Greinke stymies Buddahs, improves to 8-0

Yesterday we got another stellar performance from Vancouver's Zack Greinke, pitching 7 innings and holding the Buddahs to 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 9 and walking 3. Greinke improved to 8-0 on the season in the 3-2 win. Also of note...Ron Belisario closed out the 9th to earn his 7th save. Vancouver has now leads the league with 18 saves and has yet to blow a save. This all despite rostering any veteran closers. Belisario and Joe Thatcher (8 saves) have earned the bulk of the team's saves, but 3 other pitchers have 1 save apiece.

Bridgewater rolled off their 6th straight victory, a 6-1 defeat of fraternal rival Matthew's Mighty Men. The Mallers have now opened up a 2 1/2 game lead in the Morris Division. Paul Konerko was 3-4 with a double and homer and 2 RBIs and Erik Bedard struck out 7 in 6.2 innings to earn his 2nd win of the year.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas has taken advantage of the Mighty Men's struggles, inching up the ranks to 3 games behind the Hanover Division leader. The Rats beat the Bombers 6-1 yesterday behind Alex Rodriguez's 2 homers and 4 RBIs. The team had become increasingly frustrated with A-Rod, who was acquired recently from Amityville. Rodriguez had been 1-24 entering yesterday's game with 15 strikeouts. "Hopefully he woke up from his nonsense" said team skipper Eric Wickstrom. "I know Vegas has just a little more distractions than Amityville, but at least there are no swarms of flies breaking into his home or anything."

Old time rivals Arkansas and Newark faced off and, before the game, made a bunch of moves to try to shake their teams out of slumps. Looks like it worked for the Sugar Bears who routed the Falcons 10-4. The Sugar Bears sent the Drew brothers down to the minors along with franchise hero Chipper Jones. The replacements came through in the game - Asdrubal Cabrera had 2 RBIs and Chase Headley was 2-4. Things were 50-50 for the Falcons, as new catcher Jason Varitek hit a 3-run homer in his Arkansas debut, but leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik was 0-5 and new shortstop Julio Lugo was 0-3.

Bronson Arroyo gave up 6 runs in 7.2 innings, but earned his first win of the year anyway with the Endzone Animals pounding the Sardines 17-6 yesterday. Four Philly hitters had 3 hits each and Mark Teixeira had 4 RBIs. Yes, Albert Pujols hit his league-leading 25th home run. He now leads in that category by 11 homers.