The Maine Man in Carolina

Marietta won a 6-4 decision against Team Buddah and now holds a full one-game lead in the Hanover Division. Ryan Dempster held the Buddahs to 4 hits over 8 innings to collect his 4th win and Mariano Rivera clinched the 9th for his 11th save. Mike Jacobs was 2-4 with 4 RBIs in defeat.

John Maine has now pitched 5 quality starts in a row and has won his last 4 decision to improve to 4-2 on the season with a respectable 4.33 ERA (consider it was 12.27 before his streak). Yesterday Maine pitched 8 innings, allowing only one earned run on 6 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. Dustin Pedroia was 3-3 in the contest for the Mudcats.

Omar Infante was 2-4 with 4 RBIs in Vancouver's 6-2 victory over D.C. Zack Greinke went the distance, allowing only 2 runs on 5 hits.

Things are tightening up in the Morris Division. First-place Hillsborough was off yesterday, but Carolina's win put them just 1/2 game out of first. Vancouver moved to 2 1/2 games out with their victory and idle Philadelphia remained 4 games out in 4th place.

The Ortiz Watch continues

Vancouver's David Ortiz hasn't slowed down since his 7-homer week last week. He's now hit a homer in all three games this week, including the two yesterday. He is leading the league with 12 homers - four more than second place Manny Ramirez. By the way, what happened to you, Manny? Ramirez stormed out of the gate, but is mired in a 4-24 (.167 average) slump. He only managed a 1-5 day during the huge 28-8 game and hasn't hit a homer since facing Vancouver last Friday.

Speaking of Newark, they were almost caught napping after their blowout. Carolina was leading the game 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, but four singles and an error by Paul Konerko led to a three-run inning to seal the victory for the Sugar Bears.

The Hoboken Cutters continue to be the hot team. Vicente Padilla improved to 3-0 on the year after shutting down New Jersey. First baseman Mike Jacobs had a good game (3-4 with 2 RBI) but was hurt in the later parts of the game. More info to come about the injury, but he was seen later texting on his cell phone after watching American Idol. Some speculate that he has been trying to get a chance to be a star vocal coach on an upcoming episode of the hit show. The Cutters have now won eight of their last ten and are tied for second in the Hanover Division.