Crawford speeds his way to milestone

The hottest team currently in the DMBL is no doubt the Amityville Ant Slayers. The Slayers have pulled themselves out of the basement with their current winning streak and are now at .500 with a 25-25 record. Yesterday's 6-3 win over D.C. was their 7th in a row. Roy Oswalt carried the team with an 8-inning performance in which he held the O-Bombers to 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 12. The Ant Slayers take on the first-place Mighty Men next and it will be impressive if they could carry the streak through the series.

Newark stole a victory away from Carolina yesterday in extra innings despite only getting 4 hits in the entire game! Carolina held a 4-0 lead going into the 8th. Carlos Zambrano had been working on a no-hitter going into the 9th. Zambrano walked the first two batters, but got the third to pop out. Then Manny Ramirez came up and crushed one into the left field bleachers to bring the score to within one. The no-hitter, the shutout were both gone, but at least the lead was intact. Carolina brought in Brian Fuentes to seal the deal, as Zambrano was looking fatigued. Unfortunately, Fuentes walked the next batter and gave up a double to Jed Lowrie to tie up the game. Off they went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th, Lowrie came through once again, doubling in the winning run to end the game. The Cats gave up only 4 hits in the game, but they walked 9.

Blue Ridge's Carl Crawford was 3-5 in his team's 4-1 victory over New Jersey. Crawford also stole his 11th base of the season, giving him 200 for his career - the 6th player to achieve the feat. Crawford passes Chuck Knoblauch (199). Crawford's next step will be to pass Omar Vizquel (212) and Roberto Alomar (213). Kenny Lofton (284) is the all time leader. So who will be the next 200-base stealer? Well it might be a while. Juan Pierre (184) and Edgar Renteria (172) are the closest, but both are without jobs currently. Alex Rodriguez, with 173, is the closest active player and may be the best bet despite stolen bases not being a major part of his game these days.

Berkman, Wright stay red hot

Lance Berkman kept his hot streak alive with another home run today and 4 RBIs. David Wright is trying to keep pace with a homer and 2 RBIs as well. Both players have exploded the last two games and will compete over the weekend for a box of Fonsecas. Arkansas was getting blown out in last night's game by a 9-3 margin entering the bottom of the 8th, but Wright hit his 2-run homer to bring the team to within 4 runs. Then in the 9th, it all fell apart for D.C. Ray Durham led off with a single then Ty Wigginton was hit by a pitch. Martin Prado and Ryan Ludwick both walked. Then with the bases loaded, Berkman hit a mammoth shot over the right field wall to win the game for Arkansas.

Adam Wainwright shut out the Iron Fist on 3 hits in a 4-0 win for Blue Ridge. Carl Crawford was 4-4 and Michael Young hit a homer and drove in 2 against his former club. Vancouver's offense has gone into a tailspin since David Ortiz was injured 4 days ago. Since then, the club has scored a total of 4 runs and has 25 hits in 4 games. The good news is that Ryan Doumit will rejoin the team today after being out for almost 3 weeks. The bad news is, the catchers were not the problem - Victor Martinez and Jeff Clement have combined to go 6 for 15 in the past 4 games (.400 average).

Roy Oswalt pitched the day's other shutout - a 4-hit effort against Las Vegas. Oswalt struck out 9 Rats to improve to 4-3 in the 4-0 victory.

The Sugar Bears rallied in the 9th to take a 6-5 decision against the Cutters. Jack Cust's 3-run homer gave the Sugar Bears just enough to overcome the deficit while Joey Devine pitched a 1-2-3 inning for his 7th save. With the Rats and Mighty Men both losing, the Sugar Bears are once again tied for 1st place in the Hanover Division.

Crawford leads Bombers to 5 straight

Blue Ridge continued their hot streak, taking their fifth straight and sweeping Arkansas with an 8-6 win. The Falcons scored 6 runs in the first inning but the Bombers would not be deterred. The Bombers took the lead with a 5-run 4th inning that featured a 2-run Mark DeRosa home run. Neither starting pitcher lasted long. Gavin Floyd was chased in the first inning and the Falcons' Ricky Nolasco was ousted in the 4th, but the bullpens did the job. The two bullpens only gave up one run in their 12.2 innings combined - and that one earned run was given up by Jose Valverde, who left the game with an injury. Carl Crawford was 4-5 with 3 RBIs, missing the cycle for the second straight day by one home run.

Jose Reyes was 5-5, leading his team to a 7-2 win over Vancouver. Reyes had a double and a triple, plus a stolen base in the contest. Oliver Perez held the Fist to only 2 hits over 6.2 innings, but he was wild, giving up 4 walks and 2 runs. In the game, Ryan Spilborghs' hitting streak came to an end - yes we got the death threats about jinxing him yesterday, thank you Chester M. in Tacoma.

Amityville knocked off Hoboken 8-6 yesterday, perhaps basking in the positive glow of picking up outfielder Lastings Milledge off waivers from D.C. Milledge was 1-2 in the game, but the team said he brought something more to the game. "It's the intangibles that Milledge brings and a general positive outlook" said teammate Pat Burrell. Burrell was so inspired by Milledge's optimism that he hit a 3-run game winning home run yesterday.

Newark took the rubber match of their series with Vegas yesterday, but it wasn't easy. The two teams battled it out for 14 innings, until Newark broke the 2-2 tie with a 4-run inning. Vegas tried to rally but could only score one more run - OK, the Sugar Bears practically gave it to them when Joey Devine walked two batters and then Scott Downs tossed a pitch in the dirt to score the lone run, but I digress.

The Tradewinds are blowing

Now that the Guerrero deal has broken the proverbial cherry, it seems like a flood of trades are being unleashed. With the deadline less than a week away, teams are scrambling.

Today D.C. agreed to trade away Carl Crawford, Ray Durham, Francisco Rodriguez, and a 1st round pick to Blue Ridge for Dan Uggla and their first two draft picks next year. Blue Ridge, who has been relatively quiet all year, has awoken with a vengeance. Unfortunately for both teams, the Damian Miller rule prevents the trade from being consummated until Saturday at the earliest. This is because D.C. is trading away two players who were acquired less than a week ago. Francisco Rodriguez was acquired by D.C. from Las Vegas Saturday and Ray Durham, signed on Friday by D.C. are the two players in question. The league is still waiting on a response to see if the deal will fall apart or continue as planned.

A second, smaller deal saw Arkansas trade Adam Dunn to the Endzone Animals in exchange for reliever Jonathan Sanchez and a 3rd round pick.

Curt Schilling pitched a solid game to win his 9th of the season and 201st of the year. Yes, we forgot to point out that Schilling had picked up his milestone 200th win in his previous start but we'll try to stay on the ball going forward. Schilling also moved ahead of Pedro Martinez for fifth overall in games started (388). Schilling's teammate Roger Clemens will also tie up Pedro for 3rd on the wins list with his next victory.