Buddah catches fire

Team Buddah won their third straight game 4-1 over Blue Ridge yesterday, the longest winning streak of the season for the team. Shane Victorino was 4-4 and Melky Cabrera was 3-3. Starter Jesse Litsch improved to 2-3 on the season with an 8-inning, 5-hit performance.

Tampa Bay, who jumped out to a surprising start, has now come back down to earth, losing their fourth straight and falling into a fifth-place tie with Hoboken. This time the Plunkers dropped a 3-2 decision in 10 innings to the Mudcats. Paul Konerko, who finished 4-5 on the night, hit an RBI single in the 10th to win the game for the Cats.

Las Vegas gave up on prospect Matt Antonelli yesterday and re-signed pitcher Gavin Floyd to a minor league deal. Floyd was a non-roster invitee in spring training for the Rats, but was released before the season started. Floyd's impressive showing in an independent minor league caught Las Vegas' scouting department's eye.

Dice-K loses no-no bid in ninth

Daisuke Matsuzake came up just short of a no-hitter against the Bushslappers yesterday. In fact he held D.C. to only one hit after all was said and done. And he still lost. That's because the one hit was a solo home run by Adrian Beltre to lead off the ninth. Oh yeah, D.C.'s Shawn Marcum was also busy holding the Sardines to only five hits in 8.1 shutout innings. Dice-K also struck out nine and gave up one walk, while falling to 1-4 on the season.

Carolina unleashed their fury on the Plunkers yesterday to the tune of a 17-3 thrashing. Ryan Garko, freshly rested after his recent injury, was 4-5 with 5 RBIS and Grady Sizemore was also 4-5. Aramis Ramirez and Jeff Francoeur each had 3 RBIs. Amazingly, the Mudcats only hit one home run, by Johnny Estrada, who was subbing in for the injured Mike Redmond. The Cats ended up with 19 total hits.

Marietta ended Hillsborough's six-game winning streak yesterday with a 2-0 blanking by John Lester. Lester pitched a complete game 2-hitter, walking two and striking out one. Like Sardine City, Hillsborough's John Lackey pitched well in defeat (8 IP, 2 ER, 5 H), but it wasn't enough. Casey Kotchmann drove in both runs for Marietta on a solo homer and an RBI single.

Sardine City suffers big losses

Hoboken scored five runs in the first inning against Arkansas and then kicked it into auto-pilot the rest of the way. Luckily for them, it was enough, escaping with a 5-4 win. Hanley Ramirez was 4-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Miguel Cabrera was 0-5 and ended his league-high 16-game hitting streak. He may not be on top for long as David Wright extended his 15-game streak with a 1-4 night.

Sardine City took a tough 16-3 loss, but they ended up losing even more. Rookie hurler Phil Hughes was lost for a month with an undisclosed injury. Scott Baker seems to be the likely replacement, but the Straphangers haven't issued a public statement yet.

Mariano Rivera made his 800th appearance for the Mighty Men. Unfortunately for them, he ended up taking the loss - a 5-4 squeaker to Hillsborough. The Hitmen have now won six straight and have moved up to second in the Morris Division and fourth overall (though in a weird scheduling quirk, they actually are percentage points behind 5th place Tampa Bay).

The Buddahs took out their offensive frustrations on Blue Ridge yesterday. Tied up at five and going into extra innings, the Buddahs scored six runs in the top of the frame and won 11-6. It was the second highest-scoring game of the season for New Jersey. Kazuo Matsui, entering the game for starter Ty Wigginton, was 3-3 with 3 RBIs, and Shane Victorino was 3-6 with 2 doubles.

D.C. breaks hex, Webb stymies Sugar Bears

D.C. finally broke the streak yesterday with a 5-3 victory over Sardine City. They had to look to outside the organization for the win, as Justin Germano picked up the win in relief of the Shawn/Sean combo. Matt Kemp had a homer and 3 RBIs to lead the Slapper offense.

Philadelphia asserted some dominance over the Sugar Bears yesterday, blanking the defending champs 6-0. Brandon Webb held the potent lineup to only three hits in a complete game, the first time the Sugar Bears have been shut out all year (hmmm were they shut out last year?)...

Team Buddah was shut out for the fifth time this year, this time by Aaron Harang and the Blue Ridge Bombers. Harang pitched 7.2 innings of 3-hit ball and struck out 7.

Tuesday Blog Bits
Jim Thome's home run in Vegas' 11-7 win yesterday moved him into a second-place tie with Sammy Sosa at 436 for his career. Thome only needs 200 or so more to tie Barry Bonds for first place (642)!...Manny Ramirez collected his 2000th career hit last week and hasn't played since. His teammate Chipper Jones also collected his 2000th last week, but he's not in the manager's doghouse...Mariano Rivera's next appearance will be his 800th...Vancouver's Greg Maddux is two strikeouts shy of 2000, which would make him the sixth player to reach the mark.

Hitmen exterminate Rat Pack

The D.C. Bushslappers' slide has now reached eight games, dropping them to fourth in the Morris Division and eighth overall. The Slappers gave a good fight over the weekend to the Hanover Division leading Newark Sugar Bears, but their pitching staff could not contain the Newark juggernaut. They came close to winning in Sunday's first game - an 11-10 squeaker. D.C. actually jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but they gave up eight runs in the 5th innings. Newark tacked on another run later, but the Slappers weren't done. D.C. came up just short in the ninth, scoring four runs, but Carl Crawford struck out with the bases loaded to end the game. In the second game, D.C. scored 12 runs, which should be good enough to win, but they gave up 16 runs to the Sugar Bears.

Has anyone been surprised by how Hillsborough absolutely owned the Rat Pack over the weekend? After running away with the season, losing only a pair of games to the Sugar Bears, the Rat Pack was looking unbeatable. Until they met Hillsborough. The Hitmen won a close one on Friday, but dominated Saturday in a 12-0, 4-hit blanking. Then Sunday, the Pack was held in check by C.C. Sabathia in game one and then lost in a close 7-5 second game. The Rats have now slipped into second place in the Hanover and third place overall.

Slappers get slapped

D.C. kept falling to new lows, this time losing 12-0 to the punchless Team Buddah. Joe Blanton pitched seven shutout innings, giving up only five hits to win his first of the year - this despite a 2.40 ERA. Buddah shook up their lineups a day ago after team owner Mike Hornick gave an inspirational locker room speech. Josh Fields, who was 3-5 with 4 RBIs, said the talk gave him the drive to score more runs. "We were all wearing WWBD wristbands" said Fields..."what would Buddah do? Indeed..." Meanwhile, D.C.'s luck could not be any worse as starter Sean Marshall, who was picked up to start in place of injured starter Shawn Hill, was hurt in the first inning. "I don't know what we'll do" said owner Jamie Landsman. "We're running out of possible Shawns." Shawn Chacon and Shawn Camp are eagerly awaiting a phone call. D.C. has now lost seven of their last eight.

Since we're on the topic of lopsided wins, Philly one-upped the Buddahs by shellacking Hillsborough 16-0. Matt Cain pitched 8.2 innings and surrendered only 4 hits, while striking out 7. On the offensive side, Gary Sheffield had 2 homer and 4 RBIs. The Animals scored 11 runs in the final three innings.

Sardine City's Phil Hughes won his first DMBL career victory after holding the Mighty Men to 2 runs and 3 hits in 6.1 innings. B.J. Upton was 4-6 with 3 runs and 2 stolen bases and Raul Ibanez was 3-5 with 3 RBIs.

Moises Alou had 6 RBIS and was 3-6 to lead Vancouver to a 15-6 blowout win over Blue Ridge. Vancouver scored 11 runs in the final two innings, particularly inflicting damage on reliever Trevor Hoffman (2/3 inning, 6 earned runs, 6 hits, 1 walk). Alou now has a 13-game hitting streak, the second longest active streak.

The Rat Pack held on to a 6-5 win over Newark, getting some revenge for the two-game sweep when the Rats last visited Newark. Most of the scoring happened early on in the game - the game was tied at five from the fourth inning on. But in the ninth inning, Placido Polanco led off with a double, then Matt Holliday hit a double to drive Polanco in for the win.

Rat Pack looks invincible

Carolina continued crushing the Morris Division leaders, this time abusing the Bushslappers 11-5. Paul Konerko hit his second homer in as many days and Dustin Pedroia hit a 2-run dinger and drove in 3 runs to lead the Mudcats. It was the third straight loss for D.C. and their sixth in their last seven games.

The Rat Pack has been mowing down the competition all season, except for the short speed bump when they played at Newark. Otherwise, the Rat Pack has been perfect this season. Yesterday the Pack won their 5th straight game by an 11-3 margin over the Straphangers - the second straight game by that score. Break up the Rat Pack? If they beat Newark the next time...maybe!

Miguel Cabrera went 2-3 with a home run and extended his 14-game hitting streak, leading the Cutters to a 6-2 win over the first-place Endzone Animals. Aaron Cook, the starter for Hoboken, left early with an injury and will miss the next two weeks. Hoboken is unsure yet who will replace him in the rotation, but is thinking about reaching back into their own history for a replacement. Joel Pineiro and Carlos Silva have both gotten calls to their agents, but Hoboken Cutters owner Mark Hrywna said that Jae Seo should not get his hopes up just yet. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on Seo" said Hrywna in a phone conversation.