Wild Day Ends Regular Season

After 162 games, and a myriad potential tiebreakers heading into yesterday's finale, the 2012 playoff teams have been determined:

#1 Marietta, 107-55
#2 Vancouver, 92-70
#3 Hopatcong, 90-72
#4 Amityville, 89-73
#5 Hoboken, 87-75
#6 Newark, 87-75

Amityville will host Hoboken to open the playoffs on Wednesday while Newark will visit Hopatcong to open their best-of-five series on Thursday, a rematch of the three-game set this past weekend.

Hoboken beat Marietta, 5-2, eliminating Hillsborough and Bridgewater (despite their 8-6 extra-inning win over Philly). The Cutters clinched the playoffs outright when Rowdy's bullpen blew a lead and lost 5-2 to St. Louis. A Pipers' win would have forced a playoff. Hoboken jumped into the #5 seed when Newark lost to Hopatcong, 5-4, finishing with the same record but a 6-4 advantage over the Sugar Bears during the season.

Young Snatches Batting Title From V-Mart

Michael Young caught Victor Martinez on the final day of the season to win the batting title, .333 to .332.

Batting out of the five-hole, Rowdy's third baseman collected 2 hits in 3 at-bats, including an all-important walk in his final plate appearance. Young was on-deck when Carl Crawford ended the game on a flyout to center. He finished the season with a league-high 222 hits in 672 at-bats (.333333).

Batting cleanup for the Mallers, Martinez went 1 for 5 to finish the year with 161 hits in 485 hits, for a batting average of .331958.

Season Finale Playoff Scenarios

The final playoff spots will be determined one way or another today, the last day of the 2012 season.

If the playoffs were to start today, the seeds would look like this:
#1 Marietta, 107-54
#2 Vancouver, 92-70
#3 Hopatcong, 89-72
#4 Amityville, 88-73
#5 Newark, 87-74
#6 Rowdy, 86-75
#6 Hoboken, 86-75
 -----------------------------------
#8 Bridgewater, 85-76, 1 game back
#8 Hillsborough, 85-76, 1 game back

Marietta and Vancouver have locked up the top two seeds, meaning a first-round bye and hosting the second round of the playoffs. If the standings hold, there would be a one-game playoff between Hoboken and Rowdy for the 6th and final seed.

Other scenarios going into Saturday's season finale:
Hopatcong
The Floating Fish clinched their first-ever division title after Thursday's win over Newark and they control their own destiny when it comes to a 3rd seed.
* Win -- clinches #3 seed outright and would face the #6 seed in the first round.
* Lose -- clinches #3 seed if Amityville also loses; if Amityville wins, they go to tie-breakers to determine #3 seed.

Amityville
The Ant Slayers also clinched their first division title earlier this week so they can't do worse than a #4 seed, but they need Hopatcong to lose if they have any hopes to jump to #3.
* Win -- hope Hopatcong loses to Newark to finish in a tie at 89-73, forcing a tie-breaker for the third seed.
*  Lose -- even if Hopatcong loses, Amityville finishes a game behind at 88-74, in the #4th seed, which would face the #5 seed in round one.

Newark
* Win -- clinches #5 seed. The Sugar Bears could finish with a better record than Amityville if the Ant Slayers lose, but as a division winner, Amityville would be the #4 seed.
* Lose -- clinches #5 seed if Rowdy and Hoboken lose but if either wins, they finish in a tie with them, so there's the potential for a three-way tie at 87 wins.

Rowdy
* Win -- clinches a minimum of a one-game playoff depending on Hoboken's outcome and eliminates Bridgewater and Hillsborough. The Pipers would secure #6 seed outright if they beat St. Louis and Hoboken loses to Marietta, and they would tie Newark for #5 seed if Sugar Bears lose.
* Lose -- hope Hoboken loses also, to force a tie; if Hoboken wins, Rowdy is out. If Bridgewater and Hillsborough both win, they tie Rowdy in this scenario.

Hoboken
* Win -- clinches at least another game to play and knocks out Hillsborough and Bridgewater. If Rowdy also wins, it sets up a one-game playoff for the #6 seed. If Newark also loses, the three teams finish in a tie for the two wild card seeds. A tie-breaker is avoided if Rowdy loses and the Cutters do no worse than the #6 seed.
* Lose -- root for Rowdy to lose to St. Louis, to set up that one-game playoff.

Bridgewater and Hillsborough
* Win -- The gentle neighbors to the west are in the same boat; they need losses by Rowdy and Hoboken to finish in at least a tie for the #6 seed. There's the potential for a four-way tie at 86-76. The Mallers phace Philly while the Hit Men take on Amityville.
* Lose -- See you in 2013.

Monday Night Long Balls

Offense was the order of the day throughout the league Monday night as two players compiled six RBIs each amidst multi-home games.

Adam Jones blasted three home runs to lead Rowdy Roddy Pipers over division rival Marietta, 10-7, at Bullhead Memorial Stadium. The Pipers centerfielder, acquired in the offseason from Vancouver for two draft picks, homered in his first three at-bats, all off of the Mighty Men's Chris Carpenter: two-run bombs in the 2nd and 6th innings, with a solo shot in the 4th. He capped off his night with a run-scoring single in the 7th, finishing 4-for-4 with 6 RBIs. He was hardly the only Piper with four hits: Prince Fielder and Michael Young each went 4-for-5 to help C.C. Sabathia even his record at 8-8.

Over in St. Louis, two Cutters both blasted a pair of home runs to lead Hoboken to a 13-4 victory. David Ortiz hit a solo shot and a two-run bomb while one of Jose Bautista's two home runs -- his league-leading 34th and 35th -- was a grand slam to help him finish with six RBIs.

It wasn't entirely about the batters though. Traded last week along with two draft picks in exchange for Javier Vazquez, Doug Fister made his second outstanding start for Sardine City, going eight innings for the win. Now 2-0, Fister has yielded only three runs over 16 innings for the Straphangers, after a 3-9 start with a 4.53 ERA for Bridgewater.

Buehrle wins his 100th game

It took 14 starts but Mark Buehrle has his first win of the season -- and the 100th of his career. The left-hander scattered four hits and a run over seven innings while striking out four in a 4-1 home triumph against Philly last night.

The 100 wins puts him squarely in 20th place in all-time victories, breaking a tie with Jake Peavy, who's spent most of this season working on his mechanics in the Hopatcong minor league system.

The third overall pick of the 2002 draft, Buehrle went on to win the McDonald Award that year for the Columbia Crusaders, going 18-9 with a 2.32 ERA and wicked awesome 0.98 WHIP-- yet somehow losing out on the Listach Award for Rookie of the Year to Joel Pineiro (who did win 21 games). He's been among the steadiest starting pitchers in the DMBL over past decade despite being with his seventh franchise in the St. Louis Farrakhans. Through his first five seasons, Buehrle pitched no fewer than 220 innings in all but one of them, and routinely recorded two dozen or more decisions a year.

Buehrle also is closing in on the top 20 in innings pitched, trailing Barry Zito and Bartolo Colon. He's third among active pitchers in complete games with 31 (behind Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt), which ties him for 15th all-time with Mike Morgan. He's also within the top 30 in career starts, with 259.

Buehrle is just 1-5 this season with a team-high 6.37 ERA. The losses have added up, putting him just two away from 100 for his career (which puts him 18th in league history).