2019 Eck Award winner: Sean Doolittle

The 2019 Eckersley Rolaids Relief Man of the Year results could not have been any closer, with just one point separating the top two relievers, and the award coming down to the final day of the season.

2019 Playoff MVP

On a team replete with stellar postseason pitching performances, rookie Juan Soto shined in key moments of Livingston's DMBL championship run.

Mules come back for Game 1 win

Allentown twice came back from 2-run deficits before breaking a 4-4 tie in the 7th off Aroldis Chapman to grab a 7-4 win at home in Game 1 of their Wildcard matchup with Philadelphia.

Playoff Race Tightens With Little Decided

Some critical matchups over the weekend did little to quell the uncertainty of the playoff race as the 2012 regular season heads in the final week.

Rowdy (84-73) will begin play today in a tie with Hoboken (84-73) for the 6th and final playoff spot as they prepare for a three-game series at Hillsborough. After reeling off five straight wins, the Hit Men (82-74) now sit just 1 1/2 games back of a wild card but also 5 games behind Drabek division leader Amityville (87-69), whom they face in a season finale series this weekend. The Ant Slayers, with a magic number of 2 to clinch the division, host St. Louis (72-85) for a three-game series starting tonight.

Scheduled starters for Rowdy include two pitchers acquired before the trade deadline while Hillsborough counters with its ace in the third game:

RWD @ HIL
Lee (4-3, 5.31/10-8, 4.38) v. Scherzer (6-15, 6.27) 
Colon (4-3, 4.34/7-9, 3.55) v. Neimann (0-2, 6.12)
Gallardo (8-11, 5.80) v. Verlander (18-8, 2.67)

Meanwhile, a three-game set in Bridgewater looks like it could be a play-in game of sorts between the Mallers and Straphangers. Bridgewater (83-74) is just a game out of a wildcard and Sardine City (81-76) continues to cling to hope, 2 games back of the Mallers and 3 games out of the playoffs -- with 5 to play. Bridgewater lost two out of three to Hopatcong over the weekend in a critical series while Sardine City has won 4 of its last 5, including a sweep of Philly.

Neither Doug Fister nor Javier Vazquez, two starters the teams swapped earlier this year, figure to be among the probable starters in this showdown:

SAR @ BRI
Bailey (7-9, 4.56) v. Beckett (10-9, 3.61) 
Morrow (10-14, 4.67) v. Ogando (12-11, 4.62)
Detweiler (3-4, 6.75) v. Beachy (16-6, 4.75)

If the season ended today, playoff seedings would look like this:
No. 1 Marietta*
No. 2 Vancouver*
No. 3 Amityville
No. 4 Hopatcong
No. 5 Newark
No. 6 Rowdy/Hoboken
* Clinched playoffs

In this scenario, Hoboken and Rowdy would play a one-game playoff to determine the final seed, with the winner facing Amityville while Kruk division rivals Newark (84-72) and Hopatcong (85-71) would duel in the other first-round series. The two appear headed for a potential division title-deciding three-game series to end the regular season, with the runner-up hoping to be in the mix for a wild card. Marietta (103-53) and Vancouver (91-66) would earn first-round byes.

***

In other news over the weekend, Marietta's R.A. Dickey took the loss versus St. Louis, dropping to 18-5, and with just one start remaining, has lost his chance to be the league's only 20-game winner in 2012. Dickey had a respectable 8-inning, 6-hit, 4-run performance against the Farrakhans, but St. Louis prevailed, 6-2. Newark's James Shields and Hillsborough ace Justin Verlander have matched Dickey for the league lead with 18 wins. All three figure to be in the mix for the Ben McDonald Award.

Morrow - no hitter? not quite...

You may have noticed it, but Brandon Morrow thoroughly dominated the Las Vegas Rat Pack in yesterday's 7-0 win. But what you may have missed is that Morrow pitched 8 innings of no-hit ball, only to exit in the 9th inning with the no-hitter still intact! The Vegas crowd loudly booed when Takashi Saito emerged on the mound to start the 9th inning. The game had long been out of hand and the few remaining in the crowd had hung around to witness history. In true karmic fashion, Joe Mauer led off the inning with the first hit of the game for the Rats. Although Saito did manage to complete the game and preserve the shutout, Morrow had been robbed of his place among such DMBL luminaries as Juan Guzman, Brett Myers, and A.J. Burnett. Manager Joe Torre declined to speak to the press after the game. So why was Morrow removed? Morrow did manage to throw 115 pitches, though that doesn't seem like an especially high number, particularly when chasing a historic achievement. Morrow walked five in his 8 innings, suggesting that maybe he was losing it but Morrow struck out all three batters he faced in the 8th and had retired the last 7 batters. Morrow did not appear to have any kind of injury either. Whatever the reason, Torre may need armed protection when the Straphangers return home to host the Rat Packs on Sunday.