Fist, Sugar Bears sweep rivals

Vancouver and Newark both completed the sweep of the other's prime contenders. Javier Vazquez improved to 17-1 as the Sugar Bears took a 9-6 decision in Philadelphia. Matt Stairs drove in 5 runs in the contest as the Sugar Bears opened up a 4-game lead on the Rats. Meanwhile, the Iron Fist bested the Rat Pack 7-4 as Curtis Granderson and Maicer Izturis each had 3 RBIs. Granderson hit his 22nd triple of the season, coming within 2 of Jose Reyes' DMBL-era record. Vancouver now leads Philly by 9 games.

Hoboken won their 9th game out of their past 11, defeating the Golden Falcons 6-1. Matt Garza gave the Cutters 8 innings of 1-run ball, scattering 6 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 7. The Cutters, despite sitting in 12th place overall, are now only 7 games behind Hillsborough for the final playoff spot.

Jered Weaver held the Mudcats to 4 hits in 7 innings to give the Plunkers a 3-1 win yesterday. The win was only Weaver's 4th of the season. The game was tied at one until the eight inning when the Plunkers led off the inning with a single and a double. Johnny Estrada was momentarily distracted by a busty fan in the front row and let a pitch get by him, scoring Akinori Iwamura from third. A sacrifice fly by Brian Roberts brought home the final run. The damage could have been worse as the Mudcats proceeded to load the bases, but Adrian Gonzalez popped out to end the inning. The story has a happy ending for Cats fans, as Estrada was able to get the fan's phone number after the game.

D.C. has asserted their position in 5th place after weathering a rough period. The club has now won 4 in a row and has a 5-game lead on 6th place Hillsborough. Yesterday the Slappers took care of Sardine City 7-2. Carlos Beltran was 2-2 with a home run and 4 RBIs to lead the D.C. offense, while Kelvim Escobar took care of the Sardine offense (7.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 K) to earn his 13th win of the season.

Hitmen move into wild card spot

Jake Peavy won his league-leading 13th win yesterday as Vancouver cruised to an 8-2 victory over D.C. Curtis Granderson was 3-5 with 3 RBIs and hit his 19th triple of the year. Granderson appears poised to obliterate Jose Reyes' DMBL-era record of 24 triples set last year.

Hillsborough moved one game over .500 and into sole possession of 6th place overall with their third straight win and sixth in seven tries. C.C. Sabathia struck out 11 in 7 strong innings and Carlos Lee had 3 RBIs. Hillsborough has been going back and forth about selling their players, but now sitting in the final playoff spot, they may become buyers.

Las Vegas and Newark remain tied for first in the Hanover Division after both teams won their games yesterday. Javier Vazquez improved to 11-1 in Newark's 5-4 edging of Hoboken, while Tim Lincecum propelled the Rat Pack to a 5-2 win over Tampa Bay.

Mike Lamb hit 3 home runs in Philadelphia's 7-1 rout of fraternal rival Carolina. Jason Bergmann limited the Cats to 3 hits over 7 innings and struck out 9. Philly still trails Vancouver by 3 1/2 games in the Morris.

Lots of movement going on in the league yesterday as the trading deadline looms closer. Arkansas shuffled out Mark Grudzielanek in favor of Tim Wakefield, who had pitched in 4 games in an earlier stint with the team. Hillsborough cut scrub shortstop Alex Gonzalez in favor of DMBL veteran Aubrey Huff, who was cut earlier this year by Carolina. Hoboken dumped prospect Jeff Niemann for former Vancouver backstop Gerald Laird. Las Vegas shook up their AAA squad by cutting Greg Dobbs and signing former D.C. first baseman Lyle Overbay. Finally, Philadelphia signed Adam Lind who Carolina cut a month ago.

Grief too much to bear for Reyes

Perhaps no one was affected by the news of Josh Hancock's demise more than teammate Jose Reyes. Reyes tried to play through the pain yesterday, but after legging out a double in the top of the 10th, Reyes asked to be taken out of the game. "I just couldn't go on pretending nothing was wrong" said Reyes after the game. Despite the fact that Hancock pitched in the game, and pitched well (2.1 IP, 0 runs), Reyes still opted out. "Maybe it was seeing him out there, a lifeless shell of what he was, that pushed him over the edge" said manager Kevin Elster. Reyes will take the rest of the week off to grieve. When asked to comment on the situation, the Josh Hancock zombie could only respond "brains....".

Meanwhile in Vancouver, Granderson-mania is running wild. The recently recalled rookie was 2-2 last night with a triple, raising his average to .800! Granderson has been subbing for the injured J.D. Drew. Granderson was so excited that he had to leave the game last night and will probably be rested tonight against lefty Johan Santana.

Hoboken's Vicente Padilla improved to 5-0 yesterday after an impressive 7 inning start in which he limited the Straphangers to two runs on eight hits and three walks. Padilla struck out seven.

Jered Weaver made his return from injury yesterday and looked good despite not factoring into the decision. Weaver pitched 8 innings, allowing 9 hits and 4 runs (2 earned), one walk and eight strikeouts. Reliever Tom Gordon blew the save for Weaver after the Sharks went up by one on a three-run ninth inning, but Gordon couldn't hold on to the lead and Team Buddah scored two to win the game on a Jacques Jones RBI-single in the ninth.

R.I.P. Josh Hancock

D.C. Bushslappers middle reliever Josh Hancock died tragically in a car accident over the weekend. He will however courageously continue through the end of the season, or however long, D.C. wants him, to pitch through his contract this season. "That's just the kind of guy Josh was" said teammate Dan Wheeler. Perhaps on his darkest day, he was given a spiritual boost when called on to pitch in the 16th inning of a marathon game with the Mighty Men. Hancock allowed the tying run to score, but pitched the 17th inning to record his third win of the season. Though not technically a rookie, Hancock was in his first season in the DMBL. He was drafted by Vancouver in the 2007 draft, but did not make the team out of spring training. D.C. later signed Hancock to bolster their relief corps. Hancock is not the first to fulfill his contract after dying. Mike Darr and Darryl Kile both were drafted and played after their deaths, though they were not very effective. "Vell, vat do you expect? Zey ver dead?" said former Sugar Bears team physician Otto von Frankenstein.

Jason Schmidt had a big day Friday night against South Boston. Schmidt pitched a complete game 4-hit shutout of the Gang to improve to 5-2 on the season. Schmidt is now tied with Tom Glavine for #15 on the all-time shutout list and his three strikeouts tied him with Bartolo Colon at number 14 with 1220 in his career. He also moved past Andy Benes on the all-time win list to number 24, one behind Colon.

J.D. Drew's injury Saturday opened the door for Curtis Granderson to get his first DMBL starts of his career. Granderson was called up from AAA Tacoma and immediately had an impact. Granderson was 3-4 in both games of yesterday's doubleheader against New Jersey, including two doubles and a triple. Granderson has now earned a shot at proving he belongs on the roster. "We'll let him play out J.D.'s injury and see where he stands when he comes back." said Ironfist manager Darren Daulton. Granderson will initially sit against lefties.