Don't masquerade with the guy in shades oh no

Bonds was at it again yesterday, hitting his fifth homer of the week against Las Vegas, but it wasn't enough. The Rat Pack held on for a 7-6 victory despite a scare in the ninth. Ryan Zimmerman was 4-5 with 4 RBIs in the game and Anthony Reyes improved to 4-10 despite zero strikeouts, a 2.00 WHIP and four earned runs in six innings.

Vancouver snapped their seven game slide by beating Philadelphia 3-2. Chris Carpenter had his best start since being acquired by the Iron Fist - a complete game yielding only four hits and two runs, with seven strikeouts. The effort was only the second complete game of the season for Vancouver. Sardine City is the only team not to have a complete game all season and there are two teams that have only one on the year.

When Corey Hart was released by Las Vegas back on May 12th, Hart was devastated. Hart was drafted in round four and expected to be a big part of the team's plans. Hart was only hitting .212 when he was released but he did have 4 RBIs in his last game with the club. Vegas told him "It ain't enough". "I gave it everything in my heart" said Hart soon after. Hart was ready to give up his baseball career, but he remembered his personal motto to "Never Surrender". So as Hart walked home that night, he threw on his sunglasses and said "You got it made with the guy in shades oh no". Las Vegas decided that they had made a mistake and resigned the rookie. GM Eric Wickstrom called up Hart and told him "I am by your side". Hart was reportedly so happy that he was "dancing with his mirror".

Liriano-no? Almost

Yesterday was a light day - there were only four games.
Brett Myers was solid again yesterday, only allowing one earned run in 6.2 innings, but still lost, dropping to 0-12 on the season. That sort of thing tends to happen when your opponent almost throws a no-hitter against you! Francisco Liriano held the Rat Pack hitless over eight but, after walking the leadoff batter in the ninth, manager Graig Nettles pulled Liriano for specialist Chad Qualls, who promptly gave up the first hit of the game to Marcus Giles. Mariano Rivera came in to shut the door, but gave up a three-run homer to Ryan Zimmerman. Suddenly the lead was very shaky, but Rivera retired the next three batters in order. Liriano was upset that he didn't get to go for the no-no, but after 118 pitches and a DL stint recently in his past, Nettles wasn't going to take any chances. Liriano finished the night 8 IP, 1 ER, 0 hits, 3 walks, and 11 Ks.

Randy Johnson mowed down the Mudcats, limiting them to two runs over six innings and striking out nine. Johnson improved to 7-2 on the season and is now only 27 strikeouts away from 3000 and seven wins from 200 for his career.

D.C. edged Philadelphia after dropping the first two games against the Animals. Alfonso Soriano was 3-4 with two homers and three RBIs. Adam LaRoche had four RBIs in a losing cause.

The Sharks pounded away on Cole Hamels and the Straphangers. Hamels was not pitching badly, but left with an undisclosed injury in the fifth. Hamels picked up the loss and is now 2-10 on the season, but will miss at least two weeks. No word on who his replacement will be. Meanwhile, Kenny Rogers had a solid outing after returning from AAA to replace the injured Roy Oswalt. Rogers pitched 8.2 innings while surrendering only one earned run.

Blog Bits: In case you missed it, Greg Maddux's last start put him over 3000 innings for his career... Mike Piazza passed Edgar Martinez (1949) for eighth all-time on the hits list. Piazza now has 1950. Tony Gwynn is next with 1960.

Bonds heats up

The Holiday weekend certainly was good to Arkansas' Barry Bonds. Bonds smacked two homers in a 12-4 drubbing of South Boston and then hit two more in the second game, a 10-8 loss. Bonds now has 20 homers on the season.

Johan Santana became the first 10 game winner in the DMBL, improving to 10-1 on the season as Philly shut down D.C. 12-2 in the first game fo their doubleheader yesterday. Santana pitched seven innings, allowing only four hits and two runs, while striking out seven. Santana is the current leader for the coveted Pitcher's Triple Crown (10 wins, 2.57 ERA, and 128 Ks). Jimmy Rollins continues to be an asset for the Endzone Animals, 2 RBIs in game one, and 3-5 in game two. Rollins is now batting .438 in four games with Philly, with 4 doubles, one homer, 4 RBIs, 2 stolen bases, and 1.375 OPS.

Las Vegas' Chone Figgins had two stolen bases against Marietta in the second game of their doubleheader. The first was his 100th of his career.

Vancouver dropped their seventh straight yesterday, losing both ends of the doubleheader with Hillsborough. Their offense has been shut down by Hillsborough and Arkansas, while their pitching couldn't hold the powerful Newark offense in check in the games before. "If we score a lot, we give up a lot, if we hold them, we can't score" said manager Darren Daulton. Vancouver next faces Philadelphia Wednesday, then plays a three-game set with D.C. and another three with Honolulu. "We better get our act together" Daulton continued "or we're in a lot of trouble."

First-place trade

Big trade yesterday between the two first place teams. Newark gave up Jimmy Rollins and Brandon Lyon and Philly gave up their second round pick and Rafael Soriano. Rollins immediately took over for the injured David Eckstein and started contributing: 1-3 with a stolen base in game one and 2-4 with a homer in game 2. Eckstein may return from the DL and find that he has no job left. In fact Eck's locker was temporarily moved to the janitor's closet when Rollins arrived. "They got no respect for me. Don't they know that I'm a scrappy fan favorite?" said Eckstein.

Pedro Martinez shutout Vancouver this morning on three hits, beating fellow legend Greg Maddux. Pedro improved to 9-3 on the season. Maddux and Pedro rank #1 and 2 on the all-time wins list. By the way, the loss was Vancouver's fifth in a row, sending them into fifth place overall.

Manny Ramirez's double in yesterday's game against Vancouver was his 400th, becoming only the sixth player in DMBL history to reach the feat. He is only a few behind Jeff Bagwell (406) and Larry Walker (407), both retired, so expect Manny to climb ahead to fourth by the end of the year. The all-time leader is Edgar Martinez (493).

Don't forget, we'll be off for the weekend and return Monday with a doubleheader.

Underrated Overbay

D.C.'s Lyle Overbay has been red-hot lately. After hitting a walk-off grand slam yesterday, Overbay continued his hot hitting with a 4-5 night against Hoboken yesterday, including two more homers. Overbay is now 7-9 with 3 HRs and 6 RBIs in his last two games.

Nomar Garciaparra barely got his glove dusted off before he was forced to leave last night's game with another injury. The first injury kept Garciaparra out for a month and this one may be close to that long. Once again, Shea Hillenbrand and Troy Glaus will fill in for Nomar.

Another more harmful loss was Honolulu's Roy Oswalt, who will miss a month with his injury. Kenny Rogers, who was recently demoted, will fill in for Oswalt. Oswalt was struggling a bit this season (5-5, 5.31) and the time off may help him.

Brett Myers was looking to take another loss yesterday despite an excellent performance, but his offense bailed him out. Myers had limited South Boston to five hits over 8.2 innings, surrendering only two runs and striking out five. However, he was locked in a duel with the Gang's Nate Robertson, who had not given up any runs at that point. Robertson was going for the complete game shutout, but the Rat Pack had something else in mind. Robertson allowed singles to the first two batters he faced and then newly-signed Endy Chavez came through with a double that scored one. Huston Street was brought in to close the game. After an intentional walk to create a force situation, Street gave up a sac fly to tie the game, then, with two outs, Chone Figgins roped a single into right to score the winning run.

Newark and Vancouver slugged it out last night through eleven innings. The game went back and forth until Nick Johnson won it with a two-run homer in the eleventh. Manny Ramirez also hit two homers (one of which tied the game at 11) and was 4-6 with 3 RBIs. Billy Wagner blew his eighth save for Vancouver.

Note tonight there will be a double header followed by an early morning game tomorrow. There will be no games on Saturday and Sunday.

Backman's Blunder

The Cutters and Jon Garland were cruising to a 1-0 victory yesterday over the Bushslappers, when they hit a bit of a snag. Manager Wally Backman decided that after Garland let Carl Crawford reach on a single that it would be time to go to the pen. Garland had pitched brilliantly, allowing only 4 hits and one walk, but he was already at 115 pitches. Backman went to Juan Rincon to close the game for some reason. Rincon walked two of the next three batters and served up the grand slam to Lyle Overbay. Game over. So where was Izzy? The Hoboken closer had not pitched in the last two days so he should have been available. "We did not feel that the matchup suited Izzy's talents" said Backman after the game. "Juan had expressed a desire to close, so we gave him one."

Newark roughed up Vancouver's pitching yesterday 18-6. Five of the six pitchers gave up runs and Wes Littleton was lost for two weeks. "A bullpen shakeup is coming" said pitching coach Erik Hanson. Alan Embree was signed off the waiver wire to fill in. "We needed a lefty to help us through the Newark series" said manager Darren Daulton.

Vlad Guerrero and Jim Edmonds recently drove in their 1000th career run. They became just the 17th and 18th in DMBL history to achieve the feat. Next on the list is Honolulu's Jason Giambi at 948. Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado (930) would need a big year to do it this season. New Jersey's Mike Piazza moved further up the list, tying Gary Sheffield at fifth with his 1263rd RBI last night. Juan Gonzalez holds the #4 spot at 1283, so we may have another Piazza update soon.

Black Magic Pitchers

It was a battle of Santanas yesterday in Arkansas. Guitarist Carlos Santana played the National Anthem and former wrestler Tito Santana threw out the first pitch. It was Johan Santana that came out on top however. The Philly hurler threw a complete game 4-hit shutout and struck out seven Falcons. Johan improved to 9-1 on the season. It was not a good day for Ervin Santana, however. The Falcon starter threw seven innings, giving up five runs on 10 hits to lower his record to 3-8.

Marietta's Mike Mussina picked up a win against New Jersey yesterday. Mussina struck out nine in eight innings. Mussina (1871) passed Kevin Brown (1868) for seventh on the all-time strikeout list.

Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia was impressive in his second game back from injury. C.C. limited the Mudcats to only three hits and two runs in a complete game effort. Sabathia improved to 4-2 on the year. In the game, Ryan Howard hit two homers (25 and 26) to take the league lead in homers and drove in 5 runs (Howard is third in RBIs).

D.C.'s winning streak came to an abrupt end as South Boston shellacked the Bushslappers 10-2. Despite the fact that South Boston was missing starters David Roberts and Alex Rios, the Gang exploded. Adrian Beltre, starting for one game for Rios, went 3-3 and Dan Uggla hit a three-run homer, while Dontrelle Willis won for just the third time on the season. After starting off 1-8, Willis has now won his last two starts.