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.

re: Barry Zito - oops

Zito was blasted (3.1 IP, 7 ER, 0 K) as Hillsborough and Carolina battled it out to a 14-11 Hitmen victory, each team scoring five runs in their half of the ninth inning. Aramis Ramirez had a monster day on the losing side - 4-5, 6 RBIs, and his sixth homer of the spring. Hillsborough's answer was Robinson Cano who had 5 RBIs and a round tripper of his own. Hmmm who do I want to jinx today...?

Alfonso Soriano hit a grand slam in the ninth inning to break the tie and eventually win an 8-4 game for the Buddahs against the Mighty Men. It was Soriano's second homer of the spring. Team Buddah jumped out of the gate with a quick five game winning streak, but has come back down to earth, winning only two of their last seven.

Eric Byrnes swiped four bases and went 3-3 to lead the Blue Ridge Bombers to a 9-4 victory over the Bushslappers. Adam Wainwright went the distance to improve to 3-0 and Vlad Guerrero had two homers and four RBIs.

Vancouver won their sixth in a row by defeating the Sardine City Straphangers 5-1 and the Mudcats 3-2 in extra innings. Vancouver was bringing up the rear but after solid efforts from Ben Sheets and Zack Greinke, the Iron Fist are now sitting at 9-7. Iron Fist manager Darren Daulton said that the team was going to give their regulars some more playing time in the last 10 games to shake off the rust.

Chris Young of Las Vegas improved to 4-0 after a solid effort against the Buddahs. Young limited New Jersey to two runs on six hits in seven innings and struck out seven. The Rat Pack has the best record in the DMBL preseason (11-5).

10 games remain in spring training. The DMBL's Opening Day will be on Sunday, March 23.

Spring Surprises and Disappointments - the Pitchers

Carolina's Roy Halladay has been superb so far in three starts - 2-0 with a 0.38 ERA (1 run in 24 innings). He's looking like his old workhorse self. The real surprise in Mudcat camp has been Barry Zito returning to form. It's only been two starts, but Zito has been solid with a 3.21 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 14 IP. Of course having said that he'll probably get bombed in his next start.

The Straphangers' youngsters have been pretty impressive so far, especially Fausto Carmona (1-1, 1.80) and Phil Hughes (1.69, 0.63 WHIP). Carmona has been interesting - despite the low ERA, he's walked a ton of batters (8 in 15 innings) and only struck out two. On the other side of the fence, Cole Hamels has continued his struggles from last year so far in spring (0-2, 12.96).

Team Buddah has to be happy with their two starters acquired in the Ichiro deal. Oliver Perez is dominating so far (2-1, 1.08 ERA, 0.92 WHiP in three starts) and Joe Blanton has been solid as well (2-1, 3.24 - but 32 hits in 25 innings). In fact, Team Buddah's 2.59 team ERA is second in the league. Only George Sherrill has really struggled so far.

Sitting atop the heap in team pitching is the Las Vegas Rat Pack. Led by Chris Young, who is probably the top pitcher so far this spring. Young is now 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA, 0.81 WHiP and 16 Ks. The Ageless Wonder, Orlando Hernandez has done well (1-1, 2.25) and A.J. Burnett, acquired from Marietta, has been lights out (2-1, 2.59). Rookie Tim Lincecum has looked impressive at times (3.00 ERA, 14 Ks in 18 innings), but the underlying numbers (16 H, 11 BB, 1.50 WHiP) indicate that he's a work in progress.

Bringing up the rear are the Mighty Men of Marietta. With four starters with a 7.00 ERA or higher, the Mighty Men are looking like they won't be returning to the finals this year. Rookie John Danks has been the sole bright spot (1-1, 2.38 in 3 starts).

Mudcats mull over Zito fate

Barry Zito pitched six shutout innings as Carolina shut out the Buddahs 4-0. Zito, a longtime star for the Mudcats and former Listach award winner, has struggled for the Cats this year with a 7-15 record and 6.41 ERA. Zito's struggles have so alarmed the Mudcat ownership that they are thinking of not protecting the left hander next season, or at the least having him spend the season in AAA to regain his form. Zito has rebounded in the past after a horrible 2005 season in which he went 4-13 with a 7.10 ERA, but Mudcats pitching coach Sid Fernandez thinks a year off might do him some good.

Hoboken has gotten hot just when they needed to, winning three straight including yesterday's 7-4 win over D.C. John Garland pitched eight strong innings to improve to 11-12 and Chris Duncan had 3 RBIs and a homer to lead the Cutters offense. The Cutters have now moved into a 7th place tie with the idle Honolulu Sharks, just 1/2 a game out of the final playoff spot.

Philly's six-run eighth inning gave the Endzone Animals all they needed to defeat the Mighty Men 6-2. Francisco Liriano pitched a brilliant seven innings, limiting the Animals to only three hits and no runs but gave way to relievers Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. The usually reliable Rivera ended up giving up six straight hits and a walk before retiring the final out. Marietta has now lost three straight, but has not lost any ground, since D.C. has also lost three straight.