Sardine City clinches first DMBL World Series

Sardine City earned its first appearance in the DMBL World Series, knocking off top-seeded Vancouver in 6 games with a 7-3 win on Thursday night at The Cannery.

Kluber, Flowers lead Sardine City to Game 3 win

Corey Kluber showed why he's been Sardine City's ace for so long and Tyler Flowers continued his hot postseason hitting, leading the Straphangers to a 3-1 victory over Vancouver in Game 3 on Saturday night.

Vancouver holds on to take Game 1

John Jay went 4-for-4 and scored what proved to be the deciding run on a wild pitch in the 7th inning as top-seeded Vancouver took Game 1 in its Best-of-7 series against No. 4 Sardine City on Wednesday night.

Samardzjia comes within two outs of no-hitter

Pitching for his third team this season, Jeff Samardzjia very nearly wrote himself into the Sardine City record books, coming within two outs of tossing the franchise's first complete-game no-hitter last night.

Iwakuma pitches Allentown to 6-1 win

Allentown evened their opening round series against Sardine City with a 6-1 win behind a strong outing from Hisashi Iwakuma.

Batting stars of spring training

We all know spring training numbers don't matter. For instance, Adam Dunn of Las Vegas would project to 81 doubles and 81 walks in 2013, based on his spring training appearances (he was 1-for-1 with a double and a walk in just two games). But even the limited 30 games this spring can offer some small window into what can be expected during the 2013 regular season.

BATTING

Blue Ridge's Andrew McCutcheon could be a leading candidate for the Mitch in 2013, based on his spring. The centerfielder powered a big Bombers offense, leading the league in slugging (.602), total bases (74) and tied for home runs (9), and finished second to Ryan Braun in RBIs with 29. He was among three Bombers in the top 10 in runs scored. Braun, the Sardine City slugger, led the league in RBIs with 31 and also tied McCutcheon for the league lead in home runs.

Amityville's Andre Ethier also put up an impressive spring, with a line .315/.371/.584, whacking eight doubles and scoring 20 runs.

Five players, including two Boston Baked Beans, hammered eight homers to finish second: Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez, Bridgewater's Carlos Beltran, Evan Longoria of Sardine City and Hillsborough rookie Chris Carter (who had a league-high 30 strikeouts).

Philly's Roger Bernadina played over his head almost all spring and lost the "batting title" in the final days to Livingston rookie Yasmani Grandal (.340), whose teammate Coco Crisp led the league in steals (8). Luis Cruz was another Endzone Animal who played above his head, finishing second in the batting race at .336, while smacking 14 doubles. He crushed lefties (1.128 OPS) and held his own versus righties (.762).

Livingston shortstop Ian Desmond owned the longest hit streak of the spring, at 17 games, one better than Amityville's Howie Kendrick. Melky Cabrera of Arkansas led the league in hits with 45 while 2011 Mitchell Award winner Joey Votto of Hopatcong scored a league-high 28 runs. Both batted .331 to tie for fourth.

FIRST ROUNDERS, ROOKIES
Grandal was among the bright spots among those picks in the early rounds of the 2013 draft. Will Middlebrooks repaid Hillsborough's faith for moving up to snag him with the second overall pick. If there were spring training rookie of the year candidates, he'd be among them, hitting .302 and slugging .540 while leading all rookies in RBIs with 26 -- third in the league -- and seven homers. He also was among the league leaders in hits and total bases while playing full-time at third base.

On the down side of the first round: Hopatcong's Brandon Moss, chosen third overall, struggled mightily, hitting just .159/.203/.246 with 25 strikeouts and 4 walks in 23 games. Fellow first-rounder Jed Lowrie didn't fare much better, hitting .173/.287/.280 while getting most of the ABs in Hoboken at shortstop. Like most of the first-rounders, Allen Craig, selected after Moss by Amityville, had a modest spring, with a line of .276/.339/.419. He did slug .577 against left-handed pitching.

Playing primarily first base against right-handers, Matt Carpenter, the first of the Las Vegas Rat Pack's two first-round picks, sported a line of .253/.387/.360. Perhaps most impressive for the 10th overall pick were his 17 walks against nine strikeouts. It was the polar opposite of Rowdy's first round selection, (eighth overall) Chris Davis, who had 28 strikeouts and 4 walks. It was night and day for the Roddy Pipers' first basemen, mashing left-handers (1.011 OPS) but certainly not righties (.528 OPS). The last first-rounder, Vancouver's Wade Miley, was solid in three starts (3.63 ERA, 1.21 WHIP,  0-2) but was outshined by teammate Jacob Turner, taken several rounds later, who turned in a stellar spring: 1.27 ERA, 1-1, and 1 shutout in 4 starts.

Todd Frazier, taken 15th overall by Blue Ridge, showed some pop, slugging four homers and seven doubles, which contributed to a line of .259/.296/.509 while manning third base in all 30 games. Justin Ruggiano, the 13th overall selected, played right field for Philly most of this spring, hitting a respectable .278/.333/.436.

Rookie Anthony Rizzo wasn't selected in this year's draft (Arkansas scooped him up last year, with fellow prospect Matt Harvey) but he had an impressive .338/.356/.549 line, primarily against right-handers.

For a look at some of the pitching stars of the 2013 DMBL spring training, see our earlier post.

Jimenez, Motte Combine For League's 10th No-Hitter

They'll be debating this one in Sardine City for years to come. The first no-hitter in franchise history was a combined effort with starter Ubaldo Jimenez and reliever Jason Motte splitting the duties as they shut down Hillsborough 8-0 on the road Tuesday night at Front Stadium by the River.

It's the 10th no-hitter (4th combined) in league history and the first since Brett Myers of Las Vegas no-hit New Jersey in June 2011. It's the first combined no-hitter since 2004 when Arkansas shut down Westwood behind Curt Schilling, Byung-Hyun Kim, Brad Lidge and Octavio Dotel. Hillsborough is the first team to be no-hit twice in their history, first victimized in 2003 by Phoenix's John Lackey.

Jimenez struck out four in five innings of work, tossing 55 pitches (40 for strikes), but still was lifted by Straphangers skipper Joe Torre after a 46-minute rain delay. Torre turned to Motte, who went on to throw four scoreless innings striking out two but walking three and throwing 38 of his 55 pitches for strikes. He earned his first save of the year as Jimenez got the win, improving to 10-11.

The only scoring for much of the contest came on rookie Eric Hosmer's leadoff home run in the 2nd inning. Sardine City third basemen Evan Longoria walked to start the 6th inning and that's when the rains came. When play resumed, Hillsborough manager Mike Greenwell didn't come back with ace Justin Verlander. Instead, he opted for Jeff Samardzija, who would get out of the inning unscathed, despite a wild pitch and another walk.

The Straphangers put up a four-spot in the 8th, including a three-run homer by Starlin Castro, and another three runs in the 9th behind run-scoring singles from Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis off Jonny Venters.

Verlander suffered the loss, dropping to 14-6, despite allowing just one run and four hits over five innings. He struck out four and walked one and threw 55 of his 84 pitches for strikes. Verlander nearly threw his own perfect game earlier this year against Hopatcong, settling for a 2-0 one-hitter.