DUNN A DILLY, JAX A DONE DEAL

DUNN HAS CAREER DAY AT FRESNO’S EXPENSE
DUNN HAS CAREER DAY AT FRESNO’S EXPENSE

Black Mesa—Adam Dunn homered in each of his first three at-bats, and just missed a fourth in the eighth, settling for an RBI triple off the wall in right-center to lead the Anomalies over the visiting Fresno Regulators, 12-5!


Dunn, mired in a season-long slump that saw him not hitting his weight, raised his average 15 points with four hits and 15 total bases, one of the best-ever single-game performances in league history! Dunn hit his first shot in the first to put Danny Haren (12-6, 3.70) down 3-0 without having recorded an out. Dunn then drew a walk leading off against Haren in the third, smacked a solo shot off Huston Street in the fifth and a two-run poke off Jeremy Affeldt in the seventh. In the eighth, Dunn’s bid for a fourth circuit shot fell just shy off going out, when he capped a three-run inning against Matt Capps with a triple to score Justin Morneau.

All in all, not a bad day’s work, making an easy winner of Glen Perkins (3-8, 4.73) and raising his overall numbers this season to .205, 18 HR and 53 RBI. Would Black Mesa consider moving Dunn or one of their other bats in a pennant race? Little is certain other than time is running out for BARB teams to make a move for the stretch!

ST. FRANCIS WINS GAME, LOSES JACKSON ON ROAD

Edwin Jackson, St. Francis’s usual ‘road warrior’, acquitted himself well in his 14th start on the road, besting the contending Casselton Horned Toads 5-3, but found himself headed for the airport instead of the showers: moments after being lifted by the Friars, Jackson was traded to the Los Angeles PF Flyers along with OF prospect Dexter Fowler for OF Carlos Quentin, OF Lastings Milledge and 3B Andy LaRoche.

Jackson (7-9, 5.04) has a fat ERA, but he has only had nine starts at home and a heavy workload in part to blame. Jackson has been asked to pitch in the 7th inning in more than half of had starts and has worked the 8th 11 times . . . and on top of that, has also worked twice in relief. Of regular starters, only a similarly-overtasked Joe Blanton (also with the Flyers) can point to such regular usage.

Meanwhile, the big name in the trade for St. Francis was Quentin (.229, 13 HR, 43 RBI), who has made only 72 starts in an injury-plagued year but is viewed by some scouts as a middle-of-the-order run producer whose best days are ahead of him. LaRoche (.120, 0 HR) and Milledge (7-for-20) have been odd-men out unable to win regular jobs with the Flyers despite once being highly-regarded prospects. They will get one last chance, in all probability, to establish themselves with an expansion team as woeful as the Pirates in ‘reality’.

As for Quentin, he scored twice in his final game in a Flyers ‘uni’, as Jim Thome hit a bases-loaded double off Chris Carpenter (8-2, 2.33) to back Joe Blanton’s (7-11, 4.51) complete-game effort in Los Angeles’s 5-2 win over visiting Pottsylvania. It was the first loss in eight starts and only the second loss in 17 outings for Carpenter, who has clearly reemerged from injuries as the ace of the Creepers.

In other BARB action:

YUMA 8, FROSTBITE FALLS 4
WP: C.C. Sabathia (9-6, 4.53)
LP: Tim Lincecum (11-8, 2.81)

C.C. Sabathia went all the way for his fifth complete game of the year, and Ryan Braun drove in four runs by the fourth with a sac fly and a HR, his 22nd of the season, to best hard-throwing Tim Lincecum and keep the Firebirds (62-47) within two games of West-leading Darwin.

DARWIN 8, WORCESTER 3
WP: Hideki Okajima (4-5, 3.69)
LP: Joba Chamberlain (10-10, 3.09)
SV: Gregg (14)

Chipper Jones had a pair of RBI singles off Chamberlain, and long-neglected David Ortiz came off the bench to hit a three-run pinch-homer off reliever Mark Lowe to send the Eliminators (69-52) down in defeat and keep Worcester in a tie for first in the East with Frostbite Falls.

DUNN DEAL