Verlander near perfect, K's 13

It was all about pitching Friday night, with four of the eight games ending in shutouts -- another two games had teams held to just a run -- but none better than Justin Verlander, who put up the most dominant start of the season so far in a near perfect game.

The Hillsborough ace tossed a one-hitter, defeating the Floating Fish, 2-0. He walked none and struck out 13, including the side in the 1st and six of the first seven batters. Just four outs were recorded via fly ball.

An error by first baseman Billy Butler to start the fifth and a single by A.J. Pierzynski leading off the sixth were the only blemishes that kept Verlander from achieving a perfect game. After Pierzynki's hit, Verlander proceeded to strike out six of the next eight batters, including the side in the sixth inning.

Verlander improved to 4-1 and lowered his ERA to a league-leading 1.23. The 13 Ks also gave him the league lead with 53, two better than Bridgewater rookie Brandon Beachy.

There were two no-hitters in the DMBL last year, most recently in June when Brett Myers, then with Las Vegas, beat New Jersey, 1-0, and in May Carolina phenom Stephen Strasburg shut down Philly, 5-0.

One from the top, one from the bottom

The Mudcats have been on a roll of late, notching 7 straight wins as of Monday. Sitting atop the Morris Division, Carolina has the best record in the DMBL at 12-3. And the unlikely leader for the Mudcats this week was catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who batted .550 with 2 homers and 11 RBIs and a smokin' 1.515 OPS, earning him this week's JR Cigar's Smokin' Batter of the Week Award.

Meanwhile, in the Hanover Division, the defending champion Mighty Men are sitting pretty at 12-4, but no fancy-shmancy winning streak, so their top player will have to settle for a book of matches. Ichiro Suzuki led the Mighty Men with his .424 average, scoring 10 runs and stealing 2 bases. Other players of note: Philly's Albert Pujols (.933 OPS, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 9 R), Blue Ridge's Andrew McCutchen (.440/.462/.720, 5 R), and Vancouver's Marlon Byrd (.524/.524/.667, 3 doubles) and Michael Cuddyer (1.231 OPS, 4 HR, 12 RBI).

And on the other end of the spectrum, our Trololo Pitcher of the Week hails from the worst team in the league - Team Buddah. The Buddahs finally snapped their 9 game losing streak with an 8-7 edging of the Golden Falcons yesterday. But maybe there is some hope for the struggling franchise as their prized pitcher Rick Porcello gets this week's top pitcher nod. Sure, Porcello didn't get a win, but he still managed to work 16.1 innings, giving up only 3 runs for a 1.65 ERA and 0.92 WHIP.

Other top contenders: Sardine City's Jordan Zimmeran (1-0, 0.73 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 17 K), Las Vegas' A.J. Burnett (1-0, 1.25, 1.05, 14 K), Amityville's Tommy Hunter (1-0, 1.42, 0.95) and Hoboken's Mark Buehrle (2.08, 1.00).