YUMA GETS ON BOARD, SPLIT TWIN BILL

Yuma—Back in their home ballpark, the defending 2007 world champs finally got into the ‘W’ column in 2008 by splitting a pair of games with divisional arch-rival Lexington, but by winning the twilight game the Rebels assured themselves a tie of first in the very early going back in Arizona.

In the opener, Carlos Zambrano (1-0, 1.29) allowed just one earned run in seven frames and C Russell Martin had a two-run, tie-breaking homer in the third to give the Firebirds a 3-1 lead. Cole Hamels (0-1, 4.50) kept things tight for three more frames, but the home club added a pair of runs in the eighth off of reliever Brandon Lyon, and unheralded draft pickup C.J. Wilson worked around a pair of walks to get the last four outs and the save.

The Rebels, for their part, twice had some scoring opportunities at the bottom of their order, but due to the fact that they only had one healthy catcher on their roster found it tough to make any moves. Carlos Delgado, relegated to the bench by James Loney’s arrival and last year’s struggles, was seen donning the ‘tools of ignorance’. A former backstop, the 1B/DH is at the moment the club’s only option should Ramon Hernandez go down. Kids, take my advice, don’t let this happen to your club!

At any rate, thanks to Lexington’s shortcomings, Yuma’s 0-3 start was history:

YUMA 5, LEXINGTON 2!

In the second game of the doubleheader, brittle Rich Harden (1-0, 0.00) was sparkling for six innings, but was taken out as a precaution with a 2-0 lead having thrown only 87 pitches. James Loney and B.J. Upton had already both hit RBI doubles at that point off Matt Cain (0-1, 2.25), arguably one of the unluckiest guys in recent BARB memory. Here, Cain allowed just six hits overall and worked eight innings, but nonetheless, he left the game trailing 2-0.

And that would be it. Free agent-signee Tom Gordon and former phenom Dustin Nippert put up zero’s in the middle frames, and Huston Street pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the season, and Lexington’s West-leading third win:

LEXINGTON 2, YUMA 0!

In other BARB action:

CASSELTON 10, BLACK MESA 4
WP: Dave Bush (1-0, 5.14)
LP: Todd Wellemeyer (0-1, 9.00)

Jermaine Dye and Adrian Gonzalez both homered, and Dave Bush had seven workmanlike frames of work, as their win elevated them into an early 3-2 tie with Lexington and the visiting Anomalies for the lead in the suddenly-competitive West. Free-agent signee Todd Wellemeyer wasn’t completely worthless, though, having been hurt badly by errors on the part of Kouzmanoff and Furcal.

WORCESTER 5, S-MART 3
WP: Jeremy Guthrie (1-0, 3.00)
LP: Jake Westbrook (0-1, 7.20)
SV: Sherrill (1)

New Elims hurler Jeremy Guthrie allowed only two earned runs, and four relievers who weren’t with the ballclub last season (Benoit, Downs, Feliciano, Moylan) put up nothing but goose eggs to get the ball to George Sherrill, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save as Worcester evened its record to .500 (2-2). On the down side, backup C Dionner Navarro and minor-league free agent Michael Cuddyer have both been sidelined with injuries.

POTTSYLVANIA 5, DARWIN 2
WP: Mark Buehrle (1-0, 2.00)
LP: Dustin McGowan (0-1, 5.40)

Mark Buehrle took the heat off the beleaguered and winless Creepers, going all the way in the loop’s first complete game of the season, throwing exactly 100 pitches in going the route to finally get Pottsylvania in the win column as the Creepers, led by Bobby Abreu (3 H, SB, 2 RBI) cashed in an error by Jeff Francouer

FROSTBITE FALLS 5, LAS VEGAS 4
WP: Eric O’Flaherty (1-0, 0.00)
LP: Mariano Rivera (0-1, 5.40)

Well, sure and it’s Eric O’Flaherty picking up the win, and begorra, it’s Mariano Rivera, one of the greatest ever, taking the loss despite two homers by Prince Fielder, who now leads all of BARB in boundary belts, saints preserve us. More seriously, the Squirrels (5-0) rallied to spoil a decent outing by A.J. Burnett and keep the Luchadores the only winless team in BARB (0-5). On the down side, the Squirrels have lost the services of RHP Russ Springer indefinitely.

BROOKLYN 13, OAKEYLAND 4
WP: Chen-Mien Wang (1-0, 1.13)
LP: Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1, 9.00)

Chase Utley drove in four runs with a pair of double, Ichiro Suzuki and Jacoby Ellsbury each had three hits, and the seemingly-underrated Wang took a shutout into the eighth before needing some bullpen help in what had already become a laugher, as the Moabs (4-0) held on to remain one of two undefeated teams (both in the East) in all of BARB.