Rock you like a Hurri-Cain

Matt Cain came roaring back off the disabled list, shutting out the Mudcats on two hits and striking out 9 in 9 innings. Cain improved to 3-3 on the season. Cain had missed two starts and was replaced by Kason Gabbard, who was released to make room.

Vancouver's Zack Greinke improved to 7-0 on the season with a solid effort against the Bushslappers yesterday. Greinke pitched 7.2 innings, surrendering two runs on 5 hits and one walk. Vancouver's number one pick in the 2008 draft started out in the bullpen this season, but got his first shot in the rotation when Chad Billingsley was hurt early in the season. He returned fulltime to the rotation after Rich Hill's disastrous starts and never looked back. Greinke and Tampa Bay's Andy Pettitte (6-0) are the last two undefeated pitchers in the league.

Jason Hirsh pitched his final game as a Rat yesterday, a solid effort, but a no-decision. Hirsh ended up 0-2, with a 3.71 ERA in 4 starts. He was released to make room for Orlando Hernandez's return from the DL yesterday. Speaking of the Rats, reliever Brett Myers cost the team for the second straight game, blowing a 6-5 lead Tuesday and a 4-3 lead yesterday. Myers now has an 8.87 ERA in 17 appearances this season. How long can the Rats stick with the disappointing Myers?

Hoboken stunned Newark with a 14-10 victory at the Cereal Bowl yesterday, only the fourth home loss for the Sugar Bears. Hanley Ramirez was 5-6 with 4 runs scored and 3 RBIs and came up a double short of hitting for the cycle. Miguel Cabrera also had 4 RBIs. The loss snapped Newark's 6-game streak.

Five things to remember from 2007

As the last post of the year (I'm going to take the day off on Monday), we'll take a look at some of the memories from the 2007 season.

1. Liriano vs. Santana
All year long these two were contending for top pitcher honors. Both had amazing seasons and indeed faced off in the All-Star game. Neither was all that impressive in that game, but Liriano fared slightly better. Oddly enough the two would never face each other in a regular season game, but in round 2 of the playoffs, we finally saw the matchup we were waiting for -- twice! In game one, Liriano clearly outduelled Santana in an 8-2 victory, but game two was more even as both earned non-decisions. Liriano got to pitch in the World Series while Santana watched at home on TV. Liriano and Santana would once again contend, this time for the coveted Ben McDonald Award. Santana won by the skin of his teeth and Liriano was forced to settle for the Pat Listach Award.

2. New Blood
The Sardine City Straphangers and the New Jersey Team Buddah kicked off their inaugural seasons in 2007. Both teams started off with a loss - ok make that seven straight losses! After their eighth try, the Straphangers finally earned their first win and it took Team Buddah one extra game to win in their ninth try. Both teams will look to improve in 2008.

3. Newark's Steamrolling
The Sugar Bears were a powerhouse all season long, setting several offensive records along the way en route to a dominating final record. The Sugar Bears won their unprecedented fourth straight DMBL World Series. Chipper Jones took the Mitchell Award. Five Sugar Bears batters were in the top seven in OPS. Jim Edmonds and Marlon Anderson will forever be remembered for their gaudy and unexpected numbers.

4. Hall of Fame Opens its Doors
The DMBL finally took off in 2007 after much planning. The voters inducted four members: Tony Gwynn, Mark McGwire, Albert Belle, and John Wetteland. Although there weren't many votes, the Hall experienced a great opening year crowd in its Parsippany, New Jersey, location.

5. Brett Myers' Losing streak
Not since the days of Kevin Appier have we seen such a bad start to the season. Well at least as far as I can remember anyway. Either way, Myers faced a brutal start to his '07 campaign, going 0-12 early on. Myers finally broke the hex in May against the Honolulu Sharks. Myers looked like a sure bet to lose 20 games. His ERA stood at 10.62 at one point, but he worked hard with pitching coach Sam "Mayday" Malone and actually finished the season at 10-18 (meaning he was 10-6 following his disastrous 0-12 start). Considering where he stood earlier, his 6.27 ERA was somewhat respectable.

D.C., Hillsborough head in opposite directions

The Sugar Bears' streak is over at twelve after a doubleheader sweep at the hands of South Boston. The Gang took the first game thanks to a 2-homer, 5-RBI outburst from Ramon Hernandez and a solid outing from Dontrelle Willis. Randy Johnson did notch his 2000th career strikeout in the match, but he did not provide much help outside of that. The second game was much closer, but the Gang scored two runs in the eighth (seems to be a popular inning for comebacks) to take the lead 4-3. Brandon League won the game in relief and improved to 8-2.

Francisco Liriano shut out Vancouver 6-0 yesterday to improve to 11-1 on the season. Liriano held Vancouver to 6 hits in 6 innings and the Marietta pen finished the game off. The win spoiled the DMBL debut of Chad Billingsley who only gave up one run over seven innings of work, while striking out six. Billingsley took the place of the struggling Ben Sheets. Sheets was sent down to AAA to work on his mechanics. Vancouver got them back, however, in the second game as Moises Alou blasted three home runs (all solo shots) to help squeak by 8-7. Vancouver actually hit six homers in the contest, though they only managed 8 runs. Gerald Laird was the only one to hit a homer with a runner on base.

D.C. has hit a wall lately, losing their eighth straight game after a marathon 17 inning loss to Honolulu yesterday. D.C. has now dropped into a fourth place tie with Honolulu and is only one game ahead of Hoboken and Hillsborough for sixth place. It's a very tight race lately - 1 1/2 games separates third place Marietta from seventh place, so it'll be very interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.

The anti-Bushslappers have been the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen who have won eight straight and are now tied for the sixth playoff spot with Hoboken. Hillsborough shut down the Cutters yesterday with back-to-back solid performances from Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez. Verlander held the Cutters to only three hits and one run over seven innings in game one and Felix struck out nine in seven innings, while giving up only five hits and one run.

Remember Brett Myers' struggles earlier this season? Well those struggles are ancient history. Since starting the season at 0-12 with an 8.40 ERA, Myers has gone on a bit of a hot streak. He's 5-1 since that low point and has brought his ERA down to 6.34, including seven quality starts in his last eight outings and a recent Pitcher of the Week award.

Take note that the DMBL trading deadline will be this Sunday. After this point, any players that are signed off the waiver wire are not elligible to be kept after the season is over.

Bonds on fire

Bonds. Again. Bonds has now homered in his last five games. Bonds has seven homers in those five games and 29 on the season. Sure, Arkansas lost 5-1 to Vancouver, but has anyone been on such a tear in recent memory? All eyes will be on Barry over the weekend. By the way, Chris Carpenter, who won the game for Vancouver is now 4-2 since being traded from South Boston. The ERA is a bit higher than they'd like at 4.50, but he has been effective recently and more importantly, Carpenter is giving the Fist a lot of innings, giving the struggling bullpen much needed rest.

Philadelphia rallied to beat Hoboken yesterday after being down 5-3 in the ninth. Scott Rolen lined a double off Juan Rincon that scored two runs and gave the Animals the 6-5 lead. Francisco Rodriguez secured the ninth for his 19th save of the season.

Remember when Brett Myers couldn't buy a win...or a quality start for that matter? He's looked like a completely different pitcher lately. With the monkey now off his back, Myers looked excellent against Sardine City on Thursday, holding the Straphangers to only one run on seven hits in eight innings for his second victory of the year. He's still not getting any run support, but at least things are starting to fall his way. His ERA is now down to 6.96.

Making an emergency start for injured Gil Meche, Brad Hennessey looked very solid against Honolulu. Hennessey pitched eight innings and allowed only two runs on seven hits. Hennessey had spent the earlier part of the season in relief for the Mighty Men.

Josh Willingham's 5 RBIs propelled the Hired Hitmen to a 9-6 victory over South Boston. Willingham hit two homers in the game - his 8th and 9th of the season. Hillsborough has now won four in a row and is only three games under .500. With the streak, the Hitmen are now back in the playoff picture, only four games back of Vancouver.

The Myers Hex is over

Brett Myers finally broke the curse Sunday by shutting out the Sharks for seven innings and earning his first win of the season. Myers has actually been pitching fairly well over his last three appearances, lowering his ERA from 9.87 to 7.73. It may not seem like much, but after the way his season began, he probably feels like Cy Young right now.

D.C.'s Frank Thomas passed Gary Sheffield for the 12th spot on the home run list with 341. Thomas has only seven homers and is batting .221 in a part-time role. Ken Griffey of Sardine City also hit a milestone Saturday by passing Jeff Bagwell for the number four slot in career hits, his 2048th.

Friday Night Blog Bits: Johan Santana is now two strikeouts away from 1000 on his career. He would be the 23rd player to achieve the goal...Albert Pujols hit home run number 200 and Manny Ramirez his home run number 400 in their careers. Manny is now sixth all-time, while Pujols has some work to do - he's only at #37...Tom Glavine is only four strikeouts away from 1500 in his career.

Liriano-no? Almost

Yesterday was a light day - there were only four games.
Brett Myers was solid again yesterday, only allowing one earned run in 6.2 innings, but still lost, dropping to 0-12 on the season. That sort of thing tends to happen when your opponent almost throws a no-hitter against you! Francisco Liriano held the Rat Pack hitless over eight but, after walking the leadoff batter in the ninth, manager Graig Nettles pulled Liriano for specialist Chad Qualls, who promptly gave up the first hit of the game to Marcus Giles. Mariano Rivera came in to shut the door, but gave up a three-run homer to Ryan Zimmerman. Suddenly the lead was very shaky, but Rivera retired the next three batters in order. Liriano was upset that he didn't get to go for the no-no, but after 118 pitches and a DL stint recently in his past, Nettles wasn't going to take any chances. Liriano finished the night 8 IP, 1 ER, 0 hits, 3 walks, and 11 Ks.

Randy Johnson mowed down the Mudcats, limiting them to two runs over six innings and striking out nine. Johnson improved to 7-2 on the season and is now only 27 strikeouts away from 3000 and seven wins from 200 for his career.

D.C. edged Philadelphia after dropping the first two games against the Animals. Alfonso Soriano was 3-4 with two homers and three RBIs. Adam LaRoche had four RBIs in a losing cause.

The Sharks pounded away on Cole Hamels and the Straphangers. Hamels was not pitching badly, but left with an undisclosed injury in the fifth. Hamels picked up the loss and is now 2-10 on the season, but will miss at least two weeks. No word on who his replacement will be. Meanwhile, Kenny Rogers had a solid outing after returning from AAA to replace the injured Roy Oswalt. Rogers pitched 8.2 innings while surrendering only one earned run.

Blog Bits: In case you missed it, Greg Maddux's last start put him over 3000 innings for his career... Mike Piazza passed Edgar Martinez (1949) for eighth all-time on the hits list. Piazza now has 1950. Tony Gwynn is next with 1960.

Underrated Overbay

D.C.'s Lyle Overbay has been red-hot lately. After hitting a walk-off grand slam yesterday, Overbay continued his hot hitting with a 4-5 night against Hoboken yesterday, including two more homers. Overbay is now 7-9 with 3 HRs and 6 RBIs in his last two games.

Nomar Garciaparra barely got his glove dusted off before he was forced to leave last night's game with another injury. The first injury kept Garciaparra out for a month and this one may be close to that long. Once again, Shea Hillenbrand and Troy Glaus will fill in for Nomar.

Another more harmful loss was Honolulu's Roy Oswalt, who will miss a month with his injury. Kenny Rogers, who was recently demoted, will fill in for Oswalt. Oswalt was struggling a bit this season (5-5, 5.31) and the time off may help him.

Brett Myers was looking to take another loss yesterday despite an excellent performance, but his offense bailed him out. Myers had limited South Boston to five hits over 8.2 innings, surrendering only two runs and striking out five. However, he was locked in a duel with the Gang's Nate Robertson, who had not given up any runs at that point. Robertson was going for the complete game shutout, but the Rat Pack had something else in mind. Robertson allowed singles to the first two batters he faced and then newly-signed Endy Chavez came through with a double that scored one. Huston Street was brought in to close the game. After an intentional walk to create a force situation, Street gave up a sac fly to tie the game, then, with two outs, Chone Figgins roped a single into right to score the winning run.

Newark and Vancouver slugged it out last night through eleven innings. The game went back and forth until Nick Johnson won it with a two-run homer in the eleventh. Manny Ramirez also hit two homers (one of which tied the game at 11) and was 4-6 with 3 RBIs. Billy Wagner blew his eighth save for Vancouver.

Note tonight there will be a double header followed by an early morning game tomorrow. There will be no games on Saturday and Sunday.

Initial Results

Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia made his first appearance since injuring himself a month ago. Sabathia was solid in his return (6.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 K), but lost to a superior A.J. Burnett in a battle of the initials. A.J. scattered three hits and one earned run in eight innings and struck out eight Hitmen. Mariano Rivera closed out the ninth for his sixth save. Incidentally, Hillsborough released outfielder Juan Pierre to make room for Sabathia. Pierre was struggling this season, but had been a member of the organization and was a regular since 2003.

Speaking of initials, trade talks are heating up in Sardine City as B. J. Ryan has been hotly pursued. Rumors are running wild, but possible fits are Marietta and Hoboken, the latter's bullpen being a disaster so far this season.

The Weekend Ahead: The Brett Myers watch continues Saturday as the much-maligned pitcher looks to end his winless streak against Vancouver. Philly and Newark take turns throwing each others' Johnsons at each other. Randy goes for Newark Friday and Josh starts Saturday for Philly. Newark faces second-place Honolulu after the Philly games. If Newark survives unscathed from the two series, there may be no stopping them.

The DMBL All-Star ballot is now posted so make sure you vote!

Bad day for pitchers

Two teams were crushed yesterday at home. Honolulu routed the Golden Falcons 18-5. Brian McCann had two homers and five RBIs and Jeff Francis improved to 7-1 on the season. Falcons starter Ervin Santana lasted just 2 innings and gave up six runs, but the real damage was done by reliever Brad Lidge, who surrendered eight earned runs, in addition to allowing both of his inherited runners to score. Lidge and Santana combined to walk eight batters and surrendered eight hits and 14 earned runs in 3.1 innings.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the Sugar Bears pounded the Iron Fist to a 17-5 tune. Nick Johnson was 4-6 with 6 RBIs and three homers and Manny Ramirez was 4-5 with one homer. Starter Ben Sheets was ripped apart - 1.2 IP, 6 ER, 6 hits. Vancouver also allowed six unearned runs in the contest. Javier Vazquez was the beneficiary of the run support and improved to 4-2 by limiting the Fist to three hits over six innings, though he did issue five walks.

New Jersey's recent acquisition Matt Guerrier pitched in his first game for Team Buddah and was impressive in 5.1 innings, surrendering no runs and four hits, while striking out three. It wasn't enough because starter Brad Penny was shelled (6 runs, eight hits in 1.2 innings).

Want more starter shellings? How about D.C.'s John Maine who gave up six runs and eight hits in two innings against Hoboken? At least Maine didn't get a loss as the Bushslappers came back to win the game.

How about Sardine City's Tom Glavine who gave up five runs and five hits in two innings in a loss to Hillsborough? The Straphangers ended up using eight pitchers in the game, including Brandon Claussen who was the team's emergency starter earlier in the year.

So did anyone pitch well yesterday? Las Vegas' Chris Young pitched seven scoreless innings against South Boston in picking up the win to improve to 4-4. Young struck out 10 Gangsters. Speaking of Las Vegas, Brett Myers will try to break the hex over him tonight as he tries to win his first game of the season. Myers is currently 0-9 on the year with a 10.38 ERA. "If he doesn't turn things around, I may send him to the pen next year" said team owner Eric Wickstrom.