Berkman, Sheets take honors

This week's top batters were all clustered around a few teams - Las Vegas, Carolina, and New Jersey in particular, but it was a Falcon that took the prize. This week's JR Cigars Smokin' Batter of the Week is Lance Berkman, who batted .500 (12-24) this week, with a .600 OBP and 1.000 slugging, plus 8 runs. Berkman's teammate Skip Schumaker (.500/.542/.773) also had a good week. Las Vegas really mad eout well in their recent trades - John Baker (.524/.621/.762, 9 R, 8 RBI) and Dan Uggla (.478/.586/.957, 3 HR, 6 R, 8 RBI) both had tremendous weeks.

Other top hitters: Carolina's Mike Aviles (.429/.429/.714) and Magglio Ordonez (.417/.444/.708), New Jersey's Fernando Tatis (.545/.615/.909, 8 R), Jhonny Peralta (.458/.440/708, 9 RBI), and Elijah Dukes (.412/.500/.647), and Newark's Ramon Vazquez (.526/.591/.789).

This week's Josh Womack Pitcher of the Week Award goes to Vancouver's Ben Sheets. Sheets was one of only two pitchers to go 2-0 this week (Las Vegas' Rich Harden was the other), while posting a 1.13 ERA in 16 innings, and striking out 11. Sheets, who has yet to live up to his potential, is enjoying perhaps his finest DMBL season yet. Speaking of Harden, our runner up posted a 1.80 ERA, while striking out 13 in 15 innings.

Other top hurlers: Hoboken's Mark Buehrle (1-0, 2.57), Marietta's Mike Mussina (1-1, 1.93) and Jon Danks (1-1, 2.53, 14 K), Newark's James Shields (1-0, 2.25), and Hillsborough's Jose Arredondo (1-0, 0.00, 6 K, in 6.1 IP).

Hitmen streak hits 6

The Hired Hitmen won their 6th straight yesterday, pounding D.C. 9-2. Ryan Howard was 3-4 with a pair of home runs and 7 RBIs to singlehandedly lead the team to victory. C.C. Sabathia went the distance, improving to 2-0 on the season, as he limited the O-Bombers to 6 hits and one walk, while striking out 7.

Vancouver kept pace by thrashing Philly 11-0. Ben Sheets pitched 7 shutout innings and Omar Infante was 3-5 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs. Jerry Hairston also hit a home run and drove in 3 runs. The Endzone Animals could only muster up 5 hits in the contest, losing their 5th straight. That's bad news for Philly as Las Vegas comes to town to start their series today.

Speaking of Vegas, the Rat Pack was abused by Team Buddah last night 9-1. Andy Pettitte pitched a gem for Buddah, striking out 8 in 8 innings of work and holding the Rats to 6 hits. Joey Votto was 2-4 with 2 doubles in the game. Buddah only had 9 hits and 2 walks but made it count - only two Buddah batters were stranded in the efficient victory.

Sheets, Shields deal

Newark got their revenge for the Cutters' audacity with a 10-0 shellacking. James Shields pitched a complete game, 3-hit masterpiece, in which he struck out 12 and walked only one. Jack Cust and Nick Swisher each had 3 RBIs and Chipper Jones was 3-5, raising his league leading average to .395.

Todd Helton was 2-3 with 4 runs scored, a homer and a triple and Chase Utley went 2-3 with 4 RBIs to lead Vancouver to a 12-0 slapdown of D.C. Ben Sheets went the distance, holding D.C. to 5 hits and winning for only the second time all season.

Meanwhile Las Vegas and Tampa Bay duelled it out to a 2-1 final. The Plunkers were winning 1-0 for much of the game, but Matt Holliday and Frank Thomas hit back-to-back home runs to give the Rats a 2-1 lead. The Rats held the Plunkers to 4 hits in the game.

Burnett no-hits Sugar Bears

You read that right. The mighty Sugar Bears offense, which set all sorts of crazy records last year, were no-hit by Las Vegas' A.J. Burnett. Burnett gave up his first baserunner of the game right in the first inning, walking Jack Cust with two outs, but quickly retired the next four batters. In the third, Jarrod Saltalamacchia drew a leadoff walk but was left stranded at third base - and that's as close as the Sugar Bears got to scoring. Burnett would go on to strike out 11 Sugar Bears. It was the first no-hitter in the DMBL since July of 2004 when Curt Schilling combined with three Falcon relievers to no-hit the Westwood Deductions and the first solo no-hitter since John Lackey of Phoenix shut down the Hillsborough Destroyers in 2003. Carlos Pena provided the offense for the Rats, going 3-3 with a home run and 4 RBIs. Newark now stands at 19-0 at home, but a paltry 6-12 on the road.

Vancouver's Ben Sheets won his first game of the year by shutting down the Blue Ridge Bombers. Sheets held them to one run on five hits in eight innings, while striking out 10.

Hillsborough rallied from a 4-1 deficit to upend the Endzone Animals. The Hitmen scored a couple of runs in the seventh to come within one then tied the game in the next inning with a Carlos Lee single that scored Mike Cameron. Howie Kendrick then tripled in the next at bat, scoring Lee. Russell Martin brought Kendrick home with a sharp single over Aaron Hill's head. Takashi Saito pitched a perfect ninth for his 8th save.

Roy Halladay won his 99th career DMBL game with a solid eight inning outing yesterday against the Falcons. Chuck James held the Mudcats to only 2 hits, but an Orlando Cabrera error led to 2 unearned runs and saddled James with a no-decision. The Mudcats took the lead when Troy Tulowitzki laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt in the eighth that scored Johnny Estrada. Tulo had three RBIs on the night.

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.

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.