Another Sunday, another no-hitter

Brick City's Scott Feldman shut down the Allentown Mules, 4-0 on the road in Sunday's game one, tossing the second no-hitter in the DMBL this season and the second in as many Sundays. Last week, Bridgewater's Homer Bailey no-hit Sardine City.

It's the first no-hitter for Brick City since moving from Newark, and the 13th in league history. As the Sugar Bears, Newark saw a no-hitter by Randy Johnson against Kentucky in 2001.

The 31-year-old Feldman struck out five and walked none but hit three batters -- losing his chance at the DMBL's first-ever perfect game. Leading off the 3rd inning, Feldman hit Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was erased when Mark Trumbo hit into a 5-4-3 double play in the next at-bat. With one out in the 7th, Feldman nailed Mike Trout and leading off the 9th hit pinch-hitter Neil Walker, who like Salty was eliminated on a GDP, this time 6-4-3 by Jimmy Rollins.

The 6-foot, 7-inch Hawaii native improved to 3-0 in tossing his first shutout of the year, lowering his ERA to 2.74 on the season. He was backed by home runs from Avisail Garcia and Gordon Beckham. John Lackey also went the distance for the Mules but allowed 4 runs on 7 hits while striking out 7 to take the loss.

Allentown may be hitting a league-low .223 through Sunday's doubleheaders but the Mules still feature a lineup that includes Trout, Adrian Gonzalez and Giancarlo Stanton.

The surprise pitching gem stole the headlines from Sunday's other big story, on the batting side: home runs by Pedro Alvarez in three straight at-bats in Durham's 7-4 victory at Empire City.

Tomlin Tosses No-Hitter For Hopatcong

In a year of many firsts for the Hopatcong franchise, Josh Tomlin threw the first no-hitter in Floating Fish history Tuesday night, downing Livingston 5-0 in the midst of a heated pennant race. It was the second no-hitter in the league this season and the 11th in league history. Just last month, Ubaldo Jimenez and Jason Motte combined to fire Sardine City's first no-hitter.

The Floating Fish gave Tomlin some breathing room with single runs in each of the first three innings and Tomlin ended up facing the minimum 27 batters. He walked Jimmy Rollins leading off the fourth but B.J. Upton promptly grounded to second for a double play. Tomlin's only other blemish, another leadoff walk, this time to Danny Espinosa in the 6th, also was erased via the twin killing, when Justin Smoak grounded to second to end the inning, after Jonathan LuCroy reached on a fielder's choice. Smoak later flied out to left to end the game.

Adding to the excitement, Brett Gardner pulled off a rare steal of home in the 6th inning, with Chase Headley taking second base, and the Floating Fish faithful packing The Mud Hole were on their feet the rest of the way. While Hopatcong improved to a franchise-record 87-71, remaining a game ahead of Newark in the Kruk Division, the first-year Livingston Last Place dropped to 47-111, long ago clinching the most balls in the draft lottery.

Tomlin struck out 5 and walked 2, improving to 16-7 and lowered his ERA to an even 3.00, and WHIP to 1.04 (both categories are second in the league trailing only Justin Verlander). He's been among the Floating Fish's most consistent pitchers all season, leading the squad with 16 wins and 5 complete games, including 2 shutouts. Perhaps it was the all-star snub that fueled Tomlin's fire all season. Despite a 9-3 and a 2.80 ERA at the break, as well as being among the league leaders in QS%, R/9 and OPS, Tomlin wasn't selected though he did receive votes.

The 27-year-old righthander was taken by Hopatcong with the 3rd pick of the 5th rounder (67th overall) this year. Last season, he made 28 starts for Newark, after the Sugar Bears used a supplemental 7th round pick (77th overall) on him. He finished 2011 with a respectable 1.14 WHIP and 4.08 ERA but a not-so-respectable 6-15 record for a Newark team that lost a franchise-record 113 games.

Reyes first to 100 triples

Jose Reyes became the first player in DMBL history to reach 100 triples for his career when he collected his fourth three-bagger of the season in a 9-8 win on Sunday. Reyes tripled in the 6th off Livingston's Jake Arrieta to drive in Ruben Tejada and later scored on a Victor Martinez single.

Reyes has reached double-digits in four of his six DMBL seasons, including a career-high 24 triples in 2007 -- and in 2006, splitting time between Westwood and D.C. -- and another 20 last year. He missed 2010 due to injury. But Reyes doesn't hold the season record for triples; that's Curtis Granderson, now with Las Vegas, who hit 33 in 2008 (and MicroLeague record holder Deion Sanders, who hit 62 of his 75 career triples in 1993).

The Bridgewater shortstop is off to a blistering start in 2012, leading the league in batting much of the year, thanks in part to a league-high 19-game hitting streak.

Right behind Reyes is Amityville's Carl Crawford who, with three triples this season, now has 93 for his career. After that, it's a bit of a drop-off with three retired players (Kenny Lofton, Sanders and Roberto Alomar) in the 70s, and even further for active players, with Livingston's Jimmy Rollins and Bridgewater's Carlos Beltran in the high 60s.

Rollins, Pettitte claim this week's honors

Even with his team teeter-tottering on the brink of playoff contention, Jimmy Rollins can still produce a clutch performance. Rollins, this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week, hit .452 (14-31) this week with a stellar .514 OBP and .903 slugging percentage. Rollins also drove in 11 runs, hit 5 doubles and 3 home runs, scored 5 runs, and stole three bases.

Rollins had a lot of competition this week: New Jersey's Shane Victorino (.480/.536/.720) and Ian Stewart (.400/.500/.880, 8 R), Arkansas' Justin Morneau (.400/.444/.720, 8 R, 6 RBI), Carolina's Alex Rios (.424/.444/.606, 7 R, 6 RBI), Hillsborough's Shin-Soo Choo (.379/.419/.862, 10 RBIs, 3 HR), Blue Ridge's Prince Fielder (.393/.514/.714, 3 HR), Marietta's Adrian Gonzalez (.391/.440/.913, 3 HR, 10 RBI), and Hoboken's Hanley Ramirez (.407/.484/.852, 10 RBI, 3 HR).

Special mention goes to Hoboken's Mike Napoli, who hit 5 home runs this week and leads the league with 51 home runs on the season. Napoli broke the Cutters' single season team record for home runs, previously held by Mike Piazza.

With all those big offensive weeks, you know that the pitching is going to be thin this week. We still managed to find out diamond in the rough, and this week, the rough is in New Jersey. Andy Pettitte had a superb week, though he only could win one game. Pettitte's first game was a no-decision against D.C. where he pitched 7.2 innings and gave up only 2 earned runs, but in his second outing, he pitched a complete game shutout against Amityville. Pettitte allowed only 6 hits in the 17-0 victory. He takes this week's Let Them Sing it For You Pitcher of the Week award.

The best of the rest: Carolina's Roy Halladay (1-0, 1.98, 1.24 WHIP, 13 K), Hoboken's Jeremy Guthrie (1-0, 2.77, 0.92, 15 K), Las Vegas's A.J. Burnett (2-0, 2.70, 0.97, 13 K), and Vancouver's Jake Peavy (1-0, 2.70, 15 K).

Frustrated Fist fall to Buddah

The 2009 DMBL All-Star Ballot has been posted. The game less than a month away, so get those votes in!

How the heck did Vancouver lose to New Jersey yesterday? Vancouver outhit Team Buddah 17-6, yet still lost 4-3 in extra innings. The Buddahs got on the board quickly with a first-inning Fernando Tatis home run. The Fist got in trouble with some walks and a passed ball, leading to another run. Vancouver quickly tied it up in the 2nd with a pair of runs. Vancouver took the lead in the 7th on a Troy Glaus single, but Buddah tied it up the next inning. Buddah finally won it in the 10th on a hit by Casey Blake. So how do you get 17 hits and score only 3 runs? Well, let's examine that 7th inning, which should have been a huge inning for Vancouver. Jerry Hairston led off the inning with a single, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Vancouver followed up with back to back singles. Adam Jones smacked a liner for a base hit, but Chase Headley was thrown out trying to score. The next hit finally scored a run, but Victor Martinez struck out to end the inning. The club left 13 batters on base and also hit into a double play in the later innings.

The day's other extra inning affair was an offensive battle. Sardine City built up ay 7-3 lead on Philadelphia but Jimmy Rollins hit a grand slam in the 8th to tie it up. Raul Ibanez then hit a 2-run shot in the 11th to give the Sardines a 9-7 lead, but Mark Teixeira came through with a 2-run double to tie it up. Marco Scutaro gave the Straphangers the lead for good in the 12th when his base hit scored Stephen Drew. The Sardines had 20 hits in the game, including Carlos Quentin (4-6) and Raul Ibanez (3-6, 4 RBIs). Quentin has been on a bit of hot streak lately, hitting .340 in his last 12 games with a 1.154 OPS.

Hillsborough won their 3rd straight and took a 1/2 game lead in the Morris Division. The Hitmen edged the Ant Slayers by a 6-5 margin. Shin-Soo Choo was 4-4 with 3 doubles and Freddy Sanchez was 3-5 with 2 RBIs.

Manny Ramirez was 3-4 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs to lead the Sugar Bears to an 8-4 win over archrival Arkansas. The Sugar Bears scored 4 runs in the 8th to break a 4-4 tie and even the series at one game apiece. Yadier Molina was 3-3 with 2 doubles in a losing cause.