Mathews' cycle

Although the league doesn't officially track cycles, it is a rare feat. Sardine City's Gary Matthews became the first player since 2005 to hit for the cycle in yesterday's 11-1 pounding of the Mudcats. Matthews hit a single in his first at bat, getting the easy one out of the way. Matthews struck out in his second at bat (getting the 0-base hit?). In the fourth innings, Matthews hit a double that scored two runs. At this point the fans still didn't sense that anything special was going on... In the sixth inning, Matthews hit a two-run shot to left field to give the Sardines a 7-1 lead. But the hardest component of the cycle was still needed. Luckily for Matthews, Justin Speier threw a meatball down the plate that Matthews lined past center fielder Grady Sizemore that scored Freddy Sanchez. It looked like an easy double but Sizemore had trouble playing the carom off the wall and Matthews went for it and made it easily. Matthews ended the day 4-5 with 5 RBIs. Tom Glavine earned his 9th win of the season and his 169th career, moving him into a tie for sixth all-time with Kevin Brown.

The last player to hit for the cycle was Eric Chavez, then with Vancouver, in August of 2005. Chavez achieved the feat a few days after Albert Pujols did the same. There were actually three players to hit for the cycle that year - Las Vegas' Carl Crawford did it early in the season. The first player to hit for the cycle was Todd Hundley of Toledo in 1998.

Meanwhile in the playoff race, Hoboken won their fifth straight and moved into fourth place overall, while D.C. continued their slide and moved into a fifth-place tie with Honolulu. Hillsborough and Vancouver both suffered ill-timed losses. Hillsborough falls into seventh with the loss and Vancouver is now sitting 2 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot. Honolulu has now won seven of eight games against Vancouver this season.

Hoboken, Honolulu improve their position

Hoboken kept at it with a 5-0, 2-hit shutout of South Boston yesterday. Boof Bonser gave the Cutters 7.2 innings and struck out nine. Chris Duncan's three-run homer in the third gave the Cutters all the runs they needed. Hoboken moved into sole possession of fifth place, a half game ahead of idle Hillsborough.

Meanwhile Honolulu took game one against Vancouver by a 2-1 margin. Cliff Lee outduelled Jake Peavy to improve to 5-7. Honolulu moved into a virtual tie with the Hitmen, though Hillsborough is percentage points ahead of the Sharks. Vancouver slipped back to 1 1/2 games out.

Newark pounded the crap out of D.C. yesterday 18-0. Slapper fans criticized the Sugar Bears for beating up on the reanimated corpse of Josh Hancock (2 IP, 9 H, 8 ER), but Newark manager Don Mattingly pointed out that no one showed them any mercy when zombie Darryl Kile took the mound for them several years ago. Carlos Guillen was 4-5 in the game and Jim Edmonds and Nick Johnson each had four RBIs.

Hoboken wins while contenders falter

Hoboken continued their tear, winning 11-2 over the Mudcats. The win was the Cutters third in a row and their seventh of their last eight. John Garland evened his record at 12-12 while pitching 7.2 solid innings and Bill Hall was 2-3 with 2 RBIs and a homer. The win severely cripples the Mudcats' playoff hopes. Meanwhile Hoboken is dearly holding on to the sixth spot, though they are actually tied for fifth with Hillsborough. The Hitmen hold the tiebreaker over the Cutters.

It was not a good day for the other wild card contenders.

The Bushslappers continue to be caught in an unfortunately timed slump, losing 6-5 to Marietta. D.C. has now lost six of their last eight and are only 1 1/2 games up on sixth-place Honolulu. Honolulu meanwhile was smoked 10-5 by South Boston and Hillsborough was obliterated 11-1 by Newark. Only Vancouver could manage a victory yesterday - an 8-7 squeaker over Team Buddah.

Juan Cruz bounced back from his recent rough outing by pitching seven shutout innings against the Straphangers in yesterday's 4-0 victory. Cruz allowed six hits and two walks while striking out six to improve to 4-2 on the season.

Look for a new Numbers Crunch tonight.

Liriano-Santana battle heats up

Hillsborough has been steadily sliding down the standings and now sits a mere 1/2 game ahead of Honolulu in sixth place. The Sharks are holding a half a game lead on the Cutters, while Vancouver lingers just two games back of the Hitmen. Even D.C. could be bumped out of a playoff spot if they hit an extended slump. The Bushslappers are only 2 1/2 games up on the seventh-place Cutters and have been pretty shaky lately. So while the top three are pretty comfortable in their respective positions, the bottom three could change a number of times in the next few weeks.

Johan Santana won his 16th game last year, becoming the second in the DMBL to reach the mark. His teammate, Erik Bedard recorded his 16th win Thursday. Bedard will pitch today and try for win #17. Santana meanwhile has the best winning percentage in the DMBL at 16-2 (.889) and leads the league in strikeouts (222).

Santana's biggest competition for the Ben McDonald award, and arguably the favorite is Marietta's rookie Francisco Liriano. Liriano pitched a complete game one-hit shutout of D.C. yesterday to improve to 14-2 while striking out 14 and walking just one. Liriano currently leads the league with a 2.28 ERA (a full run lower than second-place Santana). Esteban German's double in the sixth was the only hit for D.C.

Wild Card race gets tighter

The playoff race got tighter yesterday. Honolulu beat Arkansas 12-7 thanks to big days from Miguel Tejada (4-5), Brian McCann (3-5, 4 RBIs), and Johnny Damon (3-5). The Sharks jumped all over Falcon starter Juan Cruz in the second inning, scoring seven runs. Cruz only surrendered three hits, but walked six batters in his 1 2/3 innings of work.

Meanwhile Hoboken won their fourth straight with a 12-6 win over D.C. The Slappers jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a six run third inning, but the Cutters crawled back and took the lead with a six-run inning of their own. Mike Jacobs and Chris Duncan each had 3 RBIs.

Finally, Vancouver dropped their opening game against Newark 6-2. Randy Johnson earned his 199th career victory. Johnson will be the fourth to reach 200 with his next victory and the third to achieve the feat this year. Curt Schilling of Arkansas is the next active player with 190 career wins, but it looks like he'll have to wait til next year. Newark also became the first team to win 100 games this season and the eighth time in the franchises twelve year history that they have hit the century mark.

So Vancouver fell out of a playoff spot and into eighth, a half a game behind Hoboken and Honolulu. Hoboken remains percentage points up on Honolulu, since the Sharks have played more games than the Cutters. D.C. remains one game up on Hillsborough for fourth place after the Hitmen dropped a 7-4 loss to the Sardines.

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.

Reinforcements arrive for playoff rosters

Arkansas pounded out a 10-7 victory against D.C. yesterday. Justin Morneau had 4 RBIs and the Falcon bullpen pitched 4 1/3 innings to bail out starter Dan Haren. The Falcon Nation held their collective breaths as Kenny Lofton had to leave the game in the fifth inning, but the news out of Arkansas is that Lofton will return for the Falcons next game Thursday.

A 6-run fourth inning propelled the Hoboken Cutters to an 8-6 win over Marietta. Mike Napoli went 2-4 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs as the Cutters moved to within one game of the final wild card spot.

Philly doubled up South Boston 6-3, though Johan Santana just missed becoming the first 16 game winner this season. Santana pitched seven solid innings though he was trailing for much of the game until Philly rallied to tie it in the sixth.

Many teams shored up their rosters in anticipation of a playoff run. Newark signed a third catcher in Brian Schneider, while Hoboken picked up second baseman Jose Valentin. Philadelphia re-signed veteran Todd Walker who had filled in earlier in the season.