DOUMIT GOES OFF!

Down Under, Australia----C Ryan Doumit, let go in the off-season by the Worcester Eliminators, cemented his arrival as Darwin’s number-one backstop in a breakout game at the expense of Brandon Webb (12-7, 3.45) and the visiting Lexington Rebels. Doumit, who entered the game with 2 HR in 186 at-bats, doubled his total while driving in eight runs in support of LHP Oliver Perez (11-4, 3.22) as the Unnatural Selections not only sent Webb to the showers, but posted a league record 14 runs in a single inning en route to a 26-1 thrashing of the Western Division leaders.

With the score knotted 1-1 in the third, the Finches went to work. Chipper Jones singled to begin the frame and came around to score on a single by Lance Berkman. Webb loaded the bases with one out, and Rick Ankiel hit a bases-loaded double over the head of CF B.J. Upton to give Darwin a 5-1 lead. Newly-acquired Juan Cruz relieved a staggering Webb, and was left in for punishment: it was, after all, the third inning and the Rebels couldn’t go to the pen too often, too early. Doumit doubled to make it 6-1, Darwin. Jones, batting for the second time in the frame, hit a three-run bomb to make it 9-1, Finches. Ortiz, who had made the first out of the inning, then made the second out by flying harmlessly to right. Berkman doubled, Cristian Guzman singled and Ankiel and Chone Figgins both walked to load the bases again. Derek Lowe relieved Cruz, and…Doumit hit his first pitch (a sinker that didn’t) over the wall in right, a GRAND SLAM!

Milton Bradley finally hit a sinker on the ground to Phillips for the final out, but the damage was done. The Finches had scored FOURTEEN runs in the inning, coming just one batter short of going through the lineup twice, truly as one-sided an outburst as you could imagine and essentially dooming the Rebels. Darwin continued to score runs, and it got so bad that Lexington called on utility IF David Eckstein to pitch the last few innings. As you might expect, he was thrashed, and Doumit would hit ANOTHER bomb off Eckstein, a three-run shot, to give him four hits, two HR and eight, count ‘em, eight RBI.

With that much support, Oliver Perez was allowed to go all the way, come heck or high water. As it turned out, Perez would need quite a few pitches (139), but would finish with a four-hitter, the only run coming in the first on an Upton single. The complete game was a huge break for Darwin’s pen, which has worked overtime of late to keep the club in games.

In other BARB action:

BROOKLYN 5, CASSELTON 4

WP: Francisco Rodriguez (2-5, 2.53)
LP: Joaquin Benoit (1-2, 5.34)

Micah Owings hit just the third home run of the season hit by a pitcher, but his was by the far the most memorable, for Owings came off the bench as a pinch-hitter with a man aboard in the bottom of the ninth, and trailing 4-3. Owings got to face Joaquin Benoit, and with one out delivered a blast to score himself and Ryan Howard, a game-ending walkoff shot! How about that!

LAS VEGAS 7, OAKEYLAND 3

WP: A.J. Burnett (11-6, 3.51)
LP: Joe Blanton (7-8, 4.56)

Ramon Hernandez homered twice and drove in five runs, and his batterymate A.J. Burnett didn’t allow a run after the second, fanning seven Ballers over eight frames, as the Luchadores (56-61) pulled within a game of Central-leading Oakeyland. Jim Thome hit his club-leading 33rd HR of the season in a losing cause for the visiting Ballers.

S-MART 4, POTTSYLVANIA 3

WP: James Shields (9-10, 4.44)
LP: Cliff Lee (5-11, 5.70)

James Shields snapped a six-game losing streak, going all the way and allowing just one earned run. The Boom Sticks elected to stick with Shields, who had a 4-1 lead after five, but had some tense moments as errors by Uggla and Rodriguez led to a pair of runs scoring.

But Shields was in command, needing only 117 pitches to go all the way, and his teammates had to hope he was settling back into the form that had him 7-4 with a 3.35 ERA at the beginning of July, but only 1-6 with a 5.48 mark since that point. Not coincidentally, Shields struggled went hand-in-hand with the Boom Sticks fall from contention.