This Week In DMBL

Week 2 of the 2017 season (games of April 14-19 on the DMBL calendar) had plenty of two-homer games, more grand slams and a few pitching gems.

Hopatcong had three batters with active hitting streaks after Week 1. The streaks came to an end at 9 games for Robinson Cano and Joey Votto but Yoenis Cespedes kept it up through a full second week, extending to 16 games.

The Floating Fish ended the week on a high note, sweeping Sunday's doubleheader, including a Game 1 win behind 3 HRs from Pedro Alvarez. A number of batters swatted two homers in a game last week but Alvarez was the only one to hit a trio. In limited action, the lefty batted .500/.588/1.214 in 14 ABs, driving in 6 as Hopatcong tallied a 35-run week.

Alvarez hit solo shots in the 2nd and 4th innings before a three-run blast in the 6th finally sent El Paso starter Jeremy Hellickson to the showers. Alvarez grounded to short to end the 7th and came to the plate again in the 9th with a chance to tie the DMBL single-game home run record.


The league's top offense in Week 2 was Hoboken, which scored 46 runs behind stalwart Miguel Cabrera. He had a league-high 15 hits (15-32) and 10 runs scored, slashing an impressive .469/.514/.875 for the week. Cabrera tacked on 4 homers with 8 RBI, getting support from Yasmani Grandal who also had 8 RBIs and Brad Miller who slugged .852 with 4 home runs. For his consistency, Cabrera is this week's JR Cigars Batter of the Week.

Hillsborough slugger Kris Bryant led the league with 6 HR and 15 RBI, with almost all of that coming in two games. He had a pair of two-homer games, combining for 4 home runs and 11 RBI, in a win over Empire City and a loss to Tucson. He slugged a league-leading .964 as 6 of his 9 hits went yard.

Justin Turner led the charge in Marietta, which ranked second with 39 runs on the week. Turner blasted 4 home runs with 11 RBI and 7 runs scored while slugging .710. He smacked 2 bombs off Bartolo Colon in Saturday's game, which ended with rookie Max Kepler's first career home run -- a 2-run walk-off shot off Alex Colome in Marietta's 6-4 win in 10 innings over Blue Ridge.

Hopatcong's rookie phenom Gary Sanchez matched Bryant's 6 HR but fell short in the RBI department with 13, despite a grand slam in a 9-2 thrashing of Allentown. Tucson's Nolan Arenado wasn't far behind Bryant, slugging .926 on the strength of 5 home runs, to go with 11 RBI. The two matched up in a home run duel in Sunday's Game 1, each hitting a pair, with Bryant compiling 5 RBI to Arenado's 4.

San Francisco's Brandon Belt also notched a grand slam, coming off Matt Moore in the Experience's 6-2 win over Allentown on Saturday.

Rookies Tim Anderson and Jose Peraza of Empire City each had 12 hits -- but none for extra bases. Peraza jumped to the top of the leader board in batting average after 2 weeks, hitting .412, ahead of Cabrera's. 382 clip. Both had at least one 4-hit game last week.

Sardine City rookie Corey Seager notched his first career home run on Friday. The blast came amid a three-game streak of tallying the game-winning RBI, coming off Tucson's Jon Lester.

Other batters who compiled two-homer games last week included: Allentown's Ian Desmond, Hoboken's Jose Reyes, Khris Davis of Arkansas, and Blue Ridge's Jackie Bradley.

On the pitching side, Vancouver's Taijuan Walker is showing now signs of a sophomore slump. He twirled one of three shutouts on the week, shutting down San Francisco on three hits, all of which came in the first inning and one erased on a double play. Over the next 8 1/3 innings, he walked one batter, who also was erased on a double play, and struck out 10 in 1-0 shutout Monday night.

In two starts during the week, Walker compiled 15 strikeouts in 15 innings, with a 1.20 ERA and 0.80 WHIP but only 1 win to show for it. Poovey Farms' Yu Darvish went 7 innings in both his starts, matched Walker's 15:3 K/BB ratio in 14 innings, and bettered his WHIP at 0.64 with a 1.29 ERA, but he earned victories in both his starts. For Walker's gem though, he'll get The NonProfit Times DMBL Pitcher of the Week honor for Week 2.

Rick Porcello of Hoboken bested Walker in that he allowed just 2 hits in his shutout. He only managed 7 strikeouts but didn't walk a batter, shutting down Blue Ridge, 2-0. Porcello and Walker notched the highest Game Score of the season so far, at 90. Empire City's Danny Duffy pitched the other shutout last week, limiting Philly to 3 hits, with 6 strikeouts and no walks.

Kevin Gausman struck out 10 to lead Arkansas past San Francisco, 7-1, on Thursday. Gausman walked just 1 and scattered 6 hits in a complete game, backed by Davis' two home runs. San Francisco's Junior Guerra also notched a complete game, yielding 2 runs while striking out 5 to beat Arkansas, 7-2.

Corey Kluber racked up 12 strikeouts and limited a powerful Allentown lineup to 2 hits over 7 shutout innings in leading Sardine City to a 4-0 win in a game that featured only 6 hits in all. The 12 strikeouts were the second-highest total this season, behind J.A. Happ's 13, and matching a Clayton Kershaw outing.

Two-game winners on the week included Arkansas' Happ, Kershaw (despite a 4.15 ERA) and Tim Adelman of Hopatcong. Leading the league with 16 strikeouts were Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner of Tucson, Empire City's Dan Straily, and Allentown's David Price. Mike Foltynewicz of Marietta was tops in innings pitched with 17 1/3, including a 10-strikeout, 5-run complete game.

Chris Devenski of Livingston had perhaps the most impressive week for a reliever, notching 3 saves but appearing in 7 games, tossing a scoreless 8 innings with 8 strikeouts.