of New Jersey led the league in batting with a .472 average and had 3 stolen bases to boot...Las Vegas' Vlad Guerrero was one of four players tied for the lead in home runs with 4, but also put up a 1.217 OPS, 10 runs, and 8 RBIs on the week.

Pitcher of the Week

Unlike the hitters category, there were several deserving pitchers for top honors this week. Las Vegas, in particular, seemed to have the top stable of arms for the week. Old man El Duque pitched a complete game and went 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in his 15 innings. Chris Young, who has been a disappointment this year, put together a solid 1-1, 1.29 ERA week with an 0.71 WHIP and 13 strikeouts in 14 innings. But the cream of the crop was the much-maligned Josh Beckett who finally fulfilled some of his promise. Beckett was 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA, including a complete game shutout and 16 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. Beckett takes this week's Drama Prairie Dog Pitcher of the Week Award.

Beckett has some seriously stiff competition from Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia kept pace with Beckett, winning both his starts, including a complete-game shutout. C.C. put in another 8 innings in his other start and totalled 18 strikeouts with a 1.59 ERA and 0.71 WHIP - both just slightly higher than Beckett. Sabathia's teammate Justin Verlander also had a good week preparing for the playoffs (1-1, 2.76 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, CG, 10 K, 16.1 IP).

The top reliever had to be Tampa Bay's Lee Gardner. Gardner pitched in 6 scoreless appearances, earning a tie for the league lead in saves (3) with an 0.63 WHIP.

Other top performers: New Jersey's Brad Penny led the league in ERA with 1.29 and was 2-0 with a 1.21 WHIP...Vancouver's Jake Peavy notched two more wins to extend his league lead in the category, but also had 17 Ks to go with it...Sardine City's Fausto Carmona was another 2-0 pitcher with a 2.08 ERA in his 13 innings of work...Finally Hoboken's Jeremy Guthrie deserves some kudos for his 1-1, 1.93 ERA, 1.07 WHIP week which includes a 7-0 shutout of D.C.

Last place teams scramble for position

The season ended yesterday for 6 of the DMBL's teams. New Jersey has a firm hold on the #1 draft pick next year, one game ahead of Marietta. Both teams are done. Carolina also finished with a 100-loss season, but can slide into 12th place if Blue Ridge wins today's game. If Blue Ridge loses, then Marietta slides up into 12th place - a virtual disaster for owner Dave Landsman. You can bet he'll be the biggest Rat Pack fan today.

Hillsborough and D.C. both lost yesterday giving us one more day of seeding excitement. D.C. was shut out by Jeremy Guthrie and the Cutters 7-0. Guthrie went the distance, picking up his 15th win and getting his ERA under 4. Meanwhile Fausto Carmona shut down the Hitmen in a 5-1 victory for the Straphangers. Ryan Braun's three-run homer in the 5th set the pace.

D.C.-Hillsborough race heads into final stretch

We'll postpone the awards until Wednesday so we can include the last two games in our "week". Yeah, that and I forgot to run the reports, but maybe this will work out better anyway...

As it stands now, there's nothing of interest to write about except the big D.C.-Hillsborough battle for 5th place. D.C. is still up by one game on the Hitmen with two games left to play for each team. Hillsborough hosts Sardine City for the final two games, a team that they are 3-7 against. Hillsborough will send Dan Haren and C.C. Sabathia to the mound for those games, but Sardine City will counter with thier top two - Fausto Carmona and Cole Hamels.

Meanwhile D.C. hosts Hoboken, who they are 6-4 against on the season. D.C. will send Kelvim Escobar and John Maine up against Jeremy Guthrie and Jon Garland. It would seem like D.C. has the upper hand, but D.C. has a losing record (4-9) against the Hitmen this year, meaning that a tie would demote the Bushslappers to last place - there is no one game playoff for seeding.

Hitmen gain ground on Slappers

Well, here we are at the final weekend of the regular season. The top four positions are locked up in order. Hillsborough and D.C. have both clinched playoff spots, but their order is too close to call. D.C. lost 5-0 yesterday to Carolina. Mike Pelfrey won his first career DMBL game with 6 innings of 2-hit ball. Meanwhile C.C. Sabathia pitched a complete game shutout (6 H, 8 K), outduelling Blue Ridge's Ted Lilly (8 IP, 5 H, ER, BB, 5 K) to move the Hitmen to within one game of the Bushslappers. Interestingly enough, it might be to the Hitmen's best interests to remain in 6th place. Hillsborough is 7-5 against Las Vegas (who they would face if the season ended today) this year as opposed to 4-9 against Philadelphia. As for D.C., it doesn't really matter. They're 6-6 against the Rats and 6-7 against the Endzone Animals.

This'll all probably be wrapped up by Monday, so it should be an interesting weekend, to say the least.

Falcons sweep Hitmen

Tampa Bay shut out Las Vegas for the second straight day. This time it was Andy Pettitte going the distance, holding the Rats to 5 hits and improving to 15-6 on the season. For Pettitte, it was his 39th career complete game, tying him for with Kevin Appier for 15th overall and his 13th career shutout - good for 9th place overall, one behind Roger Clemens.

Arkansas completed the sweep of Hillsborough, taking a 5-1 win over the Hitmen. Former Hillsborough teammate Jeremy Bonderman evened his record at 12-12 with a 7.1 inning, 5-hit performance in which he struck out 8 Hitmen. Somehow the Falcons won, despite being limited to only five hits and one walk. Hillsborough falls to an even 2 games behind D.C. for the 5th playoff seed and their playoff magic number remains at 2.

Newark clinches 1st spot

Well Newark finally did it - the Sugar Bears broke their losing streak and clinched the Hanover Division by shutting out Hoboken 5-0 yesterday. Chien Ming Wang pitched 5.1 shutout innings and Luke Scott drove in 2 runs in the match. The dejected Las Vegas Rats went on to be shut out as well, by the Plunkers. Jered Weaver pitched 7 shutout innings in the 2-0 win for Tampa.

Hillsborough dropped their 4th straight game, a 4-3 squeaker to Arkansas. Of course Hillsborough just came off a streak that saw them win 16 of 18 games, so their timing is questionable with the season ending next Tuesday.

The Hitmen lost no ground to D.C. as the Slappers dropped a 7-2 decision to Jake Peavy and the Iron Fist. Peavy won his league-leading 23rd decision.

Newark unable to clinch, blames Swisher

For the third time Newark has been unable to put the division title race away. After dropping two of three to, of all teams, Marietta, Newark now lost their first against Hoboken. Meanwhile, Las Vegas has won 9 straight and closed the gap to 7 1/2 games. With a magic number of one, that would mean that the Rats would have to win all of their remaining games and Newark would have to lose all of theirs, but the situation has still been getting under Newark owner Butch Garretson's skin. Garretson was seen upending garbage cans, sweeping papers and knickknacks off desks in the Sugar Bear office, and physically abusing Nick Swisher. "Lazy bastard doesn't want to work..." Garretson was heard muttering yesterday.

D.C. became the fifth team to clinch a playoff spot yesterday, but still is vulnerable to Hillsborough. The Hitmen are only 1 1/2 games behind with 8 games left to play. Hillsborough can clinch with a win over Arkansas tonight combined with a Tampa loss to Las Vegas.

Remember when Marietta was so far in last place that the 13th place team needed binoculars? Well the Mighty Men are now closer to 11th place than last, separated by 2 games behind 11th place Carolina and 1 1/2 behind 12th place Blue Ridge. The Mighty Men are currently 3 1/2 ahead of last place Team Buddah. New Jersey became the first team to 100 losses this year after their extra-inning loss to Sardine City. There's a good possibility that they'll be joined by 3 other teams in the 100-loss column before next week's season finale.

Players of the Week

Since we forgot to give out the awards last week, we'll include last week in our considerations.

Hitter of the Week

Our top two candidates for the Mitchell Award had a monster week...er weeks. Newark's Chipper Jones was huge, leading the league in average (.500), on base percentage(.615), and slugging (1.067) (and of course OPS) while also hitting 3 homers and 6 doubles, scoring 12 runs and driving in 11. Meanwhile, Vancouver's David Ortiz tried to keep pace with a 1.180 OPS week (.462 on base, .718 slugging), with 4 homers and 12 RBI.

Meanwhile, D.C. had a huge offensive week, hitting .320 as a team with a .828 team OPS. Matt Kemp (.460, 13 runs, 1.081 OPS) and Jeff Kent (.412, 1.027 OPS, 9 RBI) were big parts of that surge, but the main cog, and this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week is Brian McCann. McCann hit .571 over the past two weeks with a 1.523 OPS and 13 RBIs.

Other considerations... Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera hit 6 home runs for the Cutters and drove in 15...Marietta's Josh Hamilton crushed the opposition with a 1.489 OPS, 5 HRs, and 14 RBIs...Philly's Jorge Posada had a solid week (.404, 4 HR, 11 RBI) and Tampa's Pat Burrell did his best to keep the Plunkers' playoff hopes alive (1.435 OPS, 4 HR, 9 RBI).

Pitcher of the Week

D.C. almost made it a sweep of the awards this week as both Shawn Marcum (1-0, 1.15, shutout) and Derrek Lowe (3-0, 1.21, shutout, 1.16 WHIP) had great weeks, not to mention a superb performance by closer Jonathan Papelbon (5-5 saves, 0.00 ERA in 5 games). But this week's Springfield Punx Pitcher of the Week Award goes to Philadelphia's Brandon Webb. Webb was also 3-0, but with a slightly better 1.14 ERA and slightly lower 1.14 WHIP. Webb also amassed 19 strikeouts in 23.2 innings of work.

Marietta's Mariano Rivera logged a lot of playing time over the past two weeks, but the old man still got it done. Rivera appeared in 12 games with an 0.71 ERA, picking up a win and a save, while striking out 11 in 12.2 innings.

Other pitchers of note...Speaking of old men, Arkansas' Roger Clemens still has a little bit of gas left in him (2-0, 2.02 ERA, 0.97 WHIP)...Looks like some time in the minors has done Philly's Yovani Gallardo some good (2-0, 3.09, 13K in 11.2 IP)...Hillsborough's Dan Haren (2-0, 1.72, 12 K, 0.77 WHIP) has helped keep the Hitmen on pace with D.C.

Sugar Bears secure top spot

Vancouver broke their losing streak, barely, by edging the Mudcats 3-2 in 13 innings. Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson battled it out for 6 or so innings, but the score remained tied at 2 since the 2nd inning. With the no-decision, Peavy loses any hope of tying the DMBL mark of 26 victories in one season. Mike Lowell won the game with a walkoff home run in the 13th. Vancouver's magic number drops to 3.

D.C. tied up Hillsborough with a 4-1 win over the Falcons. Kelvim Escobar won his 16th with a 6-inning, 5-hit outing, giving up only one run and striking out 5. Both the Hitmen and Bushslappers are 3 away from clinching a playoff spot.

Randy Johnson (7.1 IP, 3 H, 13 K) outduelled Phil Hughes (6 IP, 2 H, 5 BB, 7 K) to pick up a 1-0 victory over the Sardine City Straphangers. The two teams combined for 10 hits total as Newark locked up the top overall seed in the playoffs.

Rarely do you see a pitcher pitch a complete game AND give up 9 earned runs but that's exactly what Blue Ridge's Jon Lieber did yesterday in a 9-3 loss to Philadelphia. Lieber "took one for the team", giving up 13 hits and walking 6 in 8 innings of work. Most of the damage was done in the first three innings, as the Animals piled up 8 of the 9 runs in those innings.

Fist lose, but gain a magic number

Vancouver continues to back into their divisional crown. The Fist lost their fourth in a row, an 11-inning loss to Carolina. Vancouver scraped together a couple of runs to tie the game up and send it to extra innings. But in the 11th inning, Curtis Granderson misplayed an Aramis Ramirez single, scoring Dustin Pedroia all the way from first base. Meanwhile, Philadelphia dropped a 9-7 decision to Blue Ridge as Garrett Atkins went 2-4 with 2 homers and 6 RBIs, including a 3-run shot in the 8th inning that gave the Bombers the lead. Vancouver's magic number to clinch the Morris Division is 4.

Hillsborough moved ahead of D.C. by half a game yesterday after their 8-2 rout of Tampa Bay. Dan Haren scattered 5 hits in 8 innings to improve to 12-10 and Aubrey Huff was 3-5 with 4 RBIs.

Hoboken won a 12-inning brawl with a walkoff grandslam by Aaron Rowand off Kyle Lohse. Hoboken defeated the Mighty Men 13-9. Rowand was 4-7 with 5 RBIs in the match. Marietta stays a half game out of last place since the Buddahs were shut down by Orlando Hernandez (CG, 3 H, 1 run) and the Rat Pack 3-1.

Animals clinch despite loss

Despite their loss yesterday, the Philadelphia Endzone Animals finally clinched the fourth playoff spot. Newark shut out Tampa Bay yesterday 9-0 to give the Animals the clincher. James Shields went the full nine, giving up 9 hits and striking out 8. The Sugar Bears magic number to clinch the best record overall is now 2. Meanwhile, the Plunkers fell 8 games out of a playoff spot, giving them a "tragic number" of 5.

Hillsborough and D.C. kept pace with each other. The Hitmen knocked off Carolina 5-2 behind a solid effort from Justin Verlander. D.C.'s Shawn Marcum pitched a 7-hit shutout of Blue Ridge in a 7-0 victory. The tie will be broken one way or another after tonight's games as Hillsborough travels to Blue Ridge and D.C. takes the day off. The Slappers resume Thursday against the Falcons.

New Jersey pounded Marietta 11-3 to move 1/2 game behind the Mighty Men in the race for the cellar. Josh Fields and Ivan Rodriguez each had 3 RBIs for the Buddahs.

D.C., Hillsborough make it a race

D.C. and Hillsborough remained neck and neck yesterday, as they beat up on the lower dregs of the Morris Division. D.C. squeaked by Blue Ridge 3-2, besting emergency starter Paul Byrd. Byrd had been signed to make the start after Tim Redding, himself replacing injured Adam Wainwright, was injured in his last start. Byrd was solid in his 6.2 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, but was saddled with the loss after his team could not score enough runs off D.C. starter Derrek Lowe.

Meanwhile, John Lackey struck out 11 Mudcats en route to a 6-2 victory yesterday. Lackey improved to 15-7 on the season and Takashi Saito notched his league-leading 27th save of the season. D.C. and Hillsborough are now tied with 13 games left in the season, 7 games ahead of 7th-place Tampa Bay.

Marietta continues to shoot themselves in the foot, beating New Jersey 7-3 yesterday on the back of Austin Kearns (3-4, 3 RBIs) and Conor Jackson (3-5). The Mighty Men are now 1 1/2 games ahead of the Buddahs in the standings.