TWO CLUBS ELIMINATED!

LAS VEGAS 4, S-MART 1
WP: Scott Olsen (11-2, 3.42)
LP: Javier Vazquez (7-13, 5.27)
SV: Rivera (27)

Alfonso Soriano hit his team-leading 34th homer of the year, Scott Olsen worked seven strong innings, and with the loss the streaking Boom Sticks were finally eliminated after putting together a decent two weeks. Alex Rodriguez, who had homered for nine straight games as part of a power surge, was held to a double in three trips this time and the only remaining entertainment in S-Mart seems to be whether ‘A-Rod’ can catch Frostbite Falls 1B Albert Pujols in the HR or RBI categories.

SAN JOSE 6, FROSTBITE FALLS 5
WP: Jarrod Washburn (7-14, 4.78)
LP: Ben Sheets (9-7, 4.09)
SV: Jenks (9)

Washburn outlasted Sheets, as the Rockets scored three times in the eighth off the enigmatic righthander, the big blow being Jermaine Dye’s two-run, two-out single and the Rockets held off a late rally by the Squirrels—but were nonetheless eliminated from post-season play due to Arizona’s win earlier that day. San Jose thus became the second BARB club to sing ‘wait ‘til next year’ on Game Day 138, but it is widely believed the club will be the first to feature new ownership in 2008.

DARWIN 11, YUMA 4
WP: Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 3.21)
LP: Roger Clemens (4-7, 3.24)

Rookie Yovani Gallardo pitched the best game of his brief BARB career, taking an 11-2 lead into the eighth courtesy of a big 5-RBI day from Chipper Jones, who hit his 23rd homer of the season to lead the Finches attack. Aging Roger Clemens got into trouble in the fourth, hitting a batter and failing to field a chopper back up the middle, leading to his early departure and a troublesome scenario: only 14-14 over the last month, the Firebirds are in danger of letting sibling rival Arizona back into the race....!

ARIZONA 10, WORCESTER 8
WP: Zack Greinke (5-5, 4.34)
LP: Gil Meche (9-8, 5.00)
SV: Street (12)

Gil Meche never escaped the second, as ten runners came around to score with one out on Meche and relievers Juan Rincon and Jon Rauch, and Zack Greinke bailed out an equally-ineffective (2 IP, 5 runs) Felix Hernandez with four innings of one-run ball, as the D-Backs (74-64) pulled within 3 ½ games of West-leading Yuma.

BLACK MESA 10, BROOKLYN 6
WP: Ted Lilly (10-11, 4.34)
LP: Chien-Ming-Wang (7-7, 4.00)

Adam Dunn hit his 19th with three aboard, and both Dunn and long-forgotten Josh Barfield drove in five runs as the Anomalies posted a six-run fourth against Wang and reliever Damaso Marte, Brooklyn’s 15th loss in the last three weeks and their eighth in the last ten games. As has been the case most of the year, the Moabs scored enough runs to win, but weren’t able to avoid giving up even more runs. Brooklyn leads all of BARB with 786 runs scored, but their 705 runs allowed is second only to the off-again, on-again D-Backs....