No More Nomar

New Jersey's Nomar Garciaparra suffered the biggest injury so far this season. Nomar will be out for 36 days. In the meanwhile, Team Buddah will have Shea Hillenbrand, Troy Glaus and Preston Wilson cover the hole in the lineup. Garciaparra was batting .292 on the season with 4 homers and 18 RBIs.

Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera went 3-4 in yesterday's game against Marietta and extended his hitting streak to a season-high 17 games. Right on his toes is Vancouver's Chase Utley who has an active 16-game hitting streak. The record is 38 set last year by Marietta's Morgan Ensberg.

The Honolulu Sharks extended their winning streak to seven straight yesterday, defeating the Hired Hitmen 11-6 in Hillsborough. Miguel Tejada was 4-5 and Jermaine Dye was 3-5 with 3 RBIs while Jeff Francis improved to 3-1 on the year for the Sharks. The Sharks are now sitting in second place in the Hanover Division and fifth place overall.

Golden Falcon golden achievements

Arkansas' Barry Bonds became the all-time leader in career at-bats Sunday. Bonds passed Roberto Alomar on the all-time list and is now sitting comfortably in first. Since Alomar and Bagwell - the two closest behind him - are retired and Pudge Rodriguez is more than 400 ABs behind Bonds and also an oldster, he may be there for a while. If he wasn't the all-time walks leader, he might be at a 1000 by now (hmmm not to self, who are the top plate appearance leaders?). Bonds also holds the career records for home runs, hits, RBIs, and on base percentage.

Congratulations to Pedro Martinez on his 200th career win against South Boston Saturday. Martinez pitched eight innings surrendering three runs on eight hits and striking out 10 Gangsters.

Greg Maddux had a great pitching line in Sunday's game: eight innings, two hits, one unearned run allowed, no walks, seven strikeouts. Good enough for a win, right? wrong! Carolina's Clay Hensley outdueled the veteran, allowing only two hits and four walks in six innings. Two costly errors in the second inning did Vancouver in and the offense couldn't hit its way out of a wet paper bag.

Philadelphia has officially put Magglio Ordonez on the trading block. Ordonez has lost playing time to younger outfielders Reed Johnson, Vernon Wells, and Michael Cuddyer. The oft-injured star has only hit .163 in 43 at bats this season.

Pedro goes for 200

As mentioned in yesterday's entry, Arkansas' Pedro Martinez will try for his 200th career victory Saturday against South Boston. He'll be facing Dontrelle Willis. Martinez will be only the second in DMBL history to achieve 200, Greg Maddux being the first.

Philly's Brandon Webb pitched a gem against Vancouver last night. Webb limited the Iron Fist to one run on four hits over 8.1 innings. Philly is now a half a game out of first with Arkansas idle yesterday.

Marietta's Francisco Liriano is continuing where he left off in spring. Liriano is now 3-0 on the season and held the potent Sugar Bears offense to only three hits in seven innings at Newark. Liriano has a 1.71 ERA on the year.

Philly cut Marco Scutaro, who had been taking David Eckstein's place in the lineup. The Animals decided to go with Khalil Greene who had recently been signed. Journeyman infielder Todd Walker was signed to provide some help at second base.

Throwing Fuel on the Fire

The Sharks had a bit of a comeback yesterday against the Buddahs. Team Buddah had just gone up to a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh. Starter Jose Contreras was finally showing signs of fatigue and gave up a couple of runs in the bottom, making it 5-3. After Eric Chavez doubled in the eighth, Contreras was removed for the closer, Bob Wickman. Now Wickman had been anything but good up to this point. Though he had a strong spring, Wickman had already blown two saves and was sporting a 5.68 ERA. Well the Human GasCan was called in to shut the door on the Sharks, but instead gave up three straight singles followed by the crowning moment - Johnny Damon's three-run shot over the right field wall. Jersey manager Matt Nokes was livid after the game, tossing bats and Gatorade bottles all over the locker room. For the moment, Wickman has been demoted as the team's closer, replaced by Todd Jones.

Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson each moved closer to their 200th victory yesterday. Clemens, who notched the win against Las Vegas is now at 193 career victories and Johnson, who beat the Mighty Men, is at 189. Arkansas' Pedro Martinez will try for win #200 Saturday. The only pitcher with more than 200 wins pitched his first game this season yesterday. Vancouver's Greg Maddux recorded the win against Philly by limiting the first-place Endzone Animals to one run and four hits over eight innings.

The Ortiz Watch continues

Vancouver's David Ortiz hasn't slowed down since his 7-homer week last week. He's now hit a homer in all three games this week, including the two yesterday. He is leading the league with 12 homers - four more than second place Manny Ramirez. By the way, what happened to you, Manny? Ramirez stormed out of the gate, but is mired in a 4-24 (.167 average) slump. He only managed a 1-5 day during the huge 28-8 game and hasn't hit a homer since facing Vancouver last Friday.

Speaking of Newark, they were almost caught napping after their blowout. Carolina was leading the game 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, but four singles and an error by Paul Konerko led to a three-run inning to seal the victory for the Sugar Bears.

The Hoboken Cutters continue to be the hot team. Vicente Padilla improved to 3-0 on the year after shutting down New Jersey. First baseman Mike Jacobs had a good game (3-4 with 2 RBI) but was hurt in the later parts of the game. More info to come about the injury, but he was seen later texting on his cell phone after watching American Idol. Some speculate that he has been trying to get a chance to be a star vocal coach on an upcoming episode of the hit show. The Cutters have now won eight of their last ten and are tied for second in the Hanover Division.

Crunch with Punch KOs Jennings

Wow, anyone catch that football game in Newark last night? The Sugar Bears pounded the crap out of Carolina, especially starter Jason Jennings. Jennings got into trouble right off the bat and in fact, the Sugar Bears batted around once before Jennings retired a batter. Jennings walked leadoff hitter Bobby Abreu, in a sign of things to come, and proceeded to walk 11 more batters in the inning! Wow. Jennings also gave up 10 hits in the first. The Sugar Bears were already up 8-0 when Jim Edmonds smashed a grand slam over the head of Rocco Baldelli. Later in the inning, Nick Johnson hit a triple to run the score to 19-0, setting a new record for most runs in an inning. The Sugar Bears batted around twice in the inning. In the second, Jennings only surrendered a solo homer to Gregg Zaun, setting a new record for most earned runs allowed by one pitcher in a game with 20. Jennings ended up with the following atrocious stat line: 2 IP, 12 hits, 20 earned runs, 11 walks and 3 strikeouts. I bet those three feel like chumps.

And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum... D.C.'s Kelvim Escobar and Philly's Erik Bedard and their bullpens battled through a 0-0 game into extra innings until Reed Johnson finally broke the tie in the bottom of the tenth with a walk-off double that scored Scott Rolen. Escobar pitched six innings and allowed only two hits and four walks, while Bedard pitched seven and allowed only five hits and one walk. Both struck out five hitters each.

Vancouver's David Ortiz continues his home run tear, swatting two off Hillsborough starter Jeremy Bonderman. Ortiz now has 11 on the year to lead the league.

If you didn't catch it, there's a new Zane Smith article up on the site.

Hamels return sparks Sardine City

Vancouver's David Ortiz had a great weekend. He started out by hitting a pair of homers for Vancouver against Carolina on Friday, then followed up that effort with a 3-homer performance on Saturday. Five homers in two games, but they were all solo shots. Ortiz came back on Sunday to hit a two-run homer off Hillsborough's Felix Hernandez. After dropping four in a row to begin the week, Vancouver finished it up by taking three of four over the weekend.

Cole Hamels returned from injury Sunday for Sardine City and quieted any Brandon Claussen fans. Hamels shut down the Sharks, holding them to one run on three hits and two walks in six innings. Claussen will go back to sitting at the far end of the bench. Claussen was decent in his two game audition (1-0, 2.38 ERA), but the club decided they would be better off if they didn't tempt fate.

The Hoboken Cutters six game winning streak came to end Sunday in extra innings against Marietta. It took them 14 innings and eight pitchers, but the Mighty Men battled it out and stopped Hoboken's streak. The Cutters, still reeling from the tight loss, were stunned by New Jersey in their second game Sunday, 14-5.

Speaking of New Jersey, the team could not be any hotter. After winning only one of their first 10 games, the Buddahs have come back to win 6 of their last 7. The Buddahs are led by some very solid pitching, keeping their games close enough to squeak out some victories. Particularly effective has been first round selection Joel Zumaya.