Verlander becomes 3rd SP to 500 starts, matches Clemens in wins

Philly's Justin Verlander of blew past a number of milestones in recent weeks, starting his 500th career game and notching his 211th career win.

Kershaw sets all-time strikeout record

In what could be the final regular season start of his career, Clayton Kershaw became the DMBL's all-time leader in strikeouts on Monday night.

Verlander finally notches 200th win

It took the first half of the DMBL season but Justin Verlander finally gained entry into the vaunted 200-win club.

Verlander the 4th to 3,000 strikeouts

Justin Verlander became the 4th DMBL pitcher to reach 3,000 career strikeouts, 

Greinke tops Maddux for most starts all-time

Despite a subpar season, Zack Greinke continued to move up the all-time DMBL pitching charts in 2022, toppling Greg Maddux for most career starts all-time and stands on the cusp of 500 heading into next season.

Verlander now 3rd all-time in strikeouts

Heading into his next start in Sunday's doubleheader action, Justin Verlander now stands 3rd all time in strikeouts and has moved into the top 10 this season in most every major pitching category.

Sale Ks 18, on pace to set new mark

Mired in a losing season, Chris Sale (9-16) pulled out a masterful performance Thursday night, with a league-high 18 strikeouts in a 3-hit, 4-0 shutout at Tucson.

Another Sunday, another no-hitter

Brick City's Scott Feldman shut down the Allentown Mules, 4-0 on the road in Sunday's game one, tossing the second no-hitter in the DMBL this season and the second in as many Sundays. Last week, Bridgewater's Homer Bailey no-hit Sardine City.

It's the first no-hitter for Brick City since moving from Newark, and the 13th in league history. As the Sugar Bears, Newark saw a no-hitter by Randy Johnson against Kentucky in 2001.

The 31-year-old Feldman struck out five and walked none but hit three batters -- losing his chance at the DMBL's first-ever perfect game. Leading off the 3rd inning, Feldman hit Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was erased when Mark Trumbo hit into a 5-4-3 double play in the next at-bat. With one out in the 7th, Feldman nailed Mike Trout and leading off the 9th hit pinch-hitter Neil Walker, who like Salty was eliminated on a GDP, this time 6-4-3 by Jimmy Rollins.

The 6-foot, 7-inch Hawaii native improved to 3-0 in tossing his first shutout of the year, lowering his ERA to 2.74 on the season. He was backed by home runs from Avisail Garcia and Gordon Beckham. John Lackey also went the distance for the Mules but allowed 4 runs on 7 hits while striking out 7 to take the loss.

Allentown may be hitting a league-low .223 through Sunday's doubleheaders but the Mules still feature a lineup that includes Trout, Adrian Gonzalez and Giancarlo Stanton.

The surprise pitching gem stole the headlines from Sunday's other big story, on the batting side: home runs by Pedro Alvarez in three straight at-bats in Durham's 7-4 victory at Empire City.

Halladay -- it would be so fine!

Roy Halladay, the DMBL's active leader in most every pitching category, entered rare territory after a masterful 2-0 shutout of Arkansas on Thursday night. He limited the Golden Falcons to three hits while striking out five and walking just one.

The game featured a number of career milestones for the Philly ace. It was his 19th career shutout, breaking a tie with Curt Schilling for 4th all-time, and moving into a tie with Pedro Martinez for 3rd place. The only pitchers with more DMBL shutouts are Kevin Brown (24) and Greg Maddux (32). It also was the 65th complete game of his career, breaking a tie with Randy Johnson and moving into 5th place all-time.

Halladay passed Andy Pettitte into 9th place all-time in innings pitched, and is just a trio of outs from John Smoltz for 8th place. He now stands within 1,000 innings of Maddux, the all-time leader, with 3,415 1/3 innings pitched.

Halladay set career highs last season in wins (21), innings (250 1/3), complete games (12) and shutouts (4). He originally was selected by Philly in the 9th round of the 1999 draft, pitching for the Endzone Animals in 2000. He was the 11th overall pick of the 2002 draft by Carolina, where he spent the next eight seasons, before being shipped to Philly in a blockbuster trade in January 2010. Incredibly, Halladay has made no fewer than 30 starts in any of his 11 seasons, including 10 straight, every year since 2002.

The doctor is in

The next time Roy "Doc" Halladay takes the mound, he'll do so as one of the top 10 pitchers in DMBL history -- not that there was all that much of a debate. A brilliant five-hit shutout in his last outing vaulted Halladay into the top 10 of the league's all-time pitching categories.

Halladay's last start, his 22nd of the season, was No. 341 for his career, breaking a tie with John Smoltz for 10th in league history. He's chasing Andy Pettitte for 10th in innings pitched (though with his next inning pitched, Pettitte will pass Kevin Brown into 9th place), as well as 10th in wins, with 143, two behind the New Jersey lefty. Halladay's newest teammate, Johan Santana, is the active leader in strikeouts (1,700, good for 9th all-time), but Halladay trails the lefthander by some 35 Ks.

Last week's shutout was the seventh complete game this year for Halladay, again breaking a tie with Smoltz, for 6th in league history, with his 59th career complete game. The shutout was his second on the year, moving into a tie for 7th all-time with 16 (and breaking a tie with Randy Johnson and Smoltz).

Halladay also has a 24-inning scoreless streak going, along with 21 consecutive innings without walking a batter.

Big Unit waits for a call

Former Sugar Bear and future DMBL Hall of Famer Randy Johnson is still looking for a team to latch on to during spring training. The 46-year-old went 13-5 last season with a 3.99 ERA and 199 strikeouts in 27 starts for Newark but was not protected in the offseason and has yet to get a sniff from other teams.

The "Big Unit" in 2009 continued to add to his career strikeout mark, finishing with 3,409, but fell tantalizingly short of other records. Johnson remains two wins behind all-time leader Greg Maddux (232) but is the winningest lefty in league history (230), significantly ahead of Tom Glavine (170).

Johnson is one of only four pitchers to start 450 games but could pass Glavine (455) and Roger Clemens (452) should he can join a team in 2010. Maddux, however, is out of reach at 497 starts.

Falcons roll into crowded Morris playoff mix

How about those Arkansas Falcons? After languishing near the bottom of the Morris Division for most of the season, the Falcons have put together a 5-game winning streak that put the club back up over the .500 mark. Yesterday's 3-1 win over Carolina pushed them to 37-36. Though they're still in 5th place, they're only 1 1/2 out of 4th and 6 1/2 out of first. Johan Santana pitched 7 solid innings to earn the win and Ivan Rodriguez had 2 RBIs in the game.

Vancouver and Philly battled it out in 16 innings with the Iron Fist earning the 10-8 victory. Vancouver rallied from a 4-0 deficit and took the lead with a 5-run 5th inning. Philadelphia tied the game at 6 in the 7th and the two teams didn't score again until the 16th inning. Michael Cuddyer, just signed off the scrap heap, hit a 2-run go-ahead home run in the top of the inning to give the Animals an 8-6 lead. But it didn't last. Frank Francisco quickly loaded the bases, then with no one out and Justin Masterson relieving Francisco, Chase Utley hit a walkoff grand slam to win the game for Vancouver. Utley ended the night with 6 RBIs.

Marietta and Newark saw a matchup of DMBL future Hall of Famers as Mike Mussina faced Randy Johnson. Mussina won the game, improving to 9-4, though it wasn't pretty, but Mussina tied Tom Glavine for #7 on the all-time win list (170). He's now one behind John Smoltz, who is sitting out this season. Of course Johnson made a little history himself - his loss tied him for the #7 spot with Kevin Appier (120).

The Sardine City Straphangers scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the 9th to steal a game from Hoboken 5-4. Carlos Quentin's double tied up the game as Alfredo Amezega scored from second. Ryan Braun won the game for the Sardines with a sac fly. Kevin Kouzmanoff was 2-4 in the game with a homer and 3 RBIs. Taking over for the injured Jorge Cantu (who was filling in for the injured Evan Longoria), Kouzmanoff has been putting up some good numbers (.348 average, 1.130 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBI in 23 AB). The bad news for Kouz? Longoria is expected to return in time for today's match.

Sugar Bears secure top spot

Vancouver broke their losing streak, barely, by edging the Mudcats 3-2 in 13 innings. Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson battled it out for 6 or so innings, but the score remained tied at 2 since the 2nd inning. With the no-decision, Peavy loses any hope of tying the DMBL mark of 26 victories in one season. Mike Lowell won the game with a walkoff home run in the 13th. Vancouver's magic number drops to 3.

D.C. tied up Hillsborough with a 4-1 win over the Falcons. Kelvim Escobar won his 16th with a 6-inning, 5-hit outing, giving up only one run and striking out 5. Both the Hitmen and Bushslappers are 3 away from clinching a playoff spot.

Randy Johnson (7.1 IP, 3 H, 13 K) outduelled Phil Hughes (6 IP, 2 H, 5 BB, 7 K) to pick up a 1-0 victory over the Sardine City Straphangers. The two teams combined for 10 hits total as Newark locked up the top overall seed in the playoffs.

Rarely do you see a pitcher pitch a complete game AND give up 9 earned runs but that's exactly what Blue Ridge's Jon Lieber did yesterday in a 9-3 loss to Philadelphia. Lieber "took one for the team", giving up 13 hits and walking 6 in 8 innings of work. Most of the damage was done in the first three innings, as the Animals piled up 8 of the 9 runs in those innings.

Arkansas, Carolina heat up

Arkansas once again unleashed their offensive might on Team Buddah. After pounding on them Tuesday 12-1, the Falcons scored another dozen in a 12-3 final. Adam Dunn, returning to the lineup after a weeklong injury, hit two homers and drove in four runs. Newcomers Ryan Ludwick (2-4) and Yorvit Torrealba (2-4, 3 RBI) also factored into the scoring. The Falcons scored early in the game, tallying 7 runs in the first inning.

Lefty Barry Zito has been struggling to get wins despite pitching fairly well this year, but that changed yesterday. Zito held the first-place Rat Pack to three hits in 7.2 innings, giving up only one run, to improve his record to 2-3. Travis Hafner started the scoring in the first inning with a 3-run dinger. The Cats have now won 4 of their last 5 and are only one game under .500.

D.C.'s John Maine outduelled Mark Buehrle in a 2-1 nailbiter against Tampa Bay. Maine held the Plunkers to one hit in 6.2 innings and struck out 8. The Bushslapper scored all their runs in the first inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Carlos Beltran and Paul Lo Duca.

Poor Cole Hamels had his fifth straight start in which he gave up 2 runs or less and yet his team could not provide enough run support. Hamels pitched six innings and struck out 10, giving up only two runs on four hits and four walks. But the Sardines could only muster three runs in support and ended up losing 4-3 after the Endzone Animals rallied to score two runs in the ninth. In his last three games, the Straphangers have scored seven runs combined for Hamels.

Randy Johnson's win over the Bombers yesterday put him in a tie with Pedro Martinez for second overall at 206. He's got a ways to go to catch all-time leader Greg Maddux at 221.

David Ortiz's 6 RBIs powered Vancouver to a 15-3 thrashing of Marietta. Chad Billingsley improved to 4-0 with a 6 inning, 3-hit performance, in which he surrendered 2 runs and struck out 6. Vancouver has now won 7 straight and nine of their last ten.

Sardine City squeezes out twin wins

The Straphangers took two games from the Falcons yesterday, becoming the final DMBL team to earn its 10th victory of the season. The Straphangers are now tied with the Mighty Men for 13th overall. An Alex Rodriguez error in the seventh inning of the first game gave the Sardines a 3-2 victory. The two teams both made costly errors - both teams only gave up one earned run each - forcing both starters to accept a no-decision despite solid performances. In game two, Fausto Carmona pitched six shutout innings to earn his second win of the year. Ryan Braun and B.J. Upton hit back-to-back homers in the fourth to give the Hangmen a 2-1 win.

The Falcons were so frustrated by the lack of offense that they ripped up the roster and jettisoned outfielder Joey Gathright, catcher Brad Ausmus, and second baseman Mark Ellis. In their place, the Falcons signed DMBL veteran second bagger Luis Castillo, recent Hillsborough castoff Ryan Ludwick, and catcher Yorvit Torrealba, who was with Marietta earlier this year.

Randy Johnson struck out 13 Hitmen in seven innings en route to a 5-1 win for the Sugar Bears, completing a 4-game sweep. Newark is now 19-0 in the Cereal Bowl this season.

New This Week in DMBL coming up later tonight...

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Chipper Jones hit his ninth HR of the season Saturday, No. 350 for his career, moving past Jeff Bagwell into 11th place. Vlad Guerrero is right behind him, tied with Bagwell, and recently surpassed Larry Walker at 348, 14th overall.

In pitching, John Smoltz matched David Wells for ninth all-time in games started at 315. He also snapped a tie with Mike Mussina for wins, earning his 162nd victory, 8th all time.

Falcons win first

The Falcons finally broke their winless streak, defeating the struggling Iron Fist 7-6. Arkansas went up 6-4 after the sixth, but Vancouver crawled back to tie it up at six. The Falcons won the game after Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a pinch hit home run leading off the bottom of the ninth. Vancouver's David Ortiz continued his hot streak, going 3-3 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

D.C.'s Derrek Lee led the Slapper offense with 6 RBIs in a 10-4 rout of the Mudcats. The Cats jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but it all fell apart in the eighth inning. Clinging to a 4-3 lead, reliever Brian Fuentes threw a can of gasoline on a fire and then tossed in some firecrackers to boot. Fuentes was responsible for six of the seven runs in that inning, while recording only two outs.

Newark's offense is at it again, smashing the Buddahs by a 19-3 margin. The Sugar Bears had 20 hits and 10 walks. Nick Swisher had 3 home runs and 7 RBIs. Meanwhile, Randy Johnson cruised on his way to his second win of the season, limiting Jersey to only 4 hits, and striking out eight in seven innings.

Mussina-Johnson set for game 5

Mike Mussina, the only pitcher to have beaten the Sugar Bears at home so far this post-season, will try to repeat the feat against Randy Johnson, who pitched well in game one. Mussina has not fared well at the Cereal Bowl in the regular season. While Mussina pitched two solid games against Newark in Marietta, Mussina was roughed up in two other regular season starts. In a combined nine innings, Mussina has given up 21 hits and eight earned runs (2 unearned), though he does have nine strikeouts and escaped a decision in each outing. Johnson, meanwhile, has only faced Marietta once in the regular season and the results were similar to game one: 6 IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts and a victory. Of course with the Sugar Bear offense, they won't need much more than that.

Wild Card race gets tighter

The playoff race got tighter yesterday. Honolulu beat Arkansas 12-7 thanks to big days from Miguel Tejada (4-5), Brian McCann (3-5, 4 RBIs), and Johnny Damon (3-5). The Sharks jumped all over Falcon starter Juan Cruz in the second inning, scoring seven runs. Cruz only surrendered three hits, but walked six batters in his 1 2/3 innings of work.

Meanwhile Hoboken won their fourth straight with a 12-6 win over D.C. The Slappers jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a six run third inning, but the Cutters crawled back and took the lead with a six-run inning of their own. Mike Jacobs and Chris Duncan each had 3 RBIs.

Finally, Vancouver dropped their opening game against Newark 6-2. Randy Johnson earned his 199th career victory. Johnson will be the fourth to reach 200 with his next victory and the third to achieve the feat this year. Curt Schilling of Arkansas is the next active player with 190 career wins, but it looks like he'll have to wait til next year. Newark also became the first team to win 100 games this season and the eighth time in the franchises twelve year history that they have hit the century mark.

So Vancouver fell out of a playoff spot and into eighth, a half a game behind Hoboken and Honolulu. Hoboken remains percentage points up on Honolulu, since the Sharks have played more games than the Cutters. D.C. remains one game up on Hillsborough for fourth place after the Hitmen dropped a 7-4 loss to the Sardines.

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.

D.C., Hillsborough head in opposite directions

The Sugar Bears' streak is over at twelve after a doubleheader sweep at the hands of South Boston. The Gang took the first game thanks to a 2-homer, 5-RBI outburst from Ramon Hernandez and a solid outing from Dontrelle Willis. Randy Johnson did notch his 2000th career strikeout in the match, but he did not provide much help outside of that. The second game was much closer, but the Gang scored two runs in the eighth (seems to be a popular inning for comebacks) to take the lead 4-3. Brandon League won the game in relief and improved to 8-2.

Francisco Liriano shut out Vancouver 6-0 yesterday to improve to 11-1 on the season. Liriano held Vancouver to 6 hits in 6 innings and the Marietta pen finished the game off. The win spoiled the DMBL debut of Chad Billingsley who only gave up one run over seven innings of work, while striking out six. Billingsley took the place of the struggling Ben Sheets. Sheets was sent down to AAA to work on his mechanics. Vancouver got them back, however, in the second game as Moises Alou blasted three home runs (all solo shots) to help squeak by 8-7. Vancouver actually hit six homers in the contest, though they only managed 8 runs. Gerald Laird was the only one to hit a homer with a runner on base.

D.C. has hit a wall lately, losing their eighth straight game after a marathon 17 inning loss to Honolulu yesterday. D.C. has now dropped into a fourth place tie with Honolulu and is only one game ahead of Hoboken and Hillsborough for sixth place. It's a very tight race lately - 1 1/2 games separates third place Marietta from seventh place, so it'll be very interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.

The anti-Bushslappers have been the Hillsborough Hired Hitmen who have won eight straight and are now tied for the sixth playoff spot with Hoboken. Hillsborough shut down the Cutters yesterday with back-to-back solid performances from Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez. Verlander held the Cutters to only three hits and one run over seven innings in game one and Felix struck out nine in seven innings, while giving up only five hits and one run.

Remember Brett Myers' struggles earlier this season? Well those struggles are ancient history. Since starting the season at 0-12 with an 8.40 ERA, Myers has gone on a bit of a hot streak. He's 5-1 since that low point and has brought his ERA down to 6.34, including seven quality starts in his last eight outings and a recent Pitcher of the Week award.

Take note that the DMBL trading deadline will be this Sunday. After this point, any players that are signed off the waiver wire are not elligible to be kept after the season is over.