Opening Day is twice as nice!

The 2010 season kicked off yesterday with a doubleheader for most teams. Let's take a look at some of the highlights...

Carolina and Sardine City faced off in an odd home and home series, with the Cats crushing the Straphangers in both locales. Troy Tulowitzki started the season off perfectly with a 3-3 line in the first game, leading the Mudcats to an 11-3 shellacking of Josh Johnson and the Sardines. Then Tulo hit his first homer - a 3 run shot - in the second game and Prince Fielder also hit a homer and drove in 4 runs to lead the team to 10-3 victory in game 2 in mysterious Sardine City. "We lost one run in the second game" said Cats skipper Mark Carreon. "That king of dropoff is unacceptable."

Hillsborough and Philadelphia battled it out in both games, taking it to overtime in both matches. Game one started out as a pitchers duel between Felix Hernandez and Roy Halladay. The Hitmen took a 3-1 lead after 6, but the Endzone Animals racked up 5 runs in the 7th and 8th to take the lead 6-3. The Hitmen rallied to tie the game up in the 9th, tying it up on a Tony Gwynn double. The Hitmen continued their offensive surge into the 10th, scoring another 2 runs to take the lead. George Sherrill finished the bottom half of the inning to earn a save. The Hitmen were still reeling off runs when Game 2 began, scoring 3 runs right off the bat in the first inning. But in the 6th, the Animals tied up the game on a Mark Teixeira home run. It took until the 10th inning for the Hitmen to answer, but Shin-Soo Choo smacked a solo homer to reclaim the lead and Sherrill sent down the side in order again in the bottom of the 10th.

It looked pretty unusual to see Newark with a losing record, but thanks to Tim Lincecum and the Rat Pack, the Sugar Bears start the season at 0-1. Lincecum struck out 9 in 6.1 innings of work, holding the Sugar Bears to 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks and earning the W.

The defending champion Mighty Men are also off to a good start, defeating the Buddahs by 9-1 and 7-1 margins. Joel Pineiro pitched a complete game in the first game, holding New Jersey to 4 hits and Derek Jeter was 4-4 with 3 RBIs in Game 2, as John Danks struck out 9 in 7 innings of work.

What a game between Bridgewater and Vancouver in their game 2... After taking care of the Mallers 4-2 in game 1, the Fist were anxious to keep the momentum rolling. Both offenses showed up for the contest, however, as the lead changed several times before Vancouver unleashed a 5-run eruption in the bottom of the fifth to take an 11-6 lead. But the Mallers kept coming back and tied the game up in the 7th on a Ryan Zimmerman double. Both bullpens blanked their oppositions for the next 5 innings until the 13th when Bobby Abreu broke the tie with a single to right field. The Mallers tacked on another run to make it 13-11. Huston Street was perfect in the bottom frame, preserving the victory - their first in Bridgewater.

Cutters shut out again

Tim Lincecum improved to 12-1 after pitching 7 shutout innings in the Rat Pack's 17-0 dismantling of the Cutters. Lincecum allowed only 5 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 11. Joe Mauer was 3-3 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs in the game. That's now back to back shutouts against the Cutters. They'll try to cross the plate today against Rich Harden.

The Sugar Bears' 5-game winning streak came to a close at the hands of the Ant Slayers in a 5-2 decision. Chris Volstad pitched 6 strong innings and limited Newark to one run on 5 hits. Alfonso Soriano's 3-run homer in the 7th was the difference maker. Ryan Garko also hit a two-run shot earlier in the game to account for the club's other 2 runs.

Hillsborough picked up a game on 2nd-place Carolina in the first game of the series between the two contenders. Aubrey Huff hit his 27th home run and drove in 5 runs en route to a 7-5 victory.

Lincecum this close to perfect

Wow, how about that game from Tim Lincecum? The Las Vegas Rat Pack starter nearly had the DMBL's first perfect game until that jerk Jermaine Dye decided to break things up with a single in the 9th inning. It was the only baserunner the Falcons would get in the 2-0 defeat. Meanwhile, Lincecum struck out 16 batters and improved to 11-1 in perhaps the league's most dominant start ever.

Well, we're going to do awards today, since it's a short week. Let's start with the batters. This week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week goes to Marietta's Orlando Hudson, who hit an impressive .433 (13-30) with 10 runs scored and 7 RBIs. Hudson carried a .455 on base percentage with a .767 slugging. Enjoy some smooth Villars during the break, Orlando!

Hudson's teammate Brian Giles had an odd line this week - the outfielder had a decent week, .324, with a .900 OPS, scoring a whopping 16 runs. However, for some reason, Giles only had one RBI during the last week and a half. Other top performers: D.C.'s Brian McCann (.400/.462/.771, 3 HR, 10 RBI), Hillsborough's Freddy Sanchez (.400/.404/.511, 10 R) doing a bang up job replacing Ron Belliard, then winning his job; Hoboken's Hanley Ramirez (.406/.472/.531), Amityville's Dioner Navarro (.429/.447/.629) and Newark's Chipper Jones (.375/.458/.688, 10 R, 15 RBI).

Well, looking over the past week+ and really, yesterday's start just seals the deal for Las Vegas' Tim Lincecum. Lincecum was the only 3-0 pitcher over the period and put together a 0.72 ERA, while striking out 31 in 25 innings and allowing 13 baserunners for an 0.52 WHIP. Yeah easy call to give him this week's Literal Videos Pitcher of the Week Award.

A few pitchers seemed on the path to rejuvenating their struggling seasons - Arkansas' Johan Santana (2-0, 0.56, 0.69), D.C.'s Todd Wellemeyer (2-0, 1.26), and Hillsborough's Felix Hernandez (1-1, 1.20). Other top performers: Hoboken's Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 1.29) and Mark Buehrle (1-0, 1.80), Amityville's Jon Lester (1-0, 1.13), and Newark's Joe Saunders (2-0, 1.80) and Chien-Ming Wang (2-0, 1.88). The top reliever of the week was Marietta's Mariano Rivera, who closed out 5 games with 5 saves and held a 1.35 ERA in 6.2 innings.

Carolina-Sardine City double shutout ends in OT

Carolina and Sardine City were scoreless for 13 innings in yesterday's standoff. Tim Hudson left the game early with undisclosed pains, but the Carolina pen had held the opposition to only 5 hits. Meanwhile, Dustin McGowan was doing the same thing on the other side, pitching 8 innings and holding Carolina to 5 hits as well. Because of Hudson's early departure though, the team had burned through their relievers early and had to call on starter Daisuke Matsuzaka in the 13th. In the top of the 14th, the shutout was broken as Carlos Delgado popped a homer over the centerfield wall. Dice-K seemed to be cruising, striking out the first two batters, but appeared fatigued when he walked Stephen Drew. Manager Mark Carreon elected to go to Roy Halladay. On his second pitch, Conor Jackson deposited the ball into the left field bleachers, ending the game by a 2-1 count.

Las Vegas edged Newark yesterday 3-2, taking their 5th straight victory. Tim Lincecum improved to 8-1 with 7 innings of shutout ball. Lincecum held the Sugar Bears to 5 hits and 2 walks and struck out 7. The Rats scored all three runs in the 6th inning, then held off the Sugar Bears who tried to claw back in the later innings. Richie Sexson was 3-4 with 2 RBIs in the game.

D.C.'s Jose Reyes hit two triples in yesterday's 11-6 loss to Vancouver, giving him 76 in his career and 10 on the season. Not only did that break a tie with Roberto Alomar (74) for 4th all-time, but it also passed Deion Sanders (75) and put Reyes within one of the all-time mark, held by Kenny Lofton (77). The 25-year old Reyes should easily obliterate the old mark.

New Jersey and Amityville agreed to a swap for disgruntled outfielder Alfonso Soriano. Soriano had been limited to a platoon role this season, but excelled in the limited time, hitting .353 with a 1.193 OPS in 51 at bats. With Amityville, Soriano should get more playing time. New Jersey receives Philadelphia's 2nd pick next year as well as Amityville's 6th round pick.

Tossing Darts...

For the first week this season, the top batter decision wasn't so easy to make. There weren't too many eye-popping numbers to choose from this week - at least not all on the same player's stat line. We're just going to toss a dart at the board and pick Arkansas' Lance Berkman as this week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week. Berkman led the league with a .536 batting average and .581 on base percentage. He was second in slugging (.821) and also scored 7 runs and drove in 7. Hi stop competition this week was Hoboken's Hank Blalock, who was the leader in slugging (.840), but with a .360 average and .429 on base. Blalock did have 11 RBIs and 3 homers this week.

The top home run hitter was Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (4), but his other numbers were ordinary (.323 OBP, 7 R, 7 RBI). D.C.'s Jose Reyes had a good week as well, hitting .406/.432/.625 with 3 doubles and 2 triples, plus 7 RBIs and 6 runs. Albert Pujols led the league with 12 RBIs while hitting .462/.559/.769 with 5 doubles.

Some part timers were solid in limited action - Hillsborough's Ron Belliard (7-11 .636, HR, 2B, 5 RBI), Vancouver's Adam LaRoche (.400/.478/.750) and Sardine City's Lyle Overbay (.500/.529/.563).

This week's top hurler is a tossup as well. We'll stick with the faithful dart and take aim at Las Vegas, which features our top two contenders. On one side we have Tim Lincecum who was 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings. Lincecum struck out 12 and had a WHIP of 1.06. Sounds pretty good, huh? Well hold on a second. His teammate Derek Lowe was also 2-0 with a slightly higher 1.80 ERA in 15 innings. Lowe had the lower WHIP at 0.87, but only struck out a measly 4 batters. Well we all know that chicks dig a strikeout so we'll give our Fantasy Darts Competition Pitcher of the Week Award to Timmy and better luck next time, Derek. Some others that had a shot at the golden dartboard were Marietta's Scott Baker (1-1, 1.93, 1.00 WHIP) and Blue Ridge's Justin Duchscherer (1-1, 1.15, 0.77 WHIP).

Top relievers this week included Jonathan Papelbon of D.C. (save, 0.00 ERA in 5 IP, 6 K), Octavio Dotel of Philadelphia (2 saves, 0.00 ERA in 3 G, 9 K in 4.2 IP) and Hoboken's Craig Breslow (1-0, 2.70, 0.90 WHIP in 6.2 IP).