All good things must come to an end

Matt Diaz's hitting streak ended last night at 23 with an 0-4 against South Boston. Despite getting a hit during all five straight losses prior to yesterday, the streak came to an end in a victory for the Mighty Men. Apparently Diaz was just satisfied in passing Miguel Cabrera for the season-high hitting streak. "No way Cabrera should have that recognition...he doesn't deserve it" said Diaz after the game. "Anyone but a damned Cutter." It is unknown why Diaz is so livid with the Hoboken organization at this time. Meanwhile South Boston's five-game winning streak also came to a halt after the 8-6 Marietta victory.

The Mudcats shocked the Animals again yesterday, besting them and ace starter Johan Santana 4-1 yesterday. Santana was not involved in the decision as he and Mudcat starter Carlos Zambrano had dueled to a 1-1 tie through seven innings only to watch J.J. Putz give up RBI doubles to Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore in the eighth. The Cats have a ways to go to climb back into the playoff picture, but at least they're on the right track again.

D.C.'s hardluck pitcher Anibal Sanchez finally got his first win yesterday against Vancouver. Despite a 2.55 ERA and five quality starts, Sanchez was 0-5 in his first eight games this year. Sanchez was not at his best yesterday (8 IP, 5 ER, 1 K) but the Bushslappers finally scored some runs for him, giving Sanchez his first career DMBL victory. Jose Reyes was 5-6 in the game with three stolen bases. "Sanchez begged me before the game to do what I could to win the game for him" said Reyes after the game. "I told him to stop crying and act like a man."

The Gang's all here

The Mudcat moves seem to have worked for one game anyway. The Cats edged the first-place Animals 4-3 yesterday behind a solid outing from Roy Halladay (though he didn't figure into the decision) and three-hit games from Rocco Baldelli and Aramis Ramirez.

Still waiting, Barry....

Cliff Lee is making a case to stick in the Sharks rotation with a solid outing yesterday against the Rat Pack. Lee is now 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA in two starts filling in for the injured Jered Weaver.

South Boston has been on a little bit of a run lately, winning their fifth straight against Marietta yesterday. Aaron Harang shut down the Mighty Men for 7 innings, allowing only an unearned run and striking out 10. Poor Jeff Suppan finally pitched an outing for Marietta without getting destroyed, but had to settle for the loss (and lowering...yes lowering... his ERA to 10.13). During the game Matt Diaz extended his hitting streak to a league-high 23 games, besting Miguel Cabrera's earlier streak of 22.

Hoboken certainly got their revenge on Tuesday's smackdown from Newark. Hoboken pounded on the Sugar Bears to a 13-5 tune. The Cutters had 21 hits in total. Geoff Jenkins was 5-6 with 3 RBIs and Miguel Cabrera was 4-5 with 4 RBIs and a homer.

Philly's obsession with Khalil Greene continues as the Animals re-signed the shortstop for the second time this season. His playing time should be limited though as the club activated David Eckstein from his month-long sting on the DL.

Thome Boy

A few items of note. Jim Thome hit his 400th DMBL homer yesterday in Marietta's loss to New Jersey Sunday. It was Thome's ninth of the season. Thome is just the fifth player to reach 400. Moving into number seven on the all-time list was Manny Ramirez, who took last week off. Ramirez returned Sunday and hit his 14th homer of the season to help defeat the Sharks.

The Falcons are still waiting on Bonds to hit his 600th. Bonds has been stuck on 599 since Tuesday's game with South Boston. In fact, Bonds is mired in a 2-22 (.091) slump since that game.

Newark's Kevin Millwood, who had come up one strikeout short in his last outing, finally got his 1000th career strikeout in the Game against the Sharks. Millwood improved to 4-1 on the season.

Don't look now but Marietta's Matt Diaz has an active 21-game hit streak, which is only one less than Miguel Cabrera's hit streak earlier in the season. Diaz streak began with a 5-5 night against Las Vegas and he is hitting .426 (40-94) during the course of the streak, raising his average from .233 to .341.

Beckett, Schmidt come up Aces

Well Miguel Cabrera's hit streak came to an end at 22 yesterday after the Cutters were shut down by Brad Penny and Team Buddah. Penny didn't give up an earned run, but the numbers show that he was more lucky than good. Penny walked four and gave up six hits in seven innings, while only striking out one. The Buddahs also had three errors, so that may have contributed to it. Penny improved to 4-2 on the season.

The highest hit streak now is Marietta's Todd Helton, at 16. Teammate Matt Diaz also has a 15 game hit streak, so I'm guessing there's a little sidebet going on in that clubhouse as to who stops hitting first.

Josh Beckett pitched a gem yesterday - a complete game, four-hit shutout of Arkansas, which means Barry Bonds will have to wait another day to hit his 600th homer. Beckett has not had a good DMBL career to date. He is 3-2 with a 4.70 ERA on the year, which if he continues on this pace would be a career year for him. Expectations are low for Beckett this year and being the number five starter should alleviate a lot of the pressure he might have felt in previous seasons.

Beckett's line was impressive, but Jason Schmidt had an equally impressive start against Sardine City. Schmidt and the Sharks blanked the Straphangers 2-0 as Schmidt went the distance and allowed a mere two hits and three walks while striking out eight. Schmidt is now 4-2 on the season. The Sharks begin their big series with Newark today.