Greinke dominates Animals

Zack Greinke improved to 9-0 on the season with a masterful performance against Philadelphia yesterday. Greinke held the Animals to 2-hits in a complete game shutout, walking one and striking out 14. Greinke lowered his ERA to a league-leading 1.94 and extended his strikeout league. Greinke now has 90 Ks on the season. Meanwhile, Vancouver poured on the offense, scoring 8 runs. Every starter got a hit except slumping Chase Utley.

Hillsborough held off a late rally by Bridgewater and won 7-5, retaining control of the Morris Division by 1/2 a game. Wandy Rodriguez gave the Hitmen 6.1 innings of shutout ball, holding the Mallers to 5 hits and striking out 7, but the bullpen almost gave it all up for him. It looked like the final inning would be no problem as the Hitmen retired 2 of the first 3 batters, but soon Hillsborough got into trouble. With runners on first and second Felipe Lopez lined a single that scored Erick Aybar, then Derrek Lee followed up with a 2-run double. After intentionally walking Carlos Beltran, George Sherrill finally got Jose Lopez to pop up and end the game.

Well Hoboken's Edwin Jackson gambit didn't pay off, at least not right away. Jackson was hammered for 5 runs in 4.1 innings against the Sardines, but the Cutters escaped with a 7-6 victory anyway. The Cutters, who were down 5-0 at one point, clawed their way back, until in the 9th inning, they were trailing 6-5. Jose Bautista, who had entered the game earlier when Michael Young left with an injury, hit a two-run walkoff homer to win the game.

Meanwhile, Newark, who grabbed Blue Ridge's other castoff Chris Iannetta, also got a victory despite not getting anything from their new merchandise. Iannetta was 0-3, but was hit by a pitch and scored in his Newark debut.

And of course there's Blue Ridge, who did the casting off, who got pummeled by Amityville 9-2. Matt Kemp was 4-5 with 3 RBIs and Nelson Cruz hit 2 homers and also drove in 3 runs for the Ant Slayers. Jon Garland, who replaced Jackson, was hit for 6 runs in 6.1 innings, giving up 10 hits and 2 walks, while striking out only one.