Relievers rise to the occasion

After all the offense in the early weeks of the season, relievers were bound to get noticed sooner rather than later.
A number of relievers had remarkable weeks. But first, let's look at the best bats of the week for games dated April 28-May 5. Five players led the league with five home runs: Jay Bruce, Gary Sanchez, Edwin Encarnacion, Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Altuve; all had at least one multi-home run game.

For Stanton, it was an all-or-nothing week with a line of .300/.290/.867, including 13 strikeouts against nary a walk but he was second-best in RBI (12). Encarnacion helped turn the power on in Blue Ridge. Half of his 10 hits on the week were long balls, to go with 11 runs, slashing 345/.412/1.000. Teammate Jackie Bradley had 4 HRs and an impressive .333/.429/.917 line.

Empire City's Bruce took over the league lead in home runs (15) and after driving in a league-best 13 runs for the week trails only Vancouver's J.D. Martinez (32) in the RBI race by two. The lefty slugger slashed .270/.289/.811 and also now leads the league in extra base hits (23) and total bases (91). Trojan teammate Jose Peraza plummeted in the batting race after a rough .211/.231/.211 week but he did have a league-high 5 stolen bases, and now stands as the league leader with 11 on the year.

Sanchez continued his early season power surge as Hopatcong's rookie backstop, blasting a line of .367/.424/.967, including 11 hits. Robinson Cano led the league in his with 14, slashing .438/.455/.813. He finished the week tied with Philly's Jose Ramirez for the league lead in hits (42) and 4th in the batting race (.341), just behind Ramirez (.347). Teammate Joey Votto had 12 hits on the week with a line of .387/.424/.744.

Another catcher showing off the power was San Francisco's Jonathan LuCroy, who's now tied for second in the league in RBI. He had 10 hits, including 3 home runs and 7 RBI. He also is now second in the league in homers (12). Teammate Melky Cabrera had 12 hits, slashing .400/.387/.500 to jump into the top 10 in batting, and Randall Grichuk added 3 home runs and 7 RBI.

Despite a drop-off, Vancouver again led the league in runs scored with 47, just ahead of Hoboken's 44, and had the league's best mark for the week at 6-1, a shade better than Tucson (6-2) and Allentown (6-2). Hillsborough was the only winless team last week (0-7).

The Iron First had three players with 12 hits on the week, including Anthony Rendon (.414/.469/.586) and Will Myers, who had a team-high 9 RBI with a line of .444/.516/.889. He also finished the week tied with Trea Turner for the longest current hit streak (12). Josh Reddick had perhaps the most impressive week of the trio, scoring 9 runs while slashing .480/..552/760 to take over the league lead in batting (.362) over teammate Charlie Blackmon (.348). He also ended the week on an 11-game hit streak.

Poovey Farms' rookie Turner ranked 2nd in hits with 13 and scored 8 runs. He added two triples, a homer and 3 stolen bases while slashing 419/.438/.677. Poovey was led by 1B Freddie Freeman's 10 RBI on just 2 HRs, and 2B Brian Dozier also added three stolen bases.

Jose Altuve had perhaps the best all-around week, slashing .361/.378/.861. In addition to tying for the league lead with five home runs, Altuve was right behind the league leaders with 13 hits and 11 RBI, along with nine runs scored. For that, he's this week's JR Cigars DMBL Batter of the Week.

A number of starters are worthy candidates for the best pitching week. Kevin Gausman of Arkansas logged the most innings, 16 1/3, edging out Clayton Kershaw, by an out. His 2-0 week included a complete-game, 1-run, 9-strikeout performance on Sunday. He finished the week with 15 strikeouts against 3 walks, a 2.76 ERA and 0.98 WHIP.

Kershaw meanwhile was 1-1, his only loss a pitching duel to Madison Bumgarner. He had a league-best 0.38 WHIP with 13 Ks against 2 BB and just 4 hits allowed, and a 1.13 ERA. Last week's Pitcher of the Week, Hoboken's Max Scherzer, turned in another solid outing, striking out 11 over 8 innings for a win.

Tyler Anderson of San Francisco won both his starts in 2-1 victories. He recorded 14 Ks in 14 innings, with a sterling 0.64 ERA and 0.63 WHIP. He and Allentown's Ian Kennedy were the first to 5 wins, both improving to 5-1. Tucson's Bumgarner won both his starts and finished the week with a 1.88 ERA and 0.91 WHIP over 14 1/3 IP. He struck out 13 and walked 5.

Allentown's Matt Moore went 2-0, logging 14 2/3 IP, 1.84 ERA and 0.89 WHIP. Yu Darvish of Poovey Farms led the league with 20 strikeouts against just 3 walks over two starts. Nine of those strikeouts of those came in a 7-inning outing where he was blasted for 8 runs and 14 hits. He also had 11 Ks in a 6 1/3-inning win.

The Vancouver offense gets the headlines of late but the bullpen was great last week, tossing a scoreless 22 innings, more than a third of the overall 62 innings by Iron First pitchers. A.J. Schugel made 5 appearances and logged 7 1/3 innings, even qualifying for the ERA race (he  finished the week 2nd with 1.65 to Allentown's Jerad Eickhoff, 1.56). Andrew Miller recorded 3 saves and Blake Treinen picked up 2 wins. Francisco Rodriguez went 7 scoreless innings in 6 appearances out of San Francisco's bullpen. So this week, we'll go with a reliever for the DMBL Pitcher of Week: Schugel and the rest of the Iron First bullpen.

Allentown closer Craig Kimbrel led all relievers with 4 saves in 4 1/3 innings, helping the Mules to a 6-2 mark. Philly's Joaquin Benoit anchored the Philly bullpen, which lost three starters to injury in recent weeks, logging almost 8 innings, with 10 Ks.

Other notable weeks turned in by Hopatcong's Kyle Hendricks (1-0, 14 IP, 11 Ks, 1.29 ERA, 0.86 WHIP). Joe Ross was responsible for half of Sardine City's wins in a 4-3 week. He went a combined 13 IP with a sharp 10:1 K:BB to go with a 3.45 ERA and 1.23 WHIP. Ervin Santana had a 13:1 K:BB in 12 1/2 innings, going 1-1 for Livingston with a 2.92 ERA and 0.89 WHIP.

Jeremy Hellickson of El Paso went 1-1 but an impressive 1.29 ERA and 0.64 WHIP over 14 innings, along with 13 strikeouts. A bright spot in Hillsborough's winless week was rookie fireballer Vincent Velasquez, who was second on the week with 18 Ks, in just 12 1/3 IP.