Carolina evens series with Hitmen on late inning rally

Carolina evened their series with Hillsborough, scoring 5 runs in the 8th to win 8-5. The Cats started the inning with back to back doubles, then Xavier Nady was hit by a pitch. After some grumbling, the Hitmen opted to put Jose Arredondo in to relieve Felix Hernandez. After walking the first batter to load the bases, Arredondo struck out Mike Aviles for the first out. But Bengie Molina hit a base hit that scored two runs, giving the Cats the lead back. The Cats extended the lead by two more runs then retired the side in order to preserve the victory.

Amityville took two in a row against first-place Newark with a 9-7 win yesterday. Roy Oswalt won his 11th, pitching 7 innings and giving up 3 runs on 6 hits. It was the first time Newark lost back to back games in more than a month.

Chad Billingsley struck out 13 Falcons in 6.1 innings while holding them to 1 run on 6 hits in a 6-2 win. Ricky Nolasco was pounded for 6 runs and 8 hits in 2 innings in the loss. It was Vancouver's 3rd straight win.

Drought in Vegas

Two straight games, two straight shutout losses for the Rat Pack. Going back to Tuesday's game against Newark, the Rat Pack have now failed to score in 20 consecutive innings. First it was Joe Saunders and the Sugar Bears that held the Rat Pack to 4 hits in a 12-0 loss. Then yesterday Roy Oswalt kept them to 5 hits in a 3-0 affair. What makes it so shocking is that this is no weak-hitting team. Las Vegas is 4th overall in total runs scored and the team ranks first in OPS. The Rats face Jon Lester today and all eyes will be on the Vegas bats to see if they will continue the slump or break out in explosive fashion.

Carolina's Carlos Zambrano combined with Brian Fuentes on a 6-hit shutout, not that anyone was paying attention. Zambrano's shutout was much less elegant as he walked 7 Philadelphia batters in the 2-0 game. Zambrano improved to 7-2 with the effort.

How bad do the Bombers feel after yesterday's debacle? The Bombers had built up an insurmountable 13-0 lead in the 5th inning, but Vancouver didn't give up. The Fist scored 10 runs in the next three innings to bring the deficit to 13-10. A nervous Francisco Rodriguez was called into the 9th inning to shut the door on the comeback and things looked good as K-Rod sent back the first two batters. Then it all came unraveled. Rodriguez walked Ken Griffey, then gave up a double to Adam Lind. Rodriguez flubbed an easy toss to get the third out that scored Griffey, then Troy Glaus doubled in Lind, making it a one-run game. Rodriguez then walked pinch-hitter Adam Jones and was visibly shaken. Rodriguez threw a wild pitch that scored the tying run before striking out the final batter of the inning. Suddenly Vancouver was looking like the team of destiny and a sure victory for Blue Ridge was now in extra innings. In the 12th, Griffey drove home the winning run on a single up the middle, sealing the comeback victory.

Berkman, Wright stay red hot

Lance Berkman kept his hot streak alive with another home run today and 4 RBIs. David Wright is trying to keep pace with a homer and 2 RBIs as well. Both players have exploded the last two games and will compete over the weekend for a box of Fonsecas. Arkansas was getting blown out in last night's game by a 9-3 margin entering the bottom of the 8th, but Wright hit his 2-run homer to bring the team to within 4 runs. Then in the 9th, it all fell apart for D.C. Ray Durham led off with a single then Ty Wigginton was hit by a pitch. Martin Prado and Ryan Ludwick both walked. Then with the bases loaded, Berkman hit a mammoth shot over the right field wall to win the game for Arkansas.

Adam Wainwright shut out the Iron Fist on 3 hits in a 4-0 win for Blue Ridge. Carl Crawford was 4-4 and Michael Young hit a homer and drove in 2 against his former club. Vancouver's offense has gone into a tailspin since David Ortiz was injured 4 days ago. Since then, the club has scored a total of 4 runs and has 25 hits in 4 games. The good news is that Ryan Doumit will rejoin the team today after being out for almost 3 weeks. The bad news is, the catchers were not the problem - Victor Martinez and Jeff Clement have combined to go 6 for 15 in the past 4 games (.400 average).

Roy Oswalt pitched the day's other shutout - a 4-hit effort against Las Vegas. Oswalt struck out 9 Rats to improve to 4-3 in the 4-0 victory.

The Sugar Bears rallied in the 9th to take a 6-5 decision against the Cutters. Jack Cust's 3-run homer gave the Sugar Bears just enough to overcome the deficit while Joey Devine pitched a 1-2-3 inning for his 7th save. With the Rats and Mighty Men both losing, the Sugar Bears are once again tied for 1st place in the Hanover Division.

Guerrero cycles past Philly

You've probably already noticed that Vlad Guerrero hit for the cycle in Blue Ridge's 8-1 victory over Philly yesterday. Guerrero got the hardest one out of the way immediately, with a triple in the first inning that gave the Bombers a 1-0 lead. Guerrero led off the 4th with a double, scoring when the next batter, Prince Fielder, drove him in. Things looked bad when Guerrero grounded out in the 6th, but bounced back big time in the 8th with a two-run homer. With the hardest ones out of the way, Guerrero hoped for one more chance in the ninth. Thanks to the Bombers offense coming alive, Vlad got his at bat in the ninth and lined the needed single to right field. Guerrero is the first player to hit for the cycle since Philly's Albert Pujols and Vancouver's Eric Chavez achieved the feat in back to back days in 2006.

Roy Oswalt and Justin Verlander dueled it out to a double-complete game 1-0 final. The score was 0-0 right up til the 9th inning when Brad Hawpe led off the bottom half of the inning with a fly ball that just cleared the fence. Verlander gave up only three hits and three walks in his nine, while striking out 6. Verlander, who got an awful start to the season, has been excellent lately, giving up one run or less in four of his last five starts. Oswalt was also very effective, giving up one run on 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 9.

Arkansas and D.C. slugged it out for 13 innings yesterday, with the Falcons emerging on top of an 8-7 decision. After D.C. established a 7-4 lead, the Falcons had to rally in the 6th and 7th to tie up the game. It would remain tied for another five innings until Brandon Phillips hit a nubbler to the left side of the infield that Jose Reyes was unable to get to in time. David Wright, breaking with the pitch, scored easily from third.

John Smoltz, who was demoted for three days to AAA Dublin, came back in full force by shutting out the Straphangers 4-0. Smoltz held the Hangmen to only five hits and struck out 12. B.J. Upton and Kurt Suzuki had four of the five hits. The Sugar Bears were held to only 6 hits in the game, but Phil Hughes and the Sardine City pen gave up 8 walks.

The first deal during the 2008 regular season was just completed today. The Philadelphia Endzone Animals exchanged farmhand pitchers with division rival Vancouver. Vancouver re-acquired lefty Scott Olsen, who had struggled with the club last season. Philadelphia received Kyle Kendrick in return. Kendrick was drafted to give the Fist some rotation depth, but with the strength of the rotation and Rich Hill available to spot start, Kendrick was expendable. Philly will send Kendrick to AAA Trenton for the time being, but he may be called up if Yovani Gallardo or Jason Bergmann continue to struggle.

Sardine City suffers first injury

The Sardine City Straphangers suffered the first real injury of the season when starter Fausto Carmona left after the first inning while hobbling to the dugout. Carmona drew the wrath of Sardine City management. "We were really hoping to get more than 14 pitches out of our #1 starter--ugh" said co-owner Chris Calvosa after the game. Carmona will be replaced by Scott Baker, recently released by Hoboken. To make room the Straphangers will release outfielder Alfredo Amezaga. Amezaga, who had been told as a practical joke that he was one of the final roster cuts before Opening Day, at first thought it was a joke. "No way they are going to cut me after that," he said as his bags were being taken to a taxi cab, "but those heartless bastards did anyway!"

Tampa Bay, after chasing out Carmona, went on to win their first victory of the season. Starter Roy Oswalt went the distance, giving up only one run on six hits. Kenji Johjima went 3-4 for the Plunkers.

Vancouver pounded away on Hillsborough for the second straight day, winning 11-2. Andre Ethier was 4-4 with 2 RBIs and David Ortiz hit his second homer of the season. Hitmen starter Justin Verlander was shelled to the tune of seven runs in 1.1 innings.

Jason Giambi's two home runs propelled the D.C. Bushslappers to a 5-2 win over the Endzone Animals. Giambi hit his first shot in the first inning, a 2-run bomb off Johan Santana. Giambi then hit a solo shot in the fifth.

Marietta advances, Honolulu takes the lead

After the underdogs took the first game of both series, the favorites have come back.

The Mighty Men finished off the Bushslappers yesterday 7-5. The Bushslappers offense just couldn't wake up in time during the series. Marietta's pitching staff shut them down for most of the series. After being limited to only four runs in the first two games, Marietta's offense came alive in the final two games too, scoring 15 runs combined. Wily Mo Pena would get our Series MVP vote, hitting .444 with 2 homers and 7 RBIs in the series. Marietta will face the Philadelphia Endzone Animals starting Friday.

Meanwhile, the Honolulu Sharks have retaken the lead in the series after an 8-5 victory in Hoboken yesterday. The Sharks stormed out to a 7-0 lead and survived a Cutter rally in the eighth. Roy Oswalt pitched brilliantly, striking out 12 batters in six innings, while surrendering only one run on five hits. Hoboken will send Scott Kazmir on three days rest to the mound today in a desparate attempt to even the series and send it back to Honolulu.

Wednesday doubleheader recap

Roy Oswalt pitched a gem against South Boston yesterday as the Sharks routed the Gang 10-0. Oswalt pitched a complete game shutout, surrendering only five hits and no walks while striking out six. Oswalt has pitched well in five of his last six starts since coming back from his injury last month. The one low note was a 10-2 loss to Marietta.

Albert Pujols drove in six runs and hit his 39th home run in Philly's 11-3 shellacking of Las Vegas. Brandon Webb won after missing his last start due to injury to improve to 11-7. Reed Johnson also contributed 3 RBIs. The Rat Pack used eight pitchers in the game, including rarely utilized Casey Janssen, who pitched the last three innings. It was Vegas' ninth straight loss.

The Mudcats beat the Animals in the late game yesterday, but lost David Eckstein to injury. Eckstein has been on the disabled list twice already this year as a member of the Endzone Animals and now will give the Mudcats a chance to pay him to sit at home and play his Nintendo Wii.

Newark won twice yesterday becoming the first team to 90 wins on the season. In game one against Hillsborough, Jim Edmonds hit two homers and drove in six runs for the Sugar Bears. Randy Johnson won his 197th career victory. Ryan Howard hit his 50th homer of the season for Hillsborough. Edmonds hit another homer in the second game as John Smoltz started his 300th career game. His seven strikeouts left him four shy of 2000 for his career.

Jose Contreras shut down Vancouver for a 5-0 shutout, though Contreras couldn't make it through the full nine. Contreras lasted eight innings, holding Vancouver to four hits and two walks. Mike Wuertz finished the ninth to preserve the shutout.

Look for a new Trade Talk article later tonight.

Cutters cuttin' it up

The Hoboken Cutters have rocketed up into the sixth overall spot with a four-game winning streak. Jarrod Washburn improved to 12-6 with a win over the struggling Las Vegas Rat Pack yesterday. The Cutters thumped the Rats 12-4, behind Player of the Week Ian Kinsler's 3-4, 3-RBI night. The Cutters had a decent 13 hits in the game, but racked up 12 walks.

Joe Saunders' luck ran out last night, sort of. Saunders only threw eight pitches in the game, but after a lengthy rain delay, Don Mattingly decided it would be best to pull the youngster. And though the Sugar Bear pen was solid, only allowing two runs in the final 8 2/3 innings, it was enough to stick Saunders with the loss. Roy Oswalt, fresh from a recent DL stint, pitched brilliantly for Honolulu, allowing only one unearned run in six innings, while striking out four. The shaky Tom Gordon pitched the final two innings for his 15th save.

David Ortiz's two homers gave Vancouver a much-needed victory over Sardine City yesterday. Ortize drove in six runs while hitting his 29th and 30th homers of the year. Vancouver is now sitting on the outside looking in from seventh place. Greg Maddux pitched a strong game to improve to 8-4 on the season.

A 4-run eighth inning propelled the Buddahs to a 7-3 victory over Marietta yesterday. Austin Kearns and Yuniesky Betancourt both hit homers in the inning. Kearns was 3-3 and Nomar Garciaparra had a 3-run homer in the contest.

Underrated Overbay

D.C.'s Lyle Overbay has been red-hot lately. After hitting a walk-off grand slam yesterday, Overbay continued his hot hitting with a 4-5 night against Hoboken yesterday, including two more homers. Overbay is now 7-9 with 3 HRs and 6 RBIs in his last two games.

Nomar Garciaparra barely got his glove dusted off before he was forced to leave last night's game with another injury. The first injury kept Garciaparra out for a month and this one may be close to that long. Once again, Shea Hillenbrand and Troy Glaus will fill in for Nomar.

Another more harmful loss was Honolulu's Roy Oswalt, who will miss a month with his injury. Kenny Rogers, who was recently demoted, will fill in for Oswalt. Oswalt was struggling a bit this season (5-5, 5.31) and the time off may help him.

Brett Myers was looking to take another loss yesterday despite an excellent performance, but his offense bailed him out. Myers had limited South Boston to five hits over 8.2 innings, surrendering only two runs and striking out five. However, he was locked in a duel with the Gang's Nate Robertson, who had not given up any runs at that point. Robertson was going for the complete game shutout, but the Rat Pack had something else in mind. Robertson allowed singles to the first two batters he faced and then newly-signed Endy Chavez came through with a double that scored one. Huston Street was brought in to close the game. After an intentional walk to create a force situation, Street gave up a sac fly to tie the game, then, with two outs, Chone Figgins roped a single into right to score the winning run.

Newark and Vancouver slugged it out last night through eleven innings. The game went back and forth until Nick Johnson won it with a two-run homer in the eleventh. Manny Ramirez also hit two homers (one of which tied the game at 11) and was 4-6 with 3 RBIs. Billy Wagner blew his eighth save for Vancouver.

Note tonight there will be a double header followed by an early morning game tomorrow. There will be no games on Saturday and Sunday.

Oswalt back on track

There was a bit of a pitchers' duel in Vegas yesterday. South Boston's Aaron Harang and Las Vegas' Chris Young battled it out. Young gave way to the bullpen in the sixth, but Harang took a 1-0 shutout into the eighth before surrendering two runs in the bottom half of the inning. There were only 11 hits between the two teams in the game.

Honolulu's Roy Oswalt finally straightened out his season. After getting clobbered in his first two starts, Oswalt turned in a complete game two-hit performance against Arkansas, surrendering only one run. Oswalt struck out 6.

Hoboken's Scott Kazmir probably had the best game yesterday, holding D.C. to one run on four hits in eight innings, while striking out nine and walking only one.

The injuries are starting to pile up. Hoboken and Philadelphia both placed team members on the DL. Hoboken lost outfielder Geoff Jenkins for two weeks and signed Damian Miller. The Cutters plan to replace Jenkins with Pat Burrell. Scrappy Philly shortstop David Eckstein may be lost for a month. Philly signed infielder Marco Scutaro who was released before the season by Team Buddah and last played a regular season game for Carolina back in 2005.