Carolina stands alone

The Mudcats won again yesterday, taking their season record to a perfect 4-0. The Cats beat Hoboken 5-3 behind 7 solid innings from Tim Hudson. Greg Smith pitched 5.2 innings and gave up no earned runs for the Cutters, but unfortunately for him, a couple of miscues led to three unearned runs. For the Mudcats, Dustin Pedroia was 3-3 and A.J. Pierzynski had a double, a triple, and 3 RBIs.

Andrew Sonnanstine and the Falcons shut down the mighty Newark Sugar Bears 7-1 yesterday. Sonnanstine held the Sugar Bears to 3 hits over 6 innings and the Falcon bullpen shut them down the rest of the way to preserve the win. Lance Berkman's 2-run homer kicked off a 6-run 5th inning for the Falcons.

Las Vegas sits atop the Hanover Division alone after an 11-4 thrashing of the Bombers. The Rats got off to an early 5-1 lead, but the Bombers battled back to within one run after a 3-run 8th. But the Rats exploded for 6 more runs in the top of the 9th to seal the deal. Hometown papers in Blue Ridge cited their upcoming legal battles with D.C. over naming rights as a possible distraction. Blue Ridge and D.C. have been mired in litigation over the use of the name "Bombers" and many players have been upset. " Landsman deliberately stole our name" said outfielder Jeremy Hermida. "Just because he put an 'O' in front of it, that makes it different? He's no better than Vanilla Ice with his da-da-da-DA-da-da-da shenanigans." D.C.'s front office issued no comment.