Harang, Lester duel in 1-0 battle

Philly battled the Mighty Men to a 1-0 victory. Newly-acquired Aaron Harang turned in a gem (8.2 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 K) to win his first as a member of the Endzone Animals. Jon Lester ended up on the hardluck end of the decision despite pitching 7 innings of 1-run ball. Chris Young was the difference in the game with a solo home run in the 4th inning.

Arkansas put an end to Tampa Bay's 6-game winning streak with a 17-7 blowout. The Falcons busted out with 11 runs in the 7th inning. The Plunkers fell back to a full game behind Hillsborough. Arkansas, at 6 1/2 games, is still alive for the final playoff spot, though they are a longshot.

Vancouver held off the Sugar Bears and escaped with a 5-4 win over the Hanover Division leaders. The game was tied 1-1 until the Fist rallied for three runs in the 7th, but the Sugar Bears quickly tied up the game in the 8th when Bobby Abreu hit a 3-run homer. Newark got into trouble in the bottom of the inning and Vancouver took the lead on a fielder's choice. Billy Wagner, struggling for much of the season, got out of trouble in the ninth and recorded his 9th save.

The Rat Pack was upset by Blue Ridge in an unlikely 13-7 defeat. The Bombers scored 6 runs in the 8th inning to snatch victory away from the Rats. Jose Vidro was 4-5 with 3 RBIs, Jeremy Hermida was 3-3, and Hunter Pence was 3-4 to lead the Bomber offense.

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.

Division Contenders Clash

Honolulu took round one against the Sugar Bears yesterday. The two teams' bullpens battled it out after both starters were chased fairly early in the game. Adrian Gonzalez broke the tie in the top of the ninth with a solo homer to give the Sharks the 7-6 lead. Tom Gordon, who was traded to the Sharks from the Sugar Bears in the offseason, got the victory and nailed down the bottom of the ninth. Jeff Francis and Javier Vazquez face off in tonight's game.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia also squeaked out a victory against the Golden Falcons last night in extra innings. Philly was clinging to a 4-3 lead for most of the game until the Falcons scored a trifecta in the eighth to bring the score to 6-4 in favor of Arkansas. But Justin Duchscherer couldn't hold the lead and gave up a two-run homer to Albert Pujols to tie the game. In the tenth Khalil Greene hit another homer off Duchscherer to give the Animals a 7-6 lead. Francisco Rodriguez retired the Falcons in order to earn his seventh save of the season. Tonight it's Erik Bedard against Daniel Cabrera.

Jose Contreras pitched a shutout for Team Buddah against the Mighty Men. Contreras allowed ten hits and struck out seven to earn his first victory of the season.

From the Blog Bits file: Mike Piazza hit his 300th career double Wednesday, the 24th player in DMBL history to achieve the milestone. Bobby Abreu's next double will also be his 300th...We are all waiting for Barry to hit #600, but Jim Thome of Marietta will hit #400 when he hits his next home run... Kevin Millwood is now one shy of 1000 strikeouts on the season...