Vegas knots series with Fist

Las Vegas evened the series with the Iron Fist yesterday. Once again the Rats got up early after Jim Thome blasted a two-run homer in the 3rd. Thome extended the lead to 3-1 with a solo homer in the 5th. Vancouver tried to claw their way back, but every time they seemed to be getting closer, it was Thome time. The Rats put the game out of reach when Thome hit his third homer in the 7th, making the score 5-2. Vancouver would scrape out another run, but that was that. The Rats host the next game of the series Friday, when Ben Sheets and Josh Beckett square off.

Philadelphia hosts the Sugar Bears today, resuming their 1-1 series as Brandon Webb will take on Javier Vazquez. Webb has been roughed up by the Sugar Bears this year to the tune of a 4.82 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in 3 starts. It should be noted that his two rough starts were at the Cereal Bowl and his one start in Philly this year was a complete game shutout. Meanwhile, Vazquez has been solid against the Animals, going 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA and 0.933 WHIP in two starts - one at each of the stadiums.

Huge, and I mean HUGE deal between Rats and Mites

We interrupt our regular Keeper Fallout schedule for this announcement.

Big trade news today as Las Vegas and Marietta completed a huge 4 players for 11 draft picks deal. Vegas continues to build for a run in 2008 by jettisoning a boatload of picks in exchange for some roster help. The jewel in the deal is designated hitter Jim Thome who gives the Rats a huge power presence in their lineup alongside Matt Holliday. Joining the pitching staff will be A.J. Burnett, who will probably slide into the #3 slot after Chris Young and Erik Bedard. The final two players are relievers Rafael Betancourt and Pat Neshek. With three relievers already protected, this effectively completes the Rat Pack bullpen.

Will team owner Eric Wickstrom even show up at the draft? Well, the Rats had six extra picks already in this draft, so losing a few won't hurt much this year. Let's take a look at what the Rats gave up. For this year, the Rats gave up six picks: the Rats returned the Mighty Men's number one pick (13th overall) and New Jersey's fourth round pick (acquired in the Ichiro deal), which is the third pick of that round. They also surrendered their 6th, 7th, 10th and 13th picks this year (all the first slot in their respective rounds). Vegas further surrendered their 1st, 7th and 10th picks in '09, and their 7th and 14th picks in 2010. The Rat Pack also got Herschel Walker in the deal (oh wait that's a different trade). That's a hell of a lot of picks and one crazy blockbuster. Curious as to how this breaks down? I'm sure there's already a lenghty post on the Ning!

Monday Squeakers

Vancouver pounded out 20 hits against the Buddahs yesterday, though it took them 11 innings to pull off the victory. Moises Alou hit five of the hits and drove in three runs. Mike Piazza had four hits for New Jersey, putting him at 1998 for his career.

Newark barely escaped with a 9-8 victory over Hillsborough. The score bounced back and forth between the two teams. The Hitmen held a 6-3 lead until a 5-run seventh gave Newark an 8-6 lead. But the Sugar Bears couldn't hold on and the Hitmen tied it up in their half of the ninth. Mark Teahen then hit the winning single in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to give the Sugar Bears their seventh straight win.

Derek Jeter tied Edgar Martinez for 10th on the all-time hits list as Marietta eked out a 6-5 victory by D.C. Jim Thome had a three-run homer in the contest and A.J. Burnett got the win despite surrendering five unearned runs in 6.1 innings. A Wes Helms error and a passed ball by Jorge Posada allowed four runs to score for the Bushslappers in the third inning yesterday and Jeter's error in the fifth gave D.C. their fifth run of the game.

The new guys are having an immediate impact for Hoboken. Brandon League picked up his ninth victory of the season after pitching two scoreless innings and Greg Norton had two RBIs to help the Cutters edge the Mudcats 7-6.

Woeful Woody

D.C. broke their hex yesterday with an 8-6 win over Honolulu. D.C. moved back into sole possession of fourth place overall. Frank Thomas had five RBIs in the game including a grand slam in the eighth that gave the Bushslappers the lead.

Woody Williams' woes continued against his former team Vancouver yesterday. Williams lasted only 3.2 innings, surrendering 5 earned runs and eight hits. Williams was fortunate enough to escape with a no decision. Marietta came roaring back in the sixth inning, knocking Vancouver starter Jake Peavy out of the game. Jim Thome hit his 30th homer in the game, a 9-7 victory for the Mighty Men.

Meanwhile, Hillsborough continued to roll, winning their ninth straight. Sure it took them 11 innings to beat the Cutters, but the Hitmen kept their streak alive. The game was tied 3-3 going into the 10th, but Geoff Jenkins hit an RBI double to give the Cutters the lead. It was short-lived, however, because the Hitmen tied it up in the bottom of the 10th. After a quick top of the 11th, the Hitmen started off their half of the 11th with a leadoff double. With two outs to go, Russell Martin hit a weak grounder to Ian Kinsler at second. Kinsler hesitated then panicked and threw the ball past Chris Shelton and into the dugout, scoring Ryan Howard from third and losing the game for the Cutters.

More Morneau for Arkansas

Arkansas' Justin Morneau had two homers to lead the Falcons to a 10-3 victory over Las Vegas. Morneau now has 19 homers on the season and leads the DMBL in that category. Morneau is also sitting in fourth in batting average (.355) and third in RBIs (46) and is looking like an early Mitchell Award candidate.

Marietta finally put the brakes on the Newark Sugar Bears' 6-game winning streak yesterday. The Mighty Men outslugged the Sugar Bears 10-6 thanks to former Sugar Bear Jim Thome's 5 RBIs.

Hillsborough is now officially in free-fall mode after dropping their seventh straight game yesterday. The loss of A-Rod for the week is not going to help, but playing their next two series against Sardine City and New Jersey might. D.C. squeaked by with a 6-4 victory yesterday and is now only a game and a half behind the Hitmen. After a rough start, the Bushslappers are finally starting to look alive, winning six of their last eight.

The second part of Phil Plantier's Rookie Watch is up on the site. This time he looks at the Hanover Division rookies.

Thome Boy

A few items of note. Jim Thome hit his 400th DMBL homer yesterday in Marietta's loss to New Jersey Sunday. It was Thome's ninth of the season. Thome is just the fifth player to reach 400. Moving into number seven on the all-time list was Manny Ramirez, who took last week off. Ramirez returned Sunday and hit his 14th homer of the season to help defeat the Sharks.

The Falcons are still waiting on Bonds to hit his 600th. Bonds has been stuck on 599 since Tuesday's game with South Boston. In fact, Bonds is mired in a 2-22 (.091) slump since that game.

Newark's Kevin Millwood, who had come up one strikeout short in his last outing, finally got his 1000th career strikeout in the Game against the Sharks. Millwood improved to 4-1 on the season.

Don't look now but Marietta's Matt Diaz has an active 21-game hit streak, which is only one less than Miguel Cabrera's hit streak earlier in the season. Diaz streak began with a 5-5 night against Las Vegas and he is hitting .426 (40-94) during the course of the streak, raising his average from .233 to .341.

Division Contenders Clash

Honolulu took round one against the Sugar Bears yesterday. The two teams' bullpens battled it out after both starters were chased fairly early in the game. Adrian Gonzalez broke the tie in the top of the ninth with a solo homer to give the Sharks the 7-6 lead. Tom Gordon, who was traded to the Sharks from the Sugar Bears in the offseason, got the victory and nailed down the bottom of the ninth. Jeff Francis and Javier Vazquez face off in tonight's game.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia also squeaked out a victory against the Golden Falcons last night in extra innings. Philly was clinging to a 4-3 lead for most of the game until the Falcons scored a trifecta in the eighth to bring the score to 6-4 in favor of Arkansas. But Justin Duchscherer couldn't hold the lead and gave up a two-run homer to Albert Pujols to tie the game. In the tenth Khalil Greene hit another homer off Duchscherer to give the Animals a 7-6 lead. Francisco Rodriguez retired the Falcons in order to earn his seventh save of the season. Tonight it's Erik Bedard against Daniel Cabrera.

Jose Contreras pitched a shutout for Team Buddah against the Mighty Men. Contreras allowed ten hits and struck out seven to earn his first victory of the season.

From the Blog Bits file: Mike Piazza hit his 300th career double Wednesday, the 24th player in DMBL history to achieve the milestone. Bobby Abreu's next double will also be his 300th...We are all waiting for Barry to hit #600, but Jim Thome of Marietta will hit #400 when he hits his next home run... Kevin Millwood is now one shy of 1000 strikeouts on the season...

Day of Almost Cycles

The Hoboken Cutters won twice in extra innings yesterday. This despite the defensive deficiency of Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez had one error in the first game and another two in the second, giving him nine errors on the pre-season. The Cutters plan on playing a few games of "pepper" before game time today, hopefully giving Ramirez a chance to improve. Teammate and longtime Cutter Geoff Jenkins said it might be the result of a practical joke gone wrong. "It's part of our rookie hazing" said Jenkins. "We put some sulfuric acid on the glove the first game and he burned his hand a little. I think he's a little afraid of his glove now...the big pussy."

Sardine City's Raul Ibanez was one single away from hitting for the cycle against Hillsborough. Ibanez hit a double in the second inning, flied out in the fourth, hit a triple in the sixth and homered in the eighth. "If I had known that, I wouldn't have flied out in my second atbat" said Ibanez. Meanwhile, Carolina's Rocco Baldelli also almost hit the cycle, but needed a slighly harder to achieve home run. However, Baldelli did go 4-4 in the game. Baldelli has been trying to return from injuries that kept him out all last year.

Marietta's Jim Thome hit two homers in his game against Philly. Thome is also trying to return from a season lost to injury last year.

Vancouver's Fernando Nieve turned in another impressive start yesterday against Newark. Nieve pitched eight innings and allowed only three hits and one unearned run. "If he keeps this up, we might have to find a place for him in the rotation" said manager Darren Daulton. Nieve is considered a longshot to make the final roster.

Hillsborough's Juan Pierre swiped three bases against Vancouver catcher Victor Martinez to take over the league lead in stolen bases with five. Pierre and several other Hitmen have been given the green light to run as often as they can.

Another impressive Marietta Mighty Man rookie pitcher: Jeremy Sowers turned in a complete game win against Las Vegas, surrendering only one run and seven hits, but no strikeouts.

A Jaret Wright vs. Josh Beckett pitchers' duel? Must be spring training.