Mighty Men streak into Wild Card lead

The Mighty Men kept rolling along yesterday with a 5-2 win over Carolina. Mike Mussina contributed a solid eight innings, surrendering only two runs on five hits. Milton Bradley hit a three-run homer in the third to give the Mites the lead and that proved to be enough for Moose. The win was the eighth in a row for the Mighty Men. Marietta has now opened up a 4 1/2 game cushion on D.C.

Speaking of which, D.C. fell victim to the classic "revenge factor" when El Duque Hernandez threw a gem against the Slappers. Duque surrendered only one run and five hits through seven and struck out nine. Hernandez was cut March 31st by D.C. after only one appearance - a disastrous mopup appearance where Duque gave up five runs in 1.1 innings. El Duque finally got his revenge and his first win on the season as the Rat Pack won 8-4 Wednesday.

Vancouver has made a late season revival, winning three of the first four in a crucial series with Hoboken. This time it was Ben Sheets, limiting the Cutters to one run in seven innings. Scott Spiezio got his first start since joining Vancouver and went 3-5. Vancouver is now sitting in sixth place overall, a half game ahead of Hoboken and one game ahead of the Sharks.

Arkansas and Newark battled it in a 10-inning contest. Newark jumped out to a 6-0 lead early, but the Falcons came right back with a huge 6-run third inning. The Sugar Bears went up 8-7 in the top of the tenth after a Manny Ramirez solo shot to lead off the inning. Orlando Cabrera made things interesting in the bottom of the tenth when he reached base on a single and stole second with only one out, but Cabrera got greedy and was thrown out trying to steal third.

Day of Blowouts

D.C. pounded the snot out of Carolina yesterday, 15-8. Esteban German, filling in for the injured Luis Castillo, was 5-6 with three doubles and four runs scored. Lyle Overbay was 4-5 with 6 RBIs and Alfonso Soriano went 3-6 with 4 RBIs. Altogether, D.C. slapped out 20 hits and walked 10 times. Carolina starter Jason Jennings, no stranger to getting bitchslapped (bushslapped?), surrendered 13 runs and 14 hits in 4.1 innings.

Meanwhile in Hillsborough, the Hired Hitmen scored early and often against the South Boston Gang, taking the contest 12-4. Jason Bartlett was 3-3 with 2 stolen bases and Brad Hawpe hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the sixth. With the win, Hillsborough evened up their record at 53-53.

Finally in Vancouver, the Iron Fist were once again shellacked, this time by Arkansas, 16-4. It looked like a close contest in the beginning. Starter Ben Sheets had given up five runs, but Vancouver climbed back to make it a one run game after a 4-run fourth. Then in the eighth all hell broke loose. You knew it was going to be a bad inning when Wes Littleton hit Barry Bonds with the first pitch. Both benches cleared, but it was mostly just a lot of screaming. Bonds was forced to leave the game. Littleton was able to get two outs, though he allowed two more to score, then the two-out rally began. Brian Sweeney was called in to stop the bleeding, but instead cut the wound deeper. Seven runs crossed the plate that inning and four more in the ninth. Orlando Cabrera was 5-5 in the game with 4 runs and 4 RBIs and Brandon Phillips also drove in four.

Meanwhile, in a return to sanity, Las Vegas and Sardine City's starters duelled but Vegas prevailed 2-1 in the end. Cole Hamels pitched well for the Sardines (7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 7 K), but it was not enough against Oliver Perez's brilliant outing. A rare sight this year (Perez is 5-14 with an 8.87 ERA on the season), Perez pitched 8 innings, surrendering only one run and seven hits, while striking out seven.

Newark rallied to beat Team Buddah yesterday. The Buddahs were clinging to a 3-2 lead late in the contest, when Bobby Abreu hit a two run shot off Todd Jones, giving the Sugar Bears the lead back. Both starters pitched brilliantly but were not factors in the decision. Tom Gorzelanny limited the mighty Sugar Bear offense to three hits and one run in six innings, while Javier Vazquez struck out 12 Buddahs in 6.1 innings for the Sugar Bears.