Opening Day notes

Josh Beckett led Blue Ridge to their first victory. The Bombers bested the Falcons 4-1 behind Beckett's solid performance (6.2 IP, 1 ER, 8 Ks). The game was locked at 1-1 entering the seventh, but the Bombers scored a couple of runs to take the lead. Huston Street closed the game for his first save of the season.

Meanwhile the defending champion Sugar Bears staved off a comeback attempt by the Mudcats, eking out an 8-7 victory. The Sugar Bears jumped out to an early 8-1 lead after two innings, but the Mudcat pen held the powerful Newark offense in check throughout the rest of the game - almost enough time to mount an improbably comeback. Manny Delcarmen got out of a jam in the bottom of the seventh and pitched the final two innings for the save.

Team Buddah crushed the Hoboken Cutters 7-1 behind Brad Penny's 3-hit effort (in 7 IP). Alfonso Soriano was 3-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs and Ty Wigginton drove in 3 runs.

Las Vegas' Chris Young continued his unbeaten streak into the regular season, winning a 7-2 decision against the Mighty Men. Young struck out 11 and surrendered only one run one 3 hits in his 7.2 innings of work.

Unit close to historic marks

Randy Johnson is now only one strikeout away from 3000 for his career. Johnson will be the first to achieve the mark in DMBL history. The win gave him nine for the season and 195 for the year. Johnson is looking to become the third pitcher to reach 200 career wins this season. By the way, Johnson should buy Mark DeRosa some cigars or something. DeRosa drove in six runs in the game to lead the Sugar Bears to a 15-3 victory over South Boston.

Honolulu held on to defeat the Bushslappers 3-2 in extra innings. Honolulu jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning and starter Jeff Francis was limiting D.C. to only one run on three hits in his seven innings of work. But D.C. got to reliever Chad Bradford in the eighth and we were off to extra innings. Frank Catalanotto finally won the game with a double in the bottom of the 12th, scoring Eric Chavez, who had reached earlier on an error.

Marietta broke their losing streak by beating a struggling Vancouver team 6-1. Ben Sheets was rocked again prompting team owner Yaro Zajac to wonder if Sheets might be hiding an injury. Regardless, Sheets may be seeing time in AAA if he doesn't straighten out, but most of the Vancouver starters have 5.00+ ERAs anyway. A.J. Burnett pitched brilliantly for Marietta, holding the Iron Fist to only one run on four hits through seven innings.

Team Buddah ripped Arkansas starter Daniel Cabrera to shreds. Cabrera surrendered seven runs in only 1 1/3 innings. The Buddahs were up 8-2 after two innings and never looked back. Brad Penny earned his 10th win of the season for New Jersey.

The Straphangers continued their tough stretch yesterday. After facing the Hanover-leading Sugar Bears, the Sardines now face the Morris-leading Endzone Animals. Erik Bedard held the Sardines in check, holding them to three runs over seven innings and picking up his 10th win of the year. Sardine City starter Adam Loewen pitched well (better than Bedard even), but did not factor into the decision as Matt Capps lost it in the eighth.

Duncan Responsibility

First off, a reminder. The All-Star game is rapidly approaching, so if you haven't voted yet, make sure you do it soon! Now on to the games...

Chris Duncan possibly cost the Cutters their game against the Sugar Bears yesterday. In the first inning, Duncan bobbled a ball in the field when Chipper Jones yelled out "Mine!" from the infield. The gaffe cost the Cutters two runs in the first inning. Then in the second inning, Duncan fell for the same trick again Jones yelled "Ha!" from the dugout and Duncan, spooked again, let the ball fall in front of him, scoring Mark Teahan. Two more runs would score that inning and soon the Cutters were down 6-0, all unearned runs. Duncan tried to make up for his bloopers in the sixth with a solo home run, but in the seventh, Chipper would make Duncan pay for it. On a high fly ball from Nick Johnson, Jones yelled "Yabba Dabba Doo" and Duncan let the ball fall out of his glove. Luckily for Duncan, no runs scored that inning, but he was left feeling very embarrassed. "That was not cool at all" said Duncan after the game. Cutters manager Wally Backman called Jones "Bush League" and Cutters GM/owner Mark Hrywna was seen throwing furniture around in the owner's box. "Hey it's all part of the game" Jones stated in the post-game press conference.

Jermaine Dye had a huge night for Honolulu. The Shark outfielder was 3-5 with 3 home runs, leading the Sharks to an 8-2 spanking of the Rat Pack. Dye now has 29 homers on the year and is tied with Ryan Howard for the league lead. In the game, Jason Schmidt secured his 10th win of the season.

Brad Penny held the Straphangers to only three hits over seven innings to improve to 7-6 as the Buddahs shut out Sardine City 8-0. Team Buddah, despite being eight games under .500 actually has a positive run differential now (352 for, 346 against).

Marietta and D.C. both parted with two of their prospects yesterday. D.C. gave up on Phillip Humber and signed up DMBL veteran Matt Morris. Meanwhile, Marietta was less calm about releasing disappointing Kei Igawa. After Igawa was torched in AAA, an irate David Landsman was rumored to have issued a hit on Igawa. Igawa was taken into protective custody just in case, though Landsman denied the charges. In a video taken by a fan's cell phone, Landsman appears to say "put a bullet in the back of his head", but the video is a bit grainy. Nevertheless, Igawa was issued his walking papers and Paul Byrd was welcomed back to the Mighty Men clubhouse.

Bad day for pitchers

Two teams were crushed yesterday at home. Honolulu routed the Golden Falcons 18-5. Brian McCann had two homers and five RBIs and Jeff Francis improved to 7-1 on the season. Falcons starter Ervin Santana lasted just 2 innings and gave up six runs, but the real damage was done by reliever Brad Lidge, who surrendered eight earned runs, in addition to allowing both of his inherited runners to score. Lidge and Santana combined to walk eight batters and surrendered eight hits and 14 earned runs in 3.1 innings.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the Sugar Bears pounded the Iron Fist to a 17-5 tune. Nick Johnson was 4-6 with 6 RBIs and three homers and Manny Ramirez was 4-5 with one homer. Starter Ben Sheets was ripped apart - 1.2 IP, 6 ER, 6 hits. Vancouver also allowed six unearned runs in the contest. Javier Vazquez was the beneficiary of the run support and improved to 4-2 by limiting the Fist to three hits over six innings, though he did issue five walks.

New Jersey's recent acquisition Matt Guerrier pitched in his first game for Team Buddah and was impressive in 5.1 innings, surrendering no runs and four hits, while striking out three. It wasn't enough because starter Brad Penny was shelled (6 runs, eight hits in 1.2 innings).

Want more starter shellings? How about D.C.'s John Maine who gave up six runs and eight hits in two innings against Hoboken? At least Maine didn't get a loss as the Bushslappers came back to win the game.

How about Sardine City's Tom Glavine who gave up five runs and five hits in two innings in a loss to Hillsborough? The Straphangers ended up using eight pitchers in the game, including Brandon Claussen who was the team's emergency starter earlier in the year.

So did anyone pitch well yesterday? Las Vegas' Chris Young pitched seven scoreless innings against South Boston in picking up the win to improve to 4-4. Young struck out 10 Gangsters. Speaking of Las Vegas, Brett Myers will try to break the hex over him tonight as he tries to win his first game of the season. Myers is currently 0-9 on the year with a 10.38 ERA. "If he doesn't turn things around, I may send him to the pen next year" said team owner Eric Wickstrom.

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.