Smoltz racks up 2000th

Newark's John Smoltz picked up strikeout number 2000 for his career Monday. Smoltz pitched eight innings to earn his 13th win of the year against the Falcons, 8-4. Bobby Abreu was 4-5 with 2 stolen bases and 3 RBIs.

Nate Robertson pitched a 6-0, complete game shutout of the Sardine City Straphangers to earn only his second win of the season. Robertson held the Sardines to five hits and two walks. Garrett Atkins and Vlad Guerrero each had three hits and hit their 27th homers of the season.

Jacques Jones hit a two-run walkoff homer to give Team Buddah a 5-4 win over Hillsborough yesterday. Ichiro Suzuki and Shea Hillenbrand both had four hits in the win.

The Rat Pack spoiled the sweep for the Bushslappers yesterday. D.C. had a 4-2 lead in the eighth, but Joe Mauer and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back doubles to give the Rats a 5-4 lead. Frank Thomas hit two homers in a losing cause, though he did move into fifth all-time with 1285 RBIs.

Erik Bedard shut down the Sharks yesterday 5-0. Bedard held the Sharks to four runs over 7.2 innings and J.J. Putz completed the shutout. The Animals were held to only six hits as well, but four of them were home runs, including two by Scott Rolen.

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.