Tucson breaks through behind Scherzer

Max Scherzer helped Tucson to its first win of the semifinal series versus Sardine City, striking out 11 in 6 innings as the bullpen held on for a 5-4 win in Game 3 on Wednesday night.

Sardine City works overtime as playoff race tightens

Sardine City has been working overtime to try to hang on to their division lead, twice having wice played games lasting nearly 20 innings within a week.

2017 Mitchell Award winner: Miguel Cabrera

In one of the closest votes in recent memory, Miguel Cabrera picked up the first Kevin Mitchell Award of his 14-year career, edging Gary Sanchez, playing in his first DMBL season, by just three points.

2017 Mitchell Award candidates

Here are 12 candidates, and then some, who could be worthy of your support on the ballot for the annual Kevin Mitchell Award honoring the league's most valuable batter.

Sardine City notches first playoff series win

Sardine City secured the franchise's first playoff series win in its fourth postseason appearance, beating Blue Ridge in four games.

Relievers rise to the occasion

After all the offense in the early weeks of the season, relievers were bound to get noticed sooner rather than later.

Sugar Bears streak hits 9

The Sugar Bears extended their win streak to 9 games, but this time it was a nailbiter. D.C. took a 3-2 lead in the 9th when Carlos Beltran singled in the go-ahead run. But Jonathan Papelbon couldn't hold it down for the O-Bombers, giving up an RBI single to Melky Cabrera in the bottom half of the inning. Reminiscent of his long All-Star Game performance, Papelbon remained in the game for almost 4 innings before giving up a single in the 12th to Miguel Olivo. Kevin Gregg then replaced him and promptly gave up back to back singles, including the game winner to Manny Ramirez. The loss was D.C.'s 5th straight. Newark's magic number for clinching the Hanover is now 5.

Arkansas defeated the Hitmen for the second straight time, taking a 6-4 contest yesterday. Ricky Nolasco pitched 6.2 innings and allowed only 1 run, while striking out 6 to claim his 10th victory of the year. The Falcons held off a late 8th inning rally by Hillsborough, then tacked on an insurance run to preserve the lead. Joakim Soria nailed down the 9th for his 25th save.

Edwin Encarnacion, in his first game back from a lengthy injury, went 5-6 with 2 RBIs and led the Bombers to a 6-5, 12th inning upset of the Endzone Animals. Encarnacion's double in the 12th was a key in moving the eventual game winning run over to third base (the slothlike Jason Kendall could not leg it out and score on the play). The loss dealt a blow to the Animals' playoff hopes, as they fell out to 3 1/2 games back of the final playoff spot. The Bombers had suffered through one of the worst injury stretches in the DMBL this year, at one time having 4 players on the shelf, so Encarnacion's return is just in time.

Amityville recently signed the 86-year old Jamie Moyer to fill in for several injuries in their rotation. Fresh from being cut by Team Buddah, the Ancient One held his former team to 1 run on 5 hits in 8 innings in picking up his 2nd win of the season (against 8 losses).

Marietta keeps wheeling and dealing...

Yesterday the Mighty Men made their 4th deal of the offseason (on 4 consecutive days, mind you), acquiring Ryan Dempster from Team Buddah for three draft picks, including Las Vegas' first round pick this year. Wait a sec...this just in...make that 5 deals in 5 days... Marietta has just confirmed a deal with Blue Ridge that sends third baseman Edwin Encarnacion to the Bombers for a 3rd round pick in 2010.

Dempster has had a rocky DMBL career so far, fluctuating between starting (2001-2002) and relief (1999,2006-2008) roles. Marietta envisions Dempster as a cornerstone to their rotation, seeing as Dempster's best DMBL season was as a starter back in 2001 with Philadelphia (7-14, 4.91).

Meanwhile, Encarnacion now finds himself with his third team in three years. Encarnacion started as a highly-touted prospect for the Rat Pack - so highly that the Rats dealt away fellow third bagger Ryan Zimmerman. Encarnacion's rookie season was solid, if unspectacular and the Rats traded him away to the Mighty Men for a 7th rounder. While Encarnacion showed a bit better improvement in his power in his second DMBL season, his other numbers fell a bit. Nevertheless, his stock seemingly improved as he now was cashed in for a 3rd round pick.

Marietta insists that they will go "into hibernation for a while" now, so a 6th consecutive trade is unlikely, but one can never count out a Landsman when it comes to making deals.

Marietta makes more moves

How about that alliteration? The Mighty Men traded away a 2009 draft pick for third baseman Edwin Encarnacion of the Las Vegas Rat Pack. Encarnacion was drafted in the third round of the 2007 draft. Encarnacion had a decent debut season with the Rats last year (.749 OPS in 484 PAs). He had been splitting time between third base and DH until Vegas traded away Ryan Zimmerman and opened up a full-time role for Encarnacion. Vegas may now look to Alex Gordon as the future at the hot corner.

The deal effectively seals the fate of Morgan Ensberg, who had been a great surprise in 2006 but struggled mightily in 2007. Although most prognosticators already wrote off Ensberg, Landsman made it official at the press conference yesterday. "Morgan Ensberg will not appear on our protected list this season. His performance was disappointing and while he is a model team mate and the kind of individual we love to have as a member of our franchise, Edwin is younger and poised to do great things. I am not saying our relationship with Morgan is definitely over, but it has changed. We wish Morgan all possible success in the future." The Mighty Men may yet attempt to acquire the third baseman with a supplemental draft pick or a spring training invitation.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Men are not done dealing and may yet have another deal announced before the end of the day.