Morneau, Falcons, come up just short

Hillsborough and Arkansas battled to an 11-10 final. The Falcons held a 10-4 lead after 7, but the Hitmen scored 3 runs in the 8th to bring it to 10-7. The Falcons got in trouble quickly in the 9th when they gave up a leadoff single to Ryan Theriot. Pitcher Joakim Soria walked the next batter then gave up a single to load the bases. After striking out the next batter, Soria gave up the salami to Aubrey Huff, ending the game. Mike Lowell also hit a pair of home runs and drove in 4 runs. On the losing side, the Falcons were almost singlehandedly carried by Justin Morneau, who hit 3 home runs and had 8 RBIs in the contest.

Las Vegas outlasted the Sardines in extra innings yesterday, winning 5-4 in 14 innings. Vladimir Guerrero hit a 2-run homer, his second of the game, in the 14th to take a 5-3 lead. Carlos Quentin answered with a solo shot, but it wasn't enough. Guerrero's two home runs tied Mark McGwire for 10th on the all time list. Next up, Frank Thomas (384) and Juan Gonzalez (385).

Clayton Kershaw earned his first DMBL victory yesterday, a 9-2 blowout against the Mighty Men. Kershaw pitched 7 shutout innings and struck out 7 while giving up only 6 hits.

Roy Halladay outduelled Zack Greinke in a 3-2 Mudcat victory. Halladay pitched 8 innings, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits with 7 strikeouts. Hard luck loser Greinke pitched an 8-inning complete game and gave up 3 runs on 9 hits. Both pitchers have 7 wins on the season.

Mussina picks up milestone win against slumping Cutters

The Cutters kept their streak intact - unfortunately for them. The slide hit 8 games in the 8-3 defeat to the Mighty Men. The Cutters gave Mark Buehrle his first start of the year, but it did not go well. Buehrle lasted 5.2 innings, giving 7 runs (5 earned) on 10 hits. Meanwhile, Marietta started Mike Mussina pitched a solid game to improve to 8-2 on the season. The win, Mussina's 169th of his career, tied Kevin Brown for # 8 on the all time list. Moose is now only one behind Tom Glavine (170) and two behind John Smoltz (171), both of whom are inactive this year.

The Sugar Bears once again rallied to win, this time taking a victory from D.C. 6-5. D.C. held a 5-2 lead in the 8th, but the Sugar Bears scored two in the inning to make it a 5-4 ballgame. In the top of the 9th, Jonathan Papelbon retired the two of the first three batters, giving up a single to Jason Giambi. But after giving up another single, lefty Arthur Rhodes was brought in to face Jack Cust. Cust proceeded to smash a hard liner past the first baseman for a double, scoring both runners. Joey Devine retired the side in order to pick up his 9th save.

The Arkansas Falcons scored 8 times in the late innings of yesterday's game against Hillsborough to pick up an 11-5 win. Lance Berkman was 2-5 with a homer and 4 RBIs. Jeremy Affeldt, signed yesterday afternoon, was put to the test immediately and picked up a 3-inning save.

Ant Slayers have been slain

The Ant Slayers' winning streak has finally been snapped at 7 thanks to a 1-0 brilliant pitching effort from Jon Danks. The Mighty Men pitcher held the Slayers to only 2 hits over 8 innings, while striking out 7. Poor Jon Lester did all he could to keep the streak alive, pitching 7.2 innings of 3-hit ball, giving up only one unearned run. But it wasn't enough. The game's lone run scored in the 6th when Adrian Beltre singled in Kevin Youkilis from second.

Hoboken wished that they could break their streak. Yesterday the Cutters lost 7-6 to Team Buddah making it 7 straight losses. The Cutters had a nice 6-3 lead going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Buddahs exploded for 4 runs to claim the lead. Elijah Dukes was 2-4 in the contest with 3 RBIs. Hoping to get rid of some bad juju, the Cutters released transaction posterboy Matt Joyce. Joyce will now try to latch on to his 5th team this season.

D.C. recently cut the volatile Oliver Perez after a disappointing start to his season, but Philadelphia was quick to claim the lefthander. After passing through waivers, the Endzone Animals wasted no time throwing him into a game. Perez started yesterday's matchup against the Falcons and, well, the results were not pretty. Perez was torched for 7 runs (6 earned) in 1.2 innings. Perez said that it was not fair to make him pitch on Cinco de Mayo. The Mexican-born pitcher was all set to celebrate his new-found freedom with some friends at a local Chevy's restaurant when he got the call that he was starting. "Generalissimo Seguín would have been very dissapointed" said Perez in a post-game conference. "My corazon was not in the game. Perhaps next time they will think twice and check the calendar when they start me." After the game, general manager and owner Bocci Pucci said "We thought he would have been proud to start the game on such an historic date, but I guess he'd rather be eating tacos and guacamole."

Crawford speeds his way to milestone

The hottest team currently in the DMBL is no doubt the Amityville Ant Slayers. The Slayers have pulled themselves out of the basement with their current winning streak and are now at .500 with a 25-25 record. Yesterday's 6-3 win over D.C. was their 7th in a row. Roy Oswalt carried the team with an 8-inning performance in which he held the O-Bombers to 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 12. The Ant Slayers take on the first-place Mighty Men next and it will be impressive if they could carry the streak through the series.

Newark stole a victory away from Carolina yesterday in extra innings despite only getting 4 hits in the entire game! Carolina held a 4-0 lead going into the 8th. Carlos Zambrano had been working on a no-hitter going into the 9th. Zambrano walked the first two batters, but got the third to pop out. Then Manny Ramirez came up and crushed one into the left field bleachers to bring the score to within one. The no-hitter, the shutout were both gone, but at least the lead was intact. Carolina brought in Brian Fuentes to seal the deal, as Zambrano was looking fatigued. Unfortunately, Fuentes walked the next batter and gave up a double to Jed Lowrie to tie up the game. Off they went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th, Lowrie came through once again, doubling in the winning run to end the game. The Cats gave up only 4 hits in the game, but they walked 9.

Blue Ridge's Carl Crawford was 3-5 in his team's 4-1 victory over New Jersey. Crawford also stole his 11th base of the season, giving him 200 for his career - the 6th player to achieve the feat. Crawford passes Chuck Knoblauch (199). Crawford's next step will be to pass Omar Vizquel (212) and Roberto Alomar (213). Kenny Lofton (284) is the all time leader. So who will be the next 200-base stealer? Well it might be a while. Juan Pierre (184) and Edgar Renteria (172) are the closest, but both are without jobs currently. Alex Rodriguez, with 173, is the closest active player and may be the best bet despite stolen bases not being a major part of his game these days.

Galarraga, back on track, takes prize

This week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week is Philadelphia's Fred Lewis. Hey wasn't he the guy who played Webster? No, no that's Emmanuel. Lewis is the outfielder that Philadelphia acquired from Carolina earlier this season in the Magglio Ordonez deal. Wait, wasn't he a tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles? Chad Lewis. Stay on topic here. Lewis has been on fire for the Endzone Animals of late. This week he hit .458 with a .548 on base percentage and .833 slugging with 2 doubles, 2 triples, a home run, 7 runs scored, and 9 RBIs. Wait, I know, he's that angry comedian guy who's complaining about Aruba's weather or something like that. Ugh, that's Lewis Black. You're way off, try to pay attention. Lewis has been a big part of the Endzone Animals turnaround. When he was acquired from Carolina, the Animals were 7-12. Since then, they've gone 22-9 and are now in 4th place (oh but it's a close 4th place, they are only 1 game behind 3rd place Hillsborough and 2 1/2 games out of first place). OK, so he's the guy that explored the frontiers to the Pacific and all that? I give up.

Other contenders: Lewis' strongest competition came from Newark's J.D. Drew (.450/.560/850, 2 HR, 6 R, 8 RBI) and Amityville's Johnny Damon (.448/.419/.966, 3 HR, 4 2B, 10 RBI, 8 R). Either one could have easily won it, but I wouldn't have gotten to do my little schtick above, so there. Besides no way I'd give it to Damon with an OBP lower than his batting average! That's a big strike against you. More... Elijah Dukes of Team Buddah hit 5 homers and drove in 9 runs; Dustin Pedroia had a solid week for Carolina (.472/.486/.722); Hillsborough's Aubrey Huff (.433/.452/.733) kept up his stellar season; Arkansas' Rick Ankiel (.474/476/.895) and Marietta's Kevin Youkilis (.414/.452/.759) also had notable weeks.

It was an easy pick for this week's Text Messages From Last Night Pitcher of the Week Award. After starting the season 0-7 with a 9.17 ERA, Armando Galarraga, Amityville's 2nd round pick in the 2009 draft, finally won his first game with 7 shutout innings against Hoboken. He followed that up with an excellent effort against D.C. Sunday for his second win. For the week, Galarraga was 2-0 with an 0.60 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. Hey, didn't he used to play first base... We're not doing this again.

It was a good week to be a pitcher in Carolina. Ace starter Roy Halladay was 2-0 with a 2.40 ERA and 0.87 WHIP and 14 strikeouts. His teammate John Maine also did well, winning both his starts with a 2.70 ERA and 13 Ks. They were both helped out by closer Brian Fuentes who saved 4 games in his 4 appearances.

Other notables - Zack Greinke of Vancouver won his two starts (2-0, 2.12 0.76 WHIP) and Philadelphia's Brandon Webb was 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA and 0.96 WHIP.

Drought in Vegas

Two straight games, two straight shutout losses for the Rat Pack. Going back to Tuesday's game against Newark, the Rat Pack have now failed to score in 20 consecutive innings. First it was Joe Saunders and the Sugar Bears that held the Rat Pack to 4 hits in a 12-0 loss. Then yesterday Roy Oswalt kept them to 5 hits in a 3-0 affair. What makes it so shocking is that this is no weak-hitting team. Las Vegas is 4th overall in total runs scored and the team ranks first in OPS. The Rats face Jon Lester today and all eyes will be on the Vegas bats to see if they will continue the slump or break out in explosive fashion.

Carolina's Carlos Zambrano combined with Brian Fuentes on a 6-hit shutout, not that anyone was paying attention. Zambrano's shutout was much less elegant as he walked 7 Philadelphia batters in the 2-0 game. Zambrano improved to 7-2 with the effort.

How bad do the Bombers feel after yesterday's debacle? The Bombers had built up an insurmountable 13-0 lead in the 5th inning, but Vancouver didn't give up. The Fist scored 10 runs in the next three innings to bring the deficit to 13-10. A nervous Francisco Rodriguez was called into the 9th inning to shut the door on the comeback and things looked good as K-Rod sent back the first two batters. Then it all came unraveled. Rodriguez walked Ken Griffey, then gave up a double to Adam Lind. Rodriguez flubbed an easy toss to get the third out that scored Griffey, then Troy Glaus doubled in Lind, making it a one-run game. Rodriguez then walked pinch-hitter Adam Jones and was visibly shaken. Rodriguez threw a wild pitch that scored the tying run before striking out the final batter of the inning. Suddenly Vancouver was looking like the team of destiny and a sure victory for Blue Ridge was now in extra innings. In the 12th, Griffey drove home the winning run on a single up the middle, sealing the comeback victory.

The Curious Case of Matt Joyce

Just who is this Matt Joyce character that seems to be finding his way onto multiple DMBL rosters?

Joyce, a DMBL rookie, was drafted in the 8th round of the 2009 draft by New Jersey (109th overall). Joyce didn't even make it to opening day. The Buddahs cut Joyce on March 13th, just before the season officially started. A few weeks later, Philadelphia traded away star outfielder Magglio Ordonez, leaving a void in their outfield. The Endzone Animals took a chance on the young Joyce, hoping he might compete with newly-acquired Fred Lewis for the spot. Well, he lost. Joyce only got into 4 games, getting one hit in five at bats with two strikeouts. Not that Lewis was doing any better at that point. Lewis was only hitting a mere .140 at the time, but the club liked his potential better, so Joyce was cut a week after getting signed. The move panned out for Philly too - Lewis is batting .343/.409/.485 since being acquired from Carolina.

Two days later, Joyce was claimed by the powerhouse Sugar Bears. The Sugar Bears have a long legacy of turning no-names like Jack Cust, Mark DeRosa, and Frank Menechino into stars. Surely Matt Joyce would finally turn his season around. Well, no, it just wasn't happening in Newark. The club couldn't find a role for Joyce and he only saw one at bat in 6 games before being released less than a week later.

It took 9 days for Joyce to latch onto his 4th team of the season. The Hoboken Cutters were hit with a pair of injuries that took out a couple of their starting outfielders. First Marlon Byrd, then Ryan Church landed on the DL. Joyce was passed over for Josh Willingham, but the Cutters decided to give him a chance after the second injury. All this time, Joyce just wanted a real chance to show what he could do. Sure enough, the Cutters put Joyce into the starting lineup and he's gotten 21 at bats so far with Hoboken. Unfortunately for Joyce, he's hitting a paltry .143 with a .280 on base percentage and .190 slugging. Church and Byrd are due back in about a week. The good news is that Joyce, as bad as he's been, is barely outhitting Willingham, so he may buy himself an extra day or two. The bad news is that he'll probably be let loose as soon as both outfielders are healthy.

Will he latch onto a 5th team? Stay tuned...