Lester, Francis stymie opponents

Marietta's rookie pitcher John Lester hurled a 3-hit shutout of New Jersey. Lester struck out 5 and walked one en route to his first DMBL win. Joe Blanton pitched well (CG, 5 hits, 3 ER) on the opposite end, but took the loss. Amazingly only six hitters (out of 18) between the two squads were able to get hits!

Tampa Bay once again knocked around the defending champs 8-1. The Sugar Bears are now in unfamiliar territory with a 1-2 record. Torii Hunter hit his third home run and drove in four runs as the Plunkers capitalized on a pair of errors by Marco Scutaro and Matt Stairs. Jeff Francis was brilliant, limiting the Sugar Bears to only 3 hits over 8 innings and striking out 6.

Sardine City pounded the Vancouver bullpen in the latter stages of their 10-5 win over the Iron Fist. Vancouver was cruising with a 5-2 lead entering the seventh, but slowly the wheels started coming loose and finally fell off in a 5-run eighth inning. Raul Ibanez had two doubles and 3 RBIs and Ken Griffey had two solo home runs for the Straphangers. David Ortiz remained red-hot for Vancouver, hitting his third homer, while going 2-3 with 2 RBIs.

Adrian Beltre's triple in the second inning highlighted a 5-run second inning for the Bushslappers, leading to a 6-3 victory over Blue Ridge. Alex Rios hit two homers in the loss.

Day of Almost Cycles

The Hoboken Cutters won twice in extra innings yesterday. This despite the defensive deficiency of Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez had one error in the first game and another two in the second, giving him nine errors on the pre-season. The Cutters plan on playing a few games of "pepper" before game time today, hopefully giving Ramirez a chance to improve. Teammate and longtime Cutter Geoff Jenkins said it might be the result of a practical joke gone wrong. "It's part of our rookie hazing" said Jenkins. "We put some sulfuric acid on the glove the first game and he burned his hand a little. I think he's a little afraid of his glove now...the big pussy."

Sardine City's Raul Ibanez was one single away from hitting for the cycle against Hillsborough. Ibanez hit a double in the second inning, flied out in the fourth, hit a triple in the sixth and homered in the eighth. "If I had known that, I wouldn't have flied out in my second atbat" said Ibanez. Meanwhile, Carolina's Rocco Baldelli also almost hit the cycle, but needed a slighly harder to achieve home run. However, Baldelli did go 4-4 in the game. Baldelli has been trying to return from injuries that kept him out all last year.

Marietta's Jim Thome hit two homers in his game against Philly. Thome is also trying to return from a season lost to injury last year.

Vancouver's Fernando Nieve turned in another impressive start yesterday against Newark. Nieve pitched eight innings and allowed only three hits and one unearned run. "If he keeps this up, we might have to find a place for him in the rotation" said manager Darren Daulton. Nieve is considered a longshot to make the final roster.

Hillsborough's Juan Pierre swiped three bases against Vancouver catcher Victor Martinez to take over the league lead in stolen bases with five. Pierre and several other Hitmen have been given the green light to run as often as they can.

Another impressive Marietta Mighty Man rookie pitcher: Jeremy Sowers turned in a complete game win against Las Vegas, surrendering only one run and seven hits, but no strikeouts.

A Jaret Wright vs. Josh Beckett pitchers' duel? Must be spring training.