Carolina rookie Stephen Strasburg, in his first start since a 40-day stint on the disabled list, tossed the eighth no-hitter in DMBL history, beating the Philadelphia End Zone Animals, 5-0, Saturday night at home in Bullhead Memorial Park.
It was the fifth individual no-hitter in league history (three were combined, by more than one pitcher) and first in franchise history. The last DMBL no-hitter came in April 2008 when A.J. Burnett, then with Las Vegas, no-hit the powerful Newark Sugar Bears. The last rookie to toss a no-hitter was Phoenix's John Lackey in 2003, and Joel Pineiro combined on a no-hitter with Mike Mathews for Hoboken in his rookie season in 2002.
Strasburg walked three and struck out a season-high 11 but never struck out the side. His most frequent victims were David Murphy and Ryan Howard, who both struck out three times. He outdueled Roy Halladay, who went the distance for Philly.
Murphy, recently acquired from Amityville, walked to lead off the game and J.J. Hardy walked to start the sixth inning. Hardy would reach second base when Howie Kendrick grounded to second but Strasburg struck out Murphy and got Ramon Hernandez to ground out to third to end the inning. After getting the 26th out, Strasburg walked Hernandez before retiring Nelson Cruz to complete the no-no.
Eh... that's probably not a sign of the apocalypse, as Dunn has been swapped before and the world kept on turning. In fact, it's the fifth time Dunn has been traded! Interestingly enough, each time Dunn has been dealt, a pitcher has gone back the other way.
January 4, 2008: Hillsborough Hired Hitmen trade Dunn, Alex Rodriguez, Jeremy Bonderman, Ian Snell, and Jonathan Broxton to the Arkansas Golden Falcons for Dan Haren, Nick Markakis, a 7th round pick in 2008, 4th and 7th round picks in 2009, and their 5th round pick in 2010.
July 16, 2008: Arkansas Golden Falcons trade trade Dunn to the Philadelphia Endzone Animals for Jonathan Sanchez and their 3rd round pick in 2010.
November 4, 2008: Philadelphia Endzone Animals trade Dunn and their 9th round draft pick in 2009 and their 6th round pick in 2010 to the Hoboken Cutters for Scott Kazmir.
February 5, 2011: Hoboken Cutters trade Dunn and Hillsborough's 5th round pick in 2011 to the Amityville Ant Slayers for Matt Cain and their 6th round pick in 2012.
May 20, 2011: Amityville Ant Slayers trade Dunn and their 12th round pick in 2012 to the Blue Ridge Bombers for Cole Hamels and their 4th round pick in 2012.
Dunn was initially drafted way back in 2002 as an ineligible prospect, taken in the 4th Round (#50 overall) by the Phoenix Dragons. He had a miserable rookie year in '03 (.198/.316/.333) and the Dragons didn't protect him; he then went to Hillsborough in the '04 draft in the 2nd Round (#23 overall), but he struggled again, hitting just .170/.228/.377. But the Hitmen stuck with him and he finally broke out in '05, hitting .290/.377/.618 with 55 HRs and 150 RBIs. He's never been left off a protected list again.
The 31-year-old slugger began the 2010 season with a career .245 batting average (but .866 OPS). His 2011 season is pretty typical -- .259 BA, .860 OPS. However, Dunn's outlook for 2011 isn't promising at the moment -- he's hitting just .203 (.689 OPS), and at the moment only qualifies at DH. But there's still four and a half months left in the season, so he has plenty of time to turn it around... or be traded again!
Outrage in Newark tonight as Sugar Bear Third Base Coach Charles Johnson discovered recently acquired Freddie Freeman is not black.
Johnson, making an impromptu visit to the Triple-A Dublin Lucky Charms, spotted the 21-year-old first baseman working out during pre-game warm-ups. Freeman had been acquired last month, along with pitcher Justin Masterson, from the Hoboken Cutters as part of the first rebuilding campaign in Sugar Bear history.
"Who the hell is that white dude and why is he wearing Freeman's jersey?" a perplexed Johnson asked Lucky Charms manager John Thomson.
Even after being told the "white dude" was indeed Freeman, Johnson wasn't convinced, and ordered security to throw Freeman out of the ballpark. It was only until he was shown Freeman's driver's license, passport, and certificate of live birth (long form) that Johnson was finally convinced of the player's identity.
He was clearly disappointed.
"Here I thought we got a young Fred McGriff, and instead it's a young Ryan Klesko," Johnson sniffed.
Not that Johnson should complain about that -- Klesko had a pretty good career as a Sugar Bear.
Still, he intends on filing a complaint with the Commissioner's Office for "false advertising."
"I haven't been this faked out by a player's non-blackness since Khalil Greene," Johnson said. "In fact, I'm still pretty sure that dude is a brother -- just really pale."
