New on the Exco!

Not sure who to vote for in the Kevin Mitchell race? I wrote up the obvious candidates for the Batter of the Year Award (though you can vote for whoever you want) on the Exco.

http://excoboard.com/dmbl/143052/1728035?page=1#4688735

Hopefully I'll also have time to do write-ups for Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year also.

If you haven't joined the Exco yet, follow this link and sign up! It's free!

http://excoboard.com/dmbl

Bridgewater advances

For the first time in franchise history, the Bridgewater Mallers have advanced to the DMBL World Series. The Mallers, who started their DMB life as one of the original six franchises, the Columbia Crusaders, didn't even have a winning record until current owner Jamie Landsman moved the team to D.C. in 2006. The franchise finally made the playoffs for the first time in 2007, and then had their first winning season in 2008 (yeah, they were only 81-81 in '07). Now the Mallers join an elite circle of five teams that have ever made the finals (Newark, Vancouver, Arkansas, Marietta, and Austin - only Austin has not won out of that group).

The Mallers await the winner of the Newark-Marietta showdown, which resumes today. Newark will send Brad Bergesen to the mound. Bergesen shut down Marietta to win in game 3. Meanwhile, Marietta will try something different, sending lefty Jarrod Washburn up against the Sugar Bears. The Mighty Men are actually 3-1 in regular season games against Newark when Washburn starts, though Washburn has struggled in some of those starts.

Marietta stays alive

The Mighty Men stayed a live by edging past the Sugar Bears 3-2 yesterday. John Danks has now won the only two games for the Mighty Men with an 8-inning, 5-hit effort yesterday in which he gave up 2 runs and struck out 9. Javier Vazquez pitched a complete game in defeat, striking out 8 and giving up 6 hits. Jason Bay gave the Mighty Men a 2-0 lead in the 2nd with a 2-run homer, then Ichiro Suzuki singled in Chone Figgins in the 3rd to extend the lead to 3-0. The Sugar Bears finally got on the board in the 7th with back to back home runs from Jorge Posada and Kendry Morales. Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect 9th to earn his first playoff save this year.

Bridgewater will try to close out their series with Vancouver at the Irondome tonight. Randy Wells will face Chris Carpenter. Carpenter pitched 4 scoreless inning in game 1 against Vancouver but was removed after a rain delay. Randy Wells pitched a solid game to earn the win in game 3 against the Mallers.

Two teams on the brink

Bridgewater's 2-1 victory over Vancouver yesterday pushed the Iron Fist to the edge of elimination. Tommy Hanson and the Maller bullpen held the Iron Fist to just 5 hits in the game and struck out 10. Todd Helton drove in both Maller runs with a 2-run single in the 3rd. Jake Peavy pitched well in defeat, giving up only 2 unearned runs on 2 hits in 6 innings.

Meanwhile, Newark tries to eliminate Marietta today in Newark. The Sugar Bears will be sending Javy Vazquez to the mound against John Danks in a rematch of game 2, which Marietta won 8-4. Newark won both of their home games over the weekend.

Marietta evens series

Marietta evened up their series with Newark, dealing the Sugar Bears their first loss of the postseason. The Sugar Bears jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first, and extended it to 4-1 after a 2-run Juan Rivera homer in the 3rd. But in the bottom of the 3rd, Adrian Gonzalez hit a 3-run homer to tie up the game at 4-4. Alberto Callaspo's RBI single in the 5th gave the Mighty Men their first lead and Chone Figgins hit a double to make the lead 6-4. An error by Willy Aybar made the lead 7-4. The Mighty Men tacked on another run in the late innings to make the score 8-4. Mike Adams pitched the final 3 innings, giving up only 1 hit and striking out 4 to earn a save.

Bridgewater and Vancouver resume their series today with the Iron Fist trailing the Mallers 2-0. Randy Wells will attempt to get Vancouver back into the series, while the Mallers will rely on Josh Beckett to bring Vancouver to the brink. Vancouver is 0-3 against Beckett this season and the Mallers are 2-1 against Wells, including one game in which Beckett outdueled Wells.

Carpenter, Aceves blank Vancouver to take 1-0 series lead

The Mallers shut out the Iron Fist yesterday to take a 1-0 series lead. Starter Chris Carpenter had to be removed after a rain delay despite pitching 4 innings of shutout ball. Juan Aceves came in and pitched 4.1 innings, blanking Vancouver on 4 hits. Meanwhile, Zack Greinke, who survived the rain delay, pitched 6 shutout innings, but was lifted in the 7th after giving up a homer to Derrek Lee and a single to Ryan Zimmerman. Ronald Belisario came in and threw gasoline on the fire, giving up 5 more runs, plus the inherited runner from Greinke. Jake Peavy will take the mound in game two for Vancouver against Tommy Hanson.

Meanwhile, Marietta and Newark begin their series in a rematch of last year's World Series. Marietta is sending Joel Pineiro up against Ted Lilly. Newark owns the season series against Marietta with an 8-5 mark, but only 3-3 in Marietta. Marietta is 1-3 against Lilly in the regular season, including a 5-hit complete game shutout in August. Newark won their only game against Pineiro 9-5, also in August. Pineiro was pounded for 6 runs in 2.1 innings, though the game was played in Newark.

Round 2 begins tonight

Well, the first two rounds were a bit underwhelming with both series being sweeps. Today we kick off round 2 with Bridgewater hosting Vancouver. The Mallers are 9-4 against the Iron Fist so far this season, including a 4-2 mark at home. Bridgewater is 2-2 against Vancouver when Zack Greinke started, but that includes a 14-inning win and all 4 games were close games, with no one winning by more than 2 runs. Bridgewater's projected starter, Chris Carpenter, (the Mallers have not yet formally announced their starter) only faced Vancouver in one game - the first game of the year - and ended up on the losing end to Greinke in a 4-2 game.