Hoboken rolls along

Hoboken continued their roll, smashing Marietta 14-6. Mighty Men starter Gil Meche was mercilessly pounded for 11 runs in five innings, earning the starter a spot on the bench. "He's lucky we didn't go to Paul Byrd" said owner David Landsman after the game. Meche's ERA ballooned to 6.96. Hoboken's Vicente Padilla improved to 10-3 on the season, despite giving up five runs. Josh Bard and Ian Kinsler each had four RBIs and a homer in the game. Hoboken has now won six straight and is only 1/2 a game behind Marietta, who lost four in a row.

David Ortiz continues to mash the ball, hitting two homers in a 5-4 loss to Carolina yesterday. Ortiz now has 32 homers on the year. Chris Carpenter rebounded well after his 11-run performance last week - pitching seven shut out innings, but the Vancouver pen blew it with a 5-run eighth inning which included a bases-loaded walk.

Carlos Beltran's 5 RBI led D.C. to a 12-4 rout of the Falcons. John Maine pitched six shutout innings despite surrendering six walks and five hits.

New Jersey's Tom Gorzelanny held the Rat Pack to only three hits and two runs over eight innings. The rookie has had some trouble with run support this year, but managed to get his fourth win of the season. Gorzelanny is only 4-8 despite a decent 4.17 ERA this year.

Newark barely survived their game against Sardine City yesterday. After a close 4-4 tie led the game to extra innings, the Straphangers played "small-ball" in the top of the 10th and manufactured the go-ahead run. Usually reliable B.J. Ryan was brought in to close the game in the bottom of the inning, but it wasn't meant to be. Nick Johnson scored to tie it on a Nick Swisher single and then later Manny Ramirez singled in Mark DeRosa to win it for the Sugar Bears.

Brandon Webb and Aaron Harang both pitched complete games in yesterday's South Boston-Philadelphia game, but it was Harang who came out on top. Harang limited the Animals to only one run on three hits, while striking out 10.

Down and Out in D.C.

It was a light day in the DMBL yesterday, but Honolulu kept on truckin'. The Sharks have now won ten in a row. They are now tied for the third best record in the league and only one game back of the first place Sugar Bears! Consider that when they started the streak they were a mere 8-10 and somewhere in the middle of the pack and now they are in the elite. After Weaver's brilliant start and Jason Schmidt's excellent outing yesterday, you'd think they did it all with pitching, but look further and you'll see that their offense is gelling right now. In fact, the Sharks have scored 45 runs in their last five games - a Sugar Bears-like 9 runs per game. In case you were wondering, the current record is 16 set by Arkansas in 1993 and tied by Vancouver in 1996.

And our other featured streak continued yesterday as Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera extended his hitting streak to 19. He's almost halfway to the record now, we'll check in on him if he gets a little closer.

D.C. just can't seem to break out of their funk. It looked like it might happen after they won back to back games against Arkansas earlier in the week, but they fell right back down after that. Carlos Beltran (.190/.301/.343) has been taking a lot of the blame - he was benched in the vs. right handers lineup - but it's not just him. Matt Holliday (.177) and Jose Reyes (.226) have struggled and Kelvim Escobar (0-3, 5.51) and Bronson Arroyo (0-3, 9.10) have been brutal. They have several games scheduled with fellow slumpee South Boston next week, so this could be their chance to turn things around.