2017 McDonald Award winner: Johnny Cueto

Vancouver's Johnny Cueto easily held off three left-handers and was a near-unanimous selection for the 2017 Ben McDonald Award after a league-leading 22-5 mark.

2017 McDonald Award candidates

There was only one 20-game winner in the DMBL this season but wins aren't a measure of a pitcher like they once were, as SABRmetrics and other numbers have taken a more prominent place in evaluating a pitcher's season.

Cueto calms Straphangers for Game 5 win

Johnny Cueto rebounded from a weak Game 1 outing to go 7-plus innings while the Vancouver offense got in gear early and held on for a 4-2 win in Game 5 to force Game 6 in Sardine City.

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.

2017 pitching leaders

There was only one 20-game winner in the DMBL this season but a few other hurlers put up historically good years in some categories.

Cueto notches 20th win

Vancouver's Johnny Cueto became the DMBL's first 20-game winner this season, solidifying his candidacy for the Ben McDonald Award. Coincidentally, the win also was the 100th of his career.

San Francisco takes Game 1 versus Vancouver

Vancouver loaded the bases in the 9th but Kenley Jansen held on after three innings of relief to give San Francisco a 3-2 win in Game 1 of the 1st round of the 2016 playoffs.

2016 pitching leaders

Clayton Kershaw made his final start of the season against Hopatcong on Saturday, needing 12 strikeouts to reach 300 for the second year in a row. He got 11.

Alvarez misses on 20th win in season finale

Henderson Alvarez missed out on being a 20-game winner as San Francisco succumbed to Blue Ridge, 9-2, in the 2015 regular season finale. He was roughed up for 7 hits and 7 runs in 6 2/3 innings and paid the price for 5 walks.

Despite a 3.52 ERA (4th best on the team), Alvarez still led the league with 19 wins -- thanks to league-high run support of 5.8 runs/game -- one better than Vancouver's Johnny Cueto (18-9). He would have been the DMBL's first 20-game winner since Hoboken's Clayton Kershaw last season.

The Experience is the third team for Alvarez in barely a year. He was acquired in the offseason from Sardine City, along with a 2015 5th rounder, in exchange for a 1st round pick in 2016. He spent a brief time as a Straphanger, coming over from Hoboken in a 2014 deadline deal for relievers Luke Hochevar, Caleb Thielbar and a 2015 13th rounder.

The 25-year-old Venezuelan entered the season with a 22-22 record in two DMBL seasons, mainly the result of an impressive rookie year in 2012 with Vancouver. He went 15-14 in a career-high 225 innings, with a 4.24 ERA and a career-best 1.12 WHIP.

Kazmir tosses DMBL's 3rd no-hitter of 2015

DMBL pitchers tied a league record with the third no-hitter this season. This time it was San Francisco's Scott Kazmir, who walked just one and struck out six in downing Vancouver, 2-0, at home on Thursday night.

Kazmir was tantalizingly close to throwing DMBL's first-ever perfect game. He walked John Jay with one out in the 5th but followed that up by inducing a ground-ball double play from Anthony Rendon, so he faced the minimum 27 batters. Of his 116 pitches, 75 went for strikes.

The Experience got all the runs they needed in the first, with a bases-loaded single by Jonathan LuCroy. The game featured zero extra-base hits.

Johnny Cueto, who tossed his own no-hitter this year, wasn't too shabby for Vancouver, going the distance. He surrendered four hits and two runs while striking out 10 and walking four. The first inning was his undoing, giving up three of his four hits and two of his four walks.

Kazmir is enjoying his best season yet after a solid year with the Experience in 2014, following three seasons away from the DMBL. He broke in as a highly-touted prospect with Hoboken in 2006. After losing 19 games in 2008, he was shipped to Philly, where he went 15-8 with a 5.03 ERA in 2009. In Vancouver the next season, he made only seven starts before disappearing. Kazmir re-emerged with San Francisco, when the Experience drafted him in 2014. He went 10-4 in 22 starts with a career-best 4.41 ERA.

With the no-hitter, Kazmir improves to 14-6 and lowers his ERA to 2.87, good for 7th in the league, and his WHIP to 1.18.

The other no-hitter this season was a combined effort for Hillsborough, by Garrett Richards and Carlos Martinez. It's the second year in a row that the league has seen a season-high three no-hitters.

It's the first no-hitter for the Experience since relocating to San Francisco. Previously, the franchise had no-hitters by Brett Myers in 2011 and AJ Burnett in 2008 when it was located in Las Vegas.

ASG candidates: Micro starters

The Micro Conference doesn't seem to have the depth at starting pitcher that the Diamond Conference has, but that doesn't mean there's no all-star quality names to consider for the potential roster.

If no-hitters are a qualification for your all-star ballot, then Vancouver's Johnny Cueto is your man. His no-no in June helped his otherwise to-this-point mediocre stats and fueled an Iron First resurgence after a slow start. He's now 7-5 and lowered his ERA to 3.81 and his WHIP to 1.21. Teammate Matt Latos deserves a look, with a lower ERA (3.05), WHIP (1.18) and better winning percentage, 7-4.

Rookie Tanner Roark is probably the least-heralded name in the Allentown rotation but he leads the squad with a 2.88 ERA (good for 10th in the league) and stands at 7-5. Lefty David Price is the veteran of the rotation, and despite just an 8-7 mark, he's among the league leaders in WHIP (1.01), strikeouts (126), innings (127.1) and complete games (5) to go with 2 shutouts. A couple of other Mules might warrant consideration. Hishahi Iwakuma is 7-3 with a 3.12 ERA and 1.18 WHIP while John Lackey is 8-6 with a 3.81 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. Roark and Lackey also have a conference-leading 12 quality starts.

Collin McHugh is the strongest candidate for Poovey Farms. He is second in the conference with a 1.04 WHIP and stands at 9-4 with a 3.07 ERA.

Hoboken is led by an unlikely candidate. Hiroki Kuroda, in his final season, is tops in the conference with 10 wins, to go with 11 quality starts, 3.12  ERA and 1.17 WHIP. Two other Cutters are on opposite sides of the ballot. Despite a 4.59 ERA, Kyle Lohse has been lucky enough to go 9-4 while Clayton Kershaw is just 6-7 despite leading the league virtually all year in strikeouts (150) and among the most innnings pitched (121.7). He's also third in K/BB (6.5) and though his 3.77 ERA isn't all-star like he sports a 1.17 WHIP and 3 complete games.

Corey Kluber is Sardine City's best hope for an all-star starter. Another candidate with a weak record (6-5), the righty is carrying the rotation, with a league-high 5 complete games, in addition to 2 shutouts. He's also among the conferences elite in strikeouts (123) and WHIP (1.14) and innings (118.2).

Blue Ridge dealt its best pitcher, Jon Lester, earlier in the year. He was 6-3 with a 2.72 ERA in 12 starts. Now the Bombers are left with Matt Garza as their best hope. Though he's 5-6, the veteran righty has a 3.64 ERA and among the conference's best in WHIP (1.12) and quality starts (11).

Arkansas ripped off a huge winning streak toward the midway point of the season, thanks mostly to its offense, but Matt Shoemaker and Alex Cobb have been among the beneficiaries. Shoemaker has improved to 8-4 with a 1.14 WHIP though his 4.05 ERA could be a turn-off. Cobb has the better ERA (3.28) but weaker WHIP (1.26) yet he's 7-5 in 10 quality starts. Rookie Marcus Stroman also is 7-5 with a 1.17 WHIP and 3.82 ERA.

Cueto throws Vancouver's first no-hitter

The long and storied history of the Vancouver Iron First, an original franchise, includes four league championships but until Saturday night, did not include a no-hitter.

Johnny Cueto struck out 10 Dairy Cows in a 5-0 in over Poovey Farms, throwing the 14th no-hitter in DMBL history and the first since last season, when there were three. He walked one and hit a batter.

Cueto lost his chance at the DMBL's first-ever perfect game when he plunked Joe Panik in the 3rd inning. Panik was promptly erased on a Wilson Ramos double play. Cueto's lone walk came to Freddie Freeman leading off the 8th inning.

Cueto lowered his ERA to 3.85 and WHIP to 1.18 while improving to 6-5 in 15 starts on the season.

The 5-0 win was one of three shutouts Saturday night.

Cueto's masterpiece comes after two close calls this season, first by Hopatcong's Mike Fiers and later by Tyson Ross for Livingston, who has since been dealt to Tucson.

Hillsborough, Arkansas duke it out

Hillsborough dealt Falcon starter Jonathan Sanchez 12 earned runs in his 6.1 innings of work, but it wasn't enough to seal the deal. The Hitmen and Falcons had to go to extra innings where Dexter Fowler hit a bases-loaded triple to give the Hitmen a 3-run lead. The Falcons went down in order in the bottom of the 11th to end the game. Casey McGehee and Justin Upton each had 4 RBIs for the Hitmen and Kelly Shoppach had 4 hits. Lance Berkman was 3-6 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs for the Falcons.

Vancouver's lead in the Morris Division fell to just a 1/2 game as Blue Ridge defeated Philadelphia 8-5 and Vancouver dropped a 6-2 decision to Carolina. Johnny Cueto pitched perhaps the best game of his young career, holding the Fist to 2 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings, while striking out 9. Meanwhile, Blue Ridge's bullpen and offense bailed out Gavin Floyd from a lousy start. The Bombers walked 7 batters in total, but escaped with the victory anyway.

How about that Ichiro? The redhot outfielder was 3-4 in Marietta's 10-6 win over Hoboken. Since returning from the injury last week, Ichiro is hitting .458 (22-48) with 14 runs and 16 RBIs.

Marietta, Carolina, bounced from top spots

Vancouver swept Marietta yesterday after a 4-1 decision, knocking the Mighty Men out of first place. Ben Sheets pitched 8 innings, giving up only one unearned run, while striking out 6. The Mighty Men doubled the Fist's hit output (12-6), but could only bring one run across the plate thanks to an error by Sheets in the 2nd. Mike Mussina went the distance in the loss, falling to 10-5 on the season.

Taking over the #1 slot in the Hanover is Newark, who completed a three game sweep of Blue Ridge that saw the Sugar Bears outscore the Bombers 33-9. J. D. Drew and Bobby Abreu each had 4 RBIs in the Sugar Bears' 15-5 rout.

Hillsborough jumped atop the Morris Division yesterday with a 7-6 12-inning edging of Hoboken. Hillsborough rallied to tie the game up in the 8th after blowing their own lead the inning before. Hoboken took a 6-5 lead in the top of the 12th on a Jason Bartlett double, but the Hitmen tied the game on an error by Ryan Madson, then won it on a double by Carlos Lee.

Carolina was knocked out of the first spot by Las Vegas, who beat the Mudcats 5-4, despite a rally that almost brought the Cats back in the late innings. John Baker was 3-4 for the Rats, while Derek Lowe took the win, evening his record to 6-6. To add injury to insult, the Cats lost starter John Maine for at least 2 weeks when he was attacked by a flock of deranged seagulls.

Two young hurlers who had been struggling battled it out in Philly yesterday. Neither Armando Galarraga nor Johnny Cueto factored into the decision but both only gave up one earned run (and one unearned) in their time (Galarraga in 7 IP, Cueto in 8). Cueto struck out 10, but his team lost 3-2. Jose Lopez's solo home run in the 9th against his former team was the difference in the game.