Could It Be... Santana?

The Marietta Mighty Men took their second in a row against their Hanover rivals as Ervin Santana this afternoon shut out the Rat Pack, 5-0. The right-hander allowed just five baserunners -- three singles, a double, and a runner who reached on a dropped third strike. No Rat got as far as third base, however. Santana fanned five in the complete game effort to improve to 7-4 on the season. Josh Hamilton led the Mites on offense with a two-run double and a two-run homer. Las Vegas is now in 7th place, a half-game out of the post-season.

The win kept the Mighty Men a half-game up in the Hanover Division as the Newark Sugar Bears won their fourth in a row by beating New Jersey, 7-3. The game was closer than it appeared; it was scoreless for the first four frames before the Sugar Bears came up with a run in the 5th and two more in the 6th. But sloppy play in the bottom of the 6th allowed the Buddahs to tie the score on two singles, a walk and two errors. J.D. Drew's RBI single in the top of the 7th put the Sugar Bears ahead again, and they iced it in the 9th on back-to-back home runs from Manny Ramirez and Mike Fontenot.

The Carolina Mudcats are still tied with Marietta for the best overall record as they won their fourth straight, a 6-3 win over Blue Ridge. Rookie Mike Aviles had two hits, including a home run, and Carlos Zambrano rejoined a tie for the league lead in wins at 8-2 with Marietta's Mike Mussina and Newark's Chien-Ming Wang. The Bombers have lost three straight.

Hillsborough kept pace with the Mudcats by winning their third straight to remain 1 1/2 games out. The Hitmen beat the Vancouver Iron Fist in 10 innings for the second straight game, this time 5-3. Once again, the Fisters battled back to tie it up late, only to falter in extra innings. This time it was Freddy Sanchez delivering the game winner, a two-run shot off Darren Oliver -- who also lost last night's game!

The defending World Champions have lost four straight and are now tied for the league's fifth-best record with the Philadelphia Endzone Animals, who squeaked past the D.C. O-Bombers, 2-1. D.C.'s Todd Wellemeyer and Philly's Shaun Marcum dueled for eight innings, each giving up just a single run in the 4th. The Animals finally won it in the 9th when Fred Lewis tripled off Juan Cruz, then trotted home on a single by John Baker. The Animals have won three in a row while the O-Bombers have dropped four straight.

The Amityville Ant-Slayers won a thriller, coming back from three runs down to defeat Sardine City, 4-3. The Straphangers' Josh Johnson pitched a gem, holding the Slayers scoreless until the 7th, when Dioner Navarro scored on a groundout. (The run was unearned because Navarro had reached third on an error.) But even so, Johnson left the game with a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 9th, only to watch in horror as D.J. Carrasco allowed the tying runs to score on a Melky Cabrera pinch-hit single, then a game-winning hit by Garret Atkins. The Straphangers are now 12th while the Ant Slayers improved to just one game under .500, 4 games out of the final playoff spot.