Wednesday doubleheader recap

Roy Oswalt pitched a gem against South Boston yesterday as the Sharks routed the Gang 10-0. Oswalt pitched a complete game shutout, surrendering only five hits and no walks while striking out six. Oswalt has pitched well in five of his last six starts since coming back from his injury last month. The one low note was a 10-2 loss to Marietta.

Albert Pujols drove in six runs and hit his 39th home run in Philly's 11-3 shellacking of Las Vegas. Brandon Webb won after missing his last start due to injury to improve to 11-7. Reed Johnson also contributed 3 RBIs. The Rat Pack used eight pitchers in the game, including rarely utilized Casey Janssen, who pitched the last three innings. It was Vegas' ninth straight loss.

The Mudcats beat the Animals in the late game yesterday, but lost David Eckstein to injury. Eckstein has been on the disabled list twice already this year as a member of the Endzone Animals and now will give the Mudcats a chance to pay him to sit at home and play his Nintendo Wii.

Newark won twice yesterday becoming the first team to 90 wins on the season. In game one against Hillsborough, Jim Edmonds hit two homers and drove in six runs for the Sugar Bears. Randy Johnson won his 197th career victory. Ryan Howard hit his 50th homer of the season for Hillsborough. Edmonds hit another homer in the second game as John Smoltz started his 300th career game. His seven strikeouts left him four shy of 2000 for his career.

Jose Contreras shut down Vancouver for a 5-0 shutout, though Contreras couldn't make it through the full nine. Contreras lasted eight innings, holding Vancouver to four hits and two walks. Mike Wuertz finished the ninth to preserve the shutout.

Look for a new Trade Talk article later tonight.

Backman's Blunder

The Cutters and Jon Garland were cruising to a 1-0 victory yesterday over the Bushslappers, when they hit a bit of a snag. Manager Wally Backman decided that after Garland let Carl Crawford reach on a single that it would be time to go to the pen. Garland had pitched brilliantly, allowing only 4 hits and one walk, but he was already at 115 pitches. Backman went to Juan Rincon to close the game for some reason. Rincon walked two of the next three batters and served up the grand slam to Lyle Overbay. Game over. So where was Izzy? The Hoboken closer had not pitched in the last two days so he should have been available. "We did not feel that the matchup suited Izzy's talents" said Backman after the game. "Juan had expressed a desire to close, so we gave him one."

Newark roughed up Vancouver's pitching yesterday 18-6. Five of the six pitchers gave up runs and Wes Littleton was lost for two weeks. "A bullpen shakeup is coming" said pitching coach Erik Hanson. Alan Embree was signed off the waiver wire to fill in. "We needed a lefty to help us through the Newark series" said manager Darren Daulton.

Vlad Guerrero and Jim Edmonds recently drove in their 1000th career run. They became just the 17th and 18th in DMBL history to achieve the feat. Next on the list is Honolulu's Jason Giambi at 948. Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado (930) would need a big year to do it this season. New Jersey's Mike Piazza moved further up the list, tying Gary Sheffield at fifth with his 1263rd RBI last night. Juan Gonzalez holds the #4 spot at 1283, so we may have another Piazza update soon.

Another Sugar Blowout

Newark pounded the Falcons 26-6 yesterday. It was the third time this season that the Sugar Bears scored 20 or more runs. Bobby Abreu tied the record for most runs scored in a game with six. The record is held by three other players, most recently by Carlos Delgado, then of Vatican City, against Philadelphia back in June of 2000. Jim Edmonds and Nick Johnson each had 6 RBIs. The Sugar Bears had 24 hits and were walked 13 times. Starter Javier Vazquez got the run support, but couldn't make it out of the fifth inning. Scot Shields got the win in relief to improve to 3-0. Falcons starter Ervin Santana was charged with 16 earned runs in 4.2 innings (yes he outlasted Vazquez!) with 8 walks and one strikeout. Brad Lidge was awful again, surrendering six earned runs on five hits and five walks in just 2/3 of an inning. That's the second time in a week's span that saw Lidge fall completely apart (the last time being in Santana's previous start against Honolulu). Lidge now has a 13.50 ERA on the season. It was the sixth loss in a row for the Falcons.

The Bushslappers kept their streak intact, winning their fourth straight against Las Vegas, 4-3. The Slappers are now only three games under .500. John Maine improved to 5-1 despite a ho-hum effort and Alex Gonzalez went 3-4 in his final game replacing Jose Reyes.

Jeremy Bonderman pitched a gem for the Hired Hitmen, but didn't factor into the decision as Hillsborough dropped their game to New Jersey 3-2 in 13 innings. Bonderman pitched 8 innings, allowing only one run on three hits while striking out nine. Reliever Takashi Saito blew the save opportunity in the ninth and Chad Cordero took the loss in the 13th when Luis Vizcaino walked the bases loaded.

Jorge Posada was 5-5 for Marietta in a losing effort to Carolina. Posada hit two homers and drove in three runs, but it wasn't enough as the Mudcats outslugged the Mighty Men 10-8.

Bonds closing in on milestone

Well the Sharks' streak is now over after losing a heartbreaker to Carolina 1-0 on Friday. Clay Hensley outdueled Kenny Rogers and Juan Rivera's solo home run in the fourth was the only run of the game.

Arkansas' Barry Bonds hit his 10th homer of the year in the 9-2 rout of Hoboken Saturday. It was Bonds' 598th homer of his career. Bonds will be the first player to hit 600 in his career. If you're wondering if anyone will catch him anytime soon...well that depends on your definition of "soon". Bonds has a more than 150 homer lead on second place Sammy Sosa - stuck at 436 and not even playing this year.

Newark's Jim Edmonds hit his 300th career homer Sunday. Honolulu's Jason Giambi is closing in on the mark as well, with 298. Bonds is not worried about either one.

Look for a new Zane Smith column later today.