Philly tightens grip on Morris lead

Ramon Hernandez's two homers gave the South Boston Gang all that they would need against the lackluster Sardine City Straphangers. Chuck James shut out the Sardines for 6.1 innings and the Gang's bullpen held on for a 7-0 final. South Boston has now won five of their last six though they have a long way to go to be back in contention.

Hillsborough won their 11th straight are now alone in fifth place overall. John Lackey turned in another quality start for the Hitmen, holding the Buddahs to one run in eight innings to improve to 13-6. Carlos Delgado had a three run pinch-hit homer in the sixth to lead the Hitmen to their 7-1 victory.

It took Philadelphia 14 innings to get past the Honolulu Sharks 5-4. The Animals have now won six in a row and are appearing to take a firm hold on the Morris Division lead. Philly is now 6 1/2 games up on the Bushslappers. After starter Matt Cain was roughed up for four runs in five innings, the Philly bullpen held the Sharks to a mere three hits in the final nine innings and surrendered zero runs. The pen also struck out 12 in those nine innings.

Vancouver rallied in the late innings against Hoboken to send their game to extra innings, only to watch the Cutters win the game in the 10th. The Cutters accumulated a 5-0 lead through seven, but Vancouver finally got on the board in the eighth when David Ortiz hit a solo homer. Vancouver scored three more to tie it up in the ninth after Jason Isringhausen's two-base error opened the floodgates. A Chris Shelton double in the tenth put Hoboken back on top to stay.

Backman's Blunder

The Cutters and Jon Garland were cruising to a 1-0 victory yesterday over the Bushslappers, when they hit a bit of a snag. Manager Wally Backman decided that after Garland let Carl Crawford reach on a single that it would be time to go to the pen. Garland had pitched brilliantly, allowing only 4 hits and one walk, but he was already at 115 pitches. Backman went to Juan Rincon to close the game for some reason. Rincon walked two of the next three batters and served up the grand slam to Lyle Overbay. Game over. So where was Izzy? The Hoboken closer had not pitched in the last two days so he should have been available. "We did not feel that the matchup suited Izzy's talents" said Backman after the game. "Juan had expressed a desire to close, so we gave him one."

Newark roughed up Vancouver's pitching yesterday 18-6. Five of the six pitchers gave up runs and Wes Littleton was lost for two weeks. "A bullpen shakeup is coming" said pitching coach Erik Hanson. Alan Embree was signed off the waiver wire to fill in. "We needed a lefty to help us through the Newark series" said manager Darren Daulton.

Vlad Guerrero and Jim Edmonds recently drove in their 1000th career run. They became just the 17th and 18th in DMBL history to achieve the feat. Next on the list is Honolulu's Jason Giambi at 948. Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado (930) would need a big year to do it this season. New Jersey's Mike Piazza moved further up the list, tying Gary Sheffield at fifth with his 1263rd RBI last night. Juan Gonzalez holds the #4 spot at 1283, so we may have another Piazza update soon.