R.I.P. Josh Hancock

D.C. Bushslappers middle reliever Josh Hancock died tragically in a car accident over the weekend. He will however courageously continue through the end of the season, or however long, D.C. wants him, to pitch through his contract this season. "That's just the kind of guy Josh was" said teammate Dan Wheeler. Perhaps on his darkest day, he was given a spiritual boost when called on to pitch in the 16th inning of a marathon game with the Mighty Men. Hancock allowed the tying run to score, but pitched the 17th inning to record his third win of the season. Though not technically a rookie, Hancock was in his first season in the DMBL. He was drafted by Vancouver in the 2007 draft, but did not make the team out of spring training. D.C. later signed Hancock to bolster their relief corps. Hancock is not the first to fulfill his contract after dying. Mike Darr and Darryl Kile both were drafted and played after their deaths, though they were not very effective. "Vell, vat do you expect? Zey ver dead?" said former Sugar Bears team physician Otto von Frankenstein.

Jason Schmidt had a big day Friday night against South Boston. Schmidt pitched a complete game 4-hit shutout of the Gang to improve to 5-2 on the season. Schmidt is now tied with Tom Glavine for #15 on the all-time shutout list and his three strikeouts tied him with Bartolo Colon at number 14 with 1220 in his career. He also moved past Andy Benes on the all-time win list to number 24, one behind Colon.

J.D. Drew's injury Saturday opened the door for Curtis Granderson to get his first DMBL starts of his career. Granderson was called up from AAA Tacoma and immediately had an impact. Granderson was 3-4 in both games of yesterday's doubleheader against New Jersey, including two doubles and a triple. Granderson has now earned a shot at proving he belongs on the roster. "We'll let him play out J.D.'s injury and see where he stands when he comes back." said Ironfist manager Darren Daulton. Granderson will initially sit against lefties.

All good things must come to an end

Matt Diaz's hitting streak ended last night at 23 with an 0-4 against South Boston. Despite getting a hit during all five straight losses prior to yesterday, the streak came to an end in a victory for the Mighty Men. Apparently Diaz was just satisfied in passing Miguel Cabrera for the season-high hitting streak. "No way Cabrera should have that recognition...he doesn't deserve it" said Diaz after the game. "Anyone but a damned Cutter." It is unknown why Diaz is so livid with the Hoboken organization at this time. Meanwhile South Boston's five-game winning streak also came to a halt after the 8-6 Marietta victory.

The Mudcats shocked the Animals again yesterday, besting them and ace starter Johan Santana 4-1 yesterday. Santana was not involved in the decision as he and Mudcat starter Carlos Zambrano had dueled to a 1-1 tie through seven innings only to watch J.J. Putz give up RBI doubles to Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore in the eighth. The Cats have a ways to go to climb back into the playoff picture, but at least they're on the right track again.

D.C.'s hardluck pitcher Anibal Sanchez finally got his first win yesterday against Vancouver. Despite a 2.55 ERA and five quality starts, Sanchez was 0-5 in his first eight games this year. Sanchez was not at his best yesterday (8 IP, 5 ER, 1 K) but the Bushslappers finally scored some runs for him, giving Sanchez his first career DMBL victory. Jose Reyes was 5-6 in the game with three stolen bases. "Sanchez begged me before the game to do what I could to win the game for him" said Reyes after the game. "I told him to stop crying and act like a man."

The Gang's all here

The Mudcat moves seem to have worked for one game anyway. The Cats edged the first-place Animals 4-3 yesterday behind a solid outing from Roy Halladay (though he didn't figure into the decision) and three-hit games from Rocco Baldelli and Aramis Ramirez.

Still waiting, Barry....

Cliff Lee is making a case to stick in the Sharks rotation with a solid outing yesterday against the Rat Pack. Lee is now 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA in two starts filling in for the injured Jered Weaver.

South Boston has been on a little bit of a run lately, winning their fifth straight against Marietta yesterday. Aaron Harang shut down the Mighty Men for 7 innings, allowing only an unearned run and striking out 10. Poor Jeff Suppan finally pitched an outing for Marietta without getting destroyed, but had to settle for the loss (and lowering...yes lowering... his ERA to 10.13). During the game Matt Diaz extended his hitting streak to a league-high 23 games, besting Miguel Cabrera's earlier streak of 22.

Hoboken certainly got their revenge on Tuesday's smackdown from Newark. Hoboken pounded on the Sugar Bears to a 13-5 tune. The Cutters had 21 hits in total. Geoff Jenkins was 5-6 with 3 RBIs and Miguel Cabrera was 4-5 with 4 RBIs and a homer.

Philly's obsession with Khalil Greene continues as the Animals re-signed the shortstop for the second time this season. His playing time should be limited though as the club activated David Eckstein from his month-long sting on the DL.

Mudcats clean house

They're at it again...The Sugar Bears had their second 20-run game of the season, this time against the Hoboken Cutters (no Jason Jennings was not traded to Hoboken). Newark pounded Hoboken 21-8 yesterday on 24 hits and only 6 walks this time. (DMBLNews readers will remember the last game was largely the fault of 11 walks in the first two innings) The game was actually a more modest 13-8 in the middle of the eighth when Newark exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the eighth off relievers Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper. Newark scored in every inning except the first and only hit two home runs in the game (both two-run shots). Michael Barrett and Nick Swisher each had four RBIs and five Sugar Bear batters had three hits apiece.

Carolina made a statement yesterday - cutting Tadahito Iguchi, Aubrey Huff, and Rheal Cormier. The club hopes that the moves will serve as a warning to the team that the poor play will not be tolerated. Jose Vidro was also benched for the near future in favor of newcomers Ron Belliard and Mark Loretta. Kiko Calero, cut by Vancouver earlier this year, will fill in for Cormier.

Pujols powers Philly

Hoboken's Scott Kazmir pitched a six-hit shutout of Las Vegas yesterday. Kazmir struck out 9 to improve to 3-4 on the year. Not only was it the first shutout of Kazmir's young career, but also his first complete game. Probably unnoticed in this game was a fine effort from Vegas' Anthony Reyes (6 IP, 2 ER, 6 K) whose last five starts have been lousy. Reyes has not had a quality start since his first two starts of the year.

Chris Carpenter returned to action for South Boston on Monday and picked up the win despite looking a bit rusty. Carpenter pitched 7.1 innings and allowed four runs and six walks. South Boston won for the fourth straight time.

Philadelphia solidified their hold on the Morris Division lead and knocked Arkansas into third place with a come-from-behind effort last night. The Animals scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth, including an Albert Pujols walk-off grand salami off reliever Justin Duchscherer. It was Pujols' second homer of the night. Pujols ended up driving in six of Philly's seven runs in the game.

The top pitching line of the day goes to Hillsborough's Jeremy Bonderman who held the Mudcats to three hits and no runs, while striking out nine in a complete game, 4-0 victory.

Look for a new Rookie Watch article later today. Phil Plantier will look at the rookies in the Morris Division.

Thome Boy

A few items of note. Jim Thome hit his 400th DMBL homer yesterday in Marietta's loss to New Jersey Sunday. It was Thome's ninth of the season. Thome is just the fifth player to reach 400. Moving into number seven on the all-time list was Manny Ramirez, who took last week off. Ramirez returned Sunday and hit his 14th homer of the season to help defeat the Sharks.

The Falcons are still waiting on Bonds to hit his 600th. Bonds has been stuck on 599 since Tuesday's game with South Boston. In fact, Bonds is mired in a 2-22 (.091) slump since that game.

Newark's Kevin Millwood, who had come up one strikeout short in his last outing, finally got his 1000th career strikeout in the Game against the Sharks. Millwood improved to 4-1 on the season.

Don't look now but Marietta's Matt Diaz has an active 21-game hit streak, which is only one less than Miguel Cabrera's hit streak earlier in the season. Diaz streak began with a 5-5 night against Las Vegas and he is hitting .426 (40-94) during the course of the streak, raising his average from .233 to .341.

Prior beware

Philly topped Arkansas again yesterday, this time in a slightly more convincing fashion - 8-5. Philly now holds a 2 1/2 game lead on the Falcons and has moved into the number one spot overall. That's because the Sugar Bears dropped another game to the Sharks. The Sharks are now one game behind Newark with one game left in the series. The Sharks pounded away on the Sugar Bears for the second straight day, 12-7.

The Bushslappers are starting to wake up. D.C. exploded on South Boston yesterday 13-4 and are now sitting in fifth, but still seven games under .500. It was the third win in a row for D.C. John Maine improved to 4-1 and Carlos Beltran hit a pinch hit grand slam in the eighth. D.C. scored 10 runs in the final three innings of the game.

Philadelphia finally gave up on oft-injured Mark Prior. Prior had a good start to his career, but recently he has struggled to stay on the mound. Team doctors said that he would not pitch this season after being shut down in the second half last year. It is unknown whether Prior will be back to pitch next year. Prior, who was 7-7 with a 5.09 ERA in 24 games last year, will take the time off to try to rehabilitate himself. Philly pitching coach Dave Righetti was regretful about the decision, but conceded that Prior faced a lot of hurdles. "It's tough to give up on a kid that talented, but in the end we need a player that we can count on for innings" Righetti said. "Hopefully we'll be in a position to take him back when he gets himself on track."