PLAYOFFS SET AS SEASON ENDS

Yuma made it to 100 wins (101, actually). Frostbite Falls secured the #2 seed with a final-day shutout of Philadelphia, which becomes #3. And, finally, on the second-to-last day of the season, the St. Francis Friars clinched the wild card.

The Friars carried a two-game lead on the surprising New England Yankee Stompers with two games to play. St. Francis was in an even better position, with Roy Oswalt pitching at home against the Sin City Cowboys.

Oswalt was on a short leash, though. The short righty was throwing on three days’ rest. He pitched well for three innings, allowing no runs on two hits and five strikeouts, but in the fourth Oswalt was touched for a double and a walk and was pulled from the game with the Friars holding a 3-0 lead. One of those runners scored, but it would be the only one of the day for the gambling Cowboys. Six relievers shut down the final five innings and the St. Francis offense picked up two more runs for the clinching victory, a 5-1 win.

Just a few weeks ago, Scott Hatfield was looking at the #2 seed in the playoffs. Now he gets to face the powerful Yuma Firebirds, winners of four straight and eight of their last 10, for a trip to the BARB World Series.

SQUIRRELS ALTER PITCHING MATCHUP TO SECURE HOME FIELD

When Frostbite Falls clinched the Eastern Division with a few weeks to play, they didn’t expect the Philadelphia Rebels to contend for a playoff spot, let alone the #2 seed. But the Rebels got hot and won nine straight, including two at home against Frostbite, to go into the final day of the season tied for a first-round home field.

Squirrels manager Mike Noakes realized the Rebels were iffy on offense against left-handed pitching, so he decided to start lefty Cole Hamels on the final day. Noakes was hoping his charges would take one of the final three games with Fausto Carmona, Jhoulys Chacin and Anibal Sanchez on the mound to set up his top three for the playoffs, but Carmona and Chacin both struggled. Noakes also realized the Flying Squirrels had struggled against the Rebels during the season, so he considered it imperative that they gained home field advantage.

Hamels stepped up in a big way. The southpaw threw exactly 100 pitches over eight innings, allowing four hits, two walks and no runs while striking out eight. Evan Longoria and Jose Reyes, meanwhile, both homered to help lead Frostbite to a 6-0 win.

The Squirrels had lined up their rotation to start Felix Hernandez #1, Hamels second and Tim Lincecum third, but now its likely Lincecum and Hamels will be swapped.

In other BARB action from the final day:

BROOKLYN 4, LOS ANGELES 3

WP: Jon Lester (11-5, 4.18)

LP: Homer Bailey (5-5, 3.67)

SV: Feliz (16)

Jon Lester struck out seven over 5.1 innings and Ryan Howard homered before injuring his Achilles tendon while striking out in his final at-bat. Ian Stewart showed a pulse, with two RBI from the DH slot, and three different players drove in runs for the host Wolverines.

CASSELTON 5, WORCESTER 4

WP: Darren O’Day (2-1, 2.35)

LP: Kenley Jansen (2-1, 2.98)

SV: Rodriguez (15)

Two run-scoring singles extended the Eliminator lead to 4-1 in the fifth, but Kenley Jansen walked three straight hitters before allowing a two-run Jim Thome single as part of a four-run Horned Toad seventh in Casselton. Thome finished the day, possibly his final game in the majors, with four hits and a home run.

NEW ENGLAND 9, AC/BC 3

WP: Derek Lowe (6-5, 3.71)

LP: Ervin Santana (4-11, 4.92)

Adam Dunn hit a two-run shot and Austin Jackson launched a three-run bomb to pace the Yankee Stompers in their only “meaningless” game of the season. Dunn’s 2-for-4 day raised his season average over the Mendoza Line (to .203). Placido Polanco also drove in two.

YUMA 5, CENTRAL CA 4

WP: Mat Latos (13-8, 4.13)

LP: Jered Weaver (14-11, 3.78)

SV: Soriano (23)

Mat Latos, with seven shutout innings, outdueled Jered Weaver (eight innings, two runs) to give the Firebirds their 101^st win of the season. Yuma very well could have lost if they didn’t score three times in the ninth off Dan Wheeler: the surprise-contender .45s put up a four-spot before Rafael Soriano closed it out in the bottom of the ninth.

THE PLAYOFFS

Yuma hosts St. Francis and Frostbite Falls hosts Philadelphia in best-of-five series. The best-of-seven World Series will be played between the winners.

I’d like to play these playoff games with the owners themselves on hand (and the home team playing the game). I want to get it started with a league get-together sometime this week or next week, so let me know what days work for you. The World Sports Café idea from a few weeks ago might be a possibility for this gathering.

THE UNBELIEVABLE HAS HAPPENED

If a major league announcer can steal and use an epic line in the World Series, I can use a less-memorable one here. On October 4, the Philadelphia Rebels completed a stunning in-season turnaround to claim the Central Division flag with a 10-0 whitewashing of 2010 Central champ Casselton and a 7-3 St. Francis loss to defending BARB champion Worcester.

On the road in Casselton, Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep and extended their win streak to seven. The Rebels sent one across the plate in each of the first two innings, but they broke it wide open in the fourth.

Matt Wieters, Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Aviles all reached to begin the frame before big Adrian Gonzalez smashed a line drive to the right-center field gap to plate two. Alex Rodriguez’s RBI groundout brought up Andre Ethier, who continued his recent hot streak with a two-run shot to right field.

Just like that is was 7-0.

Philly later extended their lead on Ethier’s second home run and one from Wieters.

The Rebel pitching staff, meanwhile, had a strangle hold on the Horned Toad offense. Max Scherzer started and allowed one hit (while walking four) over five innings with six strikeouts. Matt Belisle and Jose Valverde each pitched one inning and allowed just one hit, and Edward Mujica finished it out with two strong frames.

With their magic number at 1, the Rebels retired to the clubhouse to watch Brandon Morrow and the Eliminators host St. Francis and rookie starter Randall Delgado.

The Elims went up with a sacrifice fly in the first and held that lead until the top of the fifth, when Chris Young hit a no-doubter to left field to tie it up. In the bottom of the fifth, however, Delgado’s inexperience showed as both Nick Swisher and Mike Morse sent solo homers to give Worcester a 3-1 lead.

The Friars weren’t able to touch Morrow. Four times the visitors went 1-2-3 against the hard-throwing righty. Morrow finally went to the showers with one out in the eighth after hitting his second batter of the game, but by that time he’d struck out 13, given up three hits and walked none.

The score stayed 3-1 until a disastrous bottom of the eighth for Hatfield’s hopefuls. Scott Downs came in to start the inning and allowed a single and double for a run sandwiched around a strikeout. Heath Bell entered and was immediately touched up for two more singles. Carl Crawford laced another base hit off of Joaquin Benoit. Bronson Arroyo walked Swisher, and Mark Teixeira knocked in the fourth run of the inning with a groundout.

St. Francis scored twice in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.

UNBELIEVABLE, PART 2

The fans were still in the stands and watching the video board, and a roar went up when Johnny Damon lined right back to Tony Sipp to end the Worcester-St. Francis contest. As the players were celebrating, Ronald Melkonian gave interviews with an obviously prepared speech:

"I'm very proud of what my team has accomplished this season. In the beginning we had set out to build a team that would now, and despite road bumps along the way, we found ways to overcome them and have clinched the Franchises' first Division Crown. As we look back to our bold trades and our public psychological marketing campaign (internally we were never making any official move to another city nor throwing in the towel), we view them as successful as not only did we vault our team from almost the cellar at one point in the season, but dominated our way to the top and made our division rival (St. Francis) feel like he was in control the entire time and needed not to make any bold moves for key arms, while we were churning out key deals (Ogando, Wood) and FA signings (Penny) to put us where we are at now. We are ready to take on Frostbite, a team we should have swept in the playoffs a couple years ago, but thanks to late inning heroics, got lucky. We will make sure that doesn't happen again!"

Simply unbelievable.

The Rebels can still improve their playoff standing, and they have the chance to move to the number two seed with three games left against Frostbite Falls. If Philadelphia sweeps those final three of the season, they will stay at home to face the Flying Squirrels in the first round of the playoffs. If the Squirrels win but one, the home-field advantage sits in northern Minnesota.

As for the Friars, they still have the advantage in the wild card race. Winning that, though, will pit them against league wins leader Yuma.

FRIARS OFF THE SCHNEID, BUT FOR HOW LONG?

September 30: Scott Hatfield’s charges finally won after enduring a four-game losing streak and falling out of first place. Could they keep it up October 2? Or would the Moabs gain back the ground in the wild card? What about the Rebels?

Many questions to be answered, and they will become clear in time. But, ironically, after being pushed back from his originally scheduled start because of concerns about his viability in helping the team win, Brett Myers had a good (though short) start.

Myers, in line to start the second game of the series, was pushed back to #4 when St. Francis couldn’t distance themselves from Philadelphia. But despite the snub the veteran stepped up and pitched four innings of four-hit, two-run ball before his extra-cautious manager turned it to the bullpen to begin the fifth with the team leading, 3-2.

In all, six pitchers came on in relief for the Friars. Joaquin Benoit, Rafael Betancourt and Scott Downs each threw a scoreless frame. Heath Bell began the eighth and retired four batters before allowing a pinch-hit single to Jimmy Rollins in the ninth. Even with a four-run lead, Bell was pulled for Jason Motte, who gave up a first-pitch single to Ben Zobrist.

With the game now a save situation (potential tying run on deck), St. Francis went to the bullpen again, this time for… BRONSON ARROYO???

The erstwhile starter had been pitching out of the ‘pen since Hatfield swung deals for more starting and other pitchers got healthy. And righty was to face a left-handed batter with pop, Chase Utley. Can you go against the percentages any more than that?

But “the percentages” don’t dictate everything that happens. Here’s how Arroyo’s one pitch of the night came over the radio:

“Utley staring out, salivating on the possibility of a pitch to drive. Arroyo’s been gopher-ball prone. Arroyo comes set…looks the runners back…and throws. A SMASH by Utley, but it’s RIGHT to Kelly Johnson at second! He flips to Ramirez…back to first…double play! The Friars take their first game in their last five and inch closer to the Rebels!”

In the other dugout, Jon Lester was pontificating on what could have been. After winning the first three games of the series, the perennial powerhouse was in position to tie for the wild card by finishing out the sweep. But Lester, in his worst game in a while, allowed five runs in five-plus innings, giving up seven hits and walking four. Felix Pie showed rare clutch ability, driving in St. Francis’ first run with a second-inning double and launching a two-run homer to knock Lester out of the game in the sixth.

St. Francis moved to within a half-game of Philadelphia in the Central, but that would just be for a few hours as the Rebels continued to bash Sin City. Cliff Lee struck out nine in 7.1 innings for his 19^th win, and Alex Rodriguez (two-run shot), Andre Ethier (solo) and Adam Jones (grand slam) all homered in support.

FRIARS’ JOY SHORT-LIVED

St. Francis came to the ballpark the next day with a brighter outlook for a new month. But after a few minutes they realized what the buzz was about in the ballpark above and streets around them. It was V-Day.

Justin Verlander was going to pitch.

Verlander was having an up-and-down season, entering the game just 6-9 with an ERA above 4.50. But he easily outdueled Ricky Nolasco. Verlander pitched eight innings, struck out seven, allowed three hits and didn’t walk a batter. His only blemishes were an Alexei Ramirez home run in the third inning and Paul Konerko sacrifice fly in the sixth. Brooklyn didn’t homer, but Adrian Beltre stood out with three RBI on two hits.

Things got worse for the Friars later in the day. Powered by third-inning long-balls from Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Aviles, Philadelphia finished their sweep of Sin City with a 3-0 victory.

So after the dust settled on October 1, Philadelphia led the Central by two games over St. Francis with six to play for both teams. The Friars lead Brooklyn (four games remaining) by two, Central California (three left) by 2.5 and New England (three left) by 3.5 in the wild card. Everyone else has been mathematically eliminated.

In other BARB news:

Yuma needs two wins in their final three games to be just the second BARB team to win 100 in a season. The 2003 Delta V’s won 103 games. The Firebirds have sown up the top seed for the 2011 playoffs.

REBELS CAPTURE LEAD

After many months and big talk, the Philadelphia Rebels, getting strong pitching and timely hitting and benefitting from Brooklyn’s bludgeoning of St. Francis, have taken over sole possession of first place in the BARB Central Division. The big question: can they hold it?

The elder Melkonian’s team was, as has been mentioned many times, counted out more than once this season. But since the trade deadline, which forced Ron to take a hands-off approach, his team has stepped it up. Since September 1, Philly has a 17-10 record, good for third-best in the league behind Yuma (second) and, somehow, Central CA (first).

St. Francis, on the other hand, is 9-12 and has seen Philadelphia make up five games in the standings during the month. The Friars have lost seven of their past 10, while the Rebels have the opposite recent record.

Entering a big five-game series against the Brooklyn Moabs, St. Francis led the division by a single game. It was the wrong time to be playing the Moabs, obviously.

Eric Caskey’s squad, still thick in the wild card race (and not eliminated from division contention until September 29), won the first three games of the series by a combined score of 28-9. Scott Hatfield even micro-managed his rotation for the final 20 games of the season to get his best starters in his biggest games, but the potent Brooklyn bats bashed nine long balls in those three contests.

Meanwhile, the Rebels lost their first of the five-gamer at the Sin City Cowboys, 8-6, before going on to win the next two to tie and take the lead from St. Francis.

The news for the Friars gets worse before it gets better. Now in the division lead, they are facing the team that is immediately behind them in those standings: Brooklyn. The Moabs sit just two games back, and while they play the Friars for two more and the now-Eastern Division champs Frostbite Falls for one, they finish the campaign with three against cellar-dwelling Los Angeles. St. Francis has three against Worcester, which can hit at any time, before a final trifecta at home against Sin City.

But the ebb and flow of baseball changes on a whim sometimes. While the outlook may look bleak for Hatfield, his powerful offense could come alive in the final eight and take back the division.

If the playoffs opened today, Yuma would host St. Francis (a matchup of teams that looked destined for the #1 and #2 seeds just a month ago) and Philadelphia would travel to Frostbite Falls in first-round action. Both would be best-of-5 series. But a reversal of St. Francis and Philly would create an intriguing opening battle between the Melkonians.

SQUIRRELS SOAR ON

Champagne-soaked and delirious, Frostbite Falls players celebrated the franchise’s first division title in five years. It was also possibly the earliest the team clinched the division in any season. It wasn’t without late questions, however. The team began to tail off going into the final 10 games, and Brooklyn, though nine games back at one point, kept fighting and made it interesting.

Even the clincher was in doubt from the get-go. Normally reliable Jhoulys Chacin, who may or may not be on the playoff roster, allowed six runs (two in the first), all earned, in 4.2 IP against Pottsylvania. Luckily for him the offense found a way to hit Creeper ace Chris Carpenter. Jayson Werth, whose bat disappeared for most of the season, hit two big home runs, and Albert Pujols doubled three times to drive in four, including a two-run double to put the Squirrels up for good in the sixth.

One of the biggest saving graces for the Minnesotans was their lack of serious injury. Yes, Brett Anderson was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery and Evan Longoria missed an early month. But for the most part, when a player went down another one stepped up and played just as well until the starter came back. In all, only one player who played an important role throughout the season will miss the playoffs: closer Joakim Soria.

In other BARB action:

WORCESTER 6, LOS ANGELES 1

WP: Craig Kimbrel (6-0, 4.16)

LP: Trevor Cahill (7-16, 4.94)

A matchup of two potential 2012 playoff teams went the way of the defending champs. Mark Teixeira and Billy Butler both homered and, after Brandon Morrow was mysteriously removed after allowing a two-out, none-on single in a tie game in the fifth, youngster Craig Kimbrel earned the win with two K’s in 1.1 perfect innings. The Wolverines showed flashes of the talent coming back, with Dexter Fowler, Mike Stanton and Starlin Castro combining for all five hits and Trevor Cahill pitching well despite taking his lumps.

REBELS CONTINUE DIVISION PUSH

Hellickson dominated

After publicly declaring themselves out of playoff contention at least twice this summer, the Philadelphia Rebels have fought back and held the wild-card lead for weeks…and now they’re on the brink of overtaking St. Francis for the Central Division lead.

Maybe the many trade shakeups got rid of a clubhouse cancer; maybe the players were upset at owner Ron Melkonian’s lack of faith in their talent and decided to play their best. Whatever the motivation, the notoriously fickle Philly fans have forgotten this team is destined for Detroit after the season.

The Rebels are on a five-game winning streak, all at home, and they are selling out a raucous Citizens Bank Ballpark night-after-night. The most recent series allowed fans to break out the brooms, as Max Scherzer, Cliff Lee and Alexi Ogando were masterful in one-run victories to sweep defending division champ Casselton out of playoff contention.

Scherzer got the party started on September 24. While he didn’t earn the win, the hard thrower showed a rare flash of great control in striking out 10 over seven innings against no walks. The Rebels actually trailed into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Andre Ethier hit one just over the right-field wall with a man aboard to steal away the victory.

Next to stymie the Horned Toad offense was Lee in an eight-inning, three-hit performance with nine K’s. J.J. Putz made it interesting by allowing a long Brandon Phillips two-run home run in the top of the ninth, but Philadelphia still had a one-run advantage and Putz didn’t completely cough it up. Lee earned his 18^th win, which is good for second in BARB.

Not to be outdone, recent acquisition Ogando struck out 10 over seven innings with just three hits and two walks to complete the sweep. The only run he allowed was a solo shot off the big bat of Jim Thome, but solo homers from Torii Hunter and Matt Wieters off of John Danks gave the Rebels a 2-1, series-ending victory.

With the sweep (and two wins before that over Sin City), Philadelphia stands three games up in the wild card and, incredibly, just one back in the division with five straight games in Las Vegas (due to a scheduling quirk) coming up.

On the other side of the coin, Scott Hatfield’s squad has to travel to Brooklyn for five games. The Friars are struggling after leading the division (quite comfortably at times) for most of the summer. The Moabs are already fighting for their playoff hopes (seven games back in the East and four in the wild card), so that promises to be an intriguing battle.

Brooklyn is also gaining hope from division-leading Frostbite Falls’ annual late-season swoon. The Flying Squirrels traditionally play sub-.500 ball over their final 15 games. That includes the season of their last World Championship, 2008. Frostbite was 4-6 over the last 10 and 7-8 in the last 15 games before immediately getting hot in the playoffs and taking the title. Many of those games, including the final regular-season game in 2007, were losses to archrival Pottsylvania. And who does Frostbite play in the upcoming five-game series? Those same Creepers, this time with Stephen Strasburg and a hot (read below) Jeremy Hellickson on the mound.

In other BARB action:

POTTSYLVANIA 6, LOS ANGELES 0

WP: Jeremy Hellickson (13-11, 3.84)

LP: Dan Haren (14-11, 4.85)

Jeremy Hellickson, in easily his best performance in BARB, carried a perfect game into the seventh and a no-hitter into the eighth inning before settling for a two-hit shutout. After setting down the first 19 hitters in order, Hellickson somehow walked Travis Snider. He then got three more outs in a row before Dexter Fowler’s single broke up the no-no with one out in the eighth. Hellickson finished with two walks and five strikeouts, and he was supported by another budding star: Desmond Jennings drove in three on two hits (including a home run) and raised his average to .349 in 83 at-bats.

FIREBIRDS GRIND OUT VICTORY

Haren beat his former employer with his arm AND bat

Yuma: Chris Melkonian has never really been known to help out his brother’s team. But with a big ninth-inning rally September 10^th, the Firebirds helped reduce Philadelphia’s magic number in the wild card standings…

The New England-Yuma game September 9, a 5-2 Yankee Stompers victory, was just James Herndon’s team’s first win in their last five games. The four-game losing streak had pushed them a few games off the wild-card pace and reduced Yuma’s magic number for clinching the division to six. But the win was a bit of a reprieve before New England had to face David Price in the final game of the series in Arizona.

Price, however, didn’t intimidate the Yankee Stompers.

Single runs came home in the top of the first on a Corey Hart groundout and a Placido Polanco third-inning single, giving New England an early lead. Two singles and a Shane Victorino sacrifice fly in the fifth put Yuma on the board, but Price made two mistakes on the first three pitches of the sixth: Polanco lined a single to left-center, and Jed Lowrie launched a shot to left to make the lead 4-1.

Tim Stauffer, meanwhile, was dealing. The righty allowed two hits other than the fifth-inning singles, walked one and struck out five. He left after eight strong innings having clearly out-pitched Price.

Terry Francona brought in Jonathon Papelbon from the bullpen, thinking a three-run lead was safe for a normally shut-down reliever. The hard thrower was wild, however. Ryan Zimmerman was hit by a pitch and moved to second base on a wild pitch. Joey Votto walked on four pitches, and Ryan Braun lined a 1-2 single to load the bases. Another pitch got away from Papelbon with Vladimir Guerrero batting, scoring Zimmerman to close the gap to 4-2. Guerrero ended up grounding out to first, but Votto scored and Braun moved up. The Firebirds had the tying run on third base.

It didn’t take long for Braun to come home. The second pitch to Victorino was grounded right back through the box, and the game was tied.

Derek Lowe came on and sandwiched two groundouts around a single, but the damage was done. New England’s hitters seemed shell-shocked after Justin Morneau singled to open the 10^th frame: Corey Hart flied out and both Carlos Beltran and Ryan Raburn K’d against Matt Thornton.

Lowe stayed in for the bottom of the 10^th and immediately allowed a double to Nick Markakis. Zimmerman was walked intentionally to create a force play, and Joey Devine came in to pitch to Votto.

OOPS

It was a move which may be second-guessed for a while. Devine, while nails against left-handed batters, is a righty. Votto eats righties for lunch. This at-bat was more of the usual, as Votto worked the count full before pushing a Devine offering (no pun intended) down the third base line. It was enough to easily score Markakis for the win.

The aftermath? New England fell to 2.5 games behind Philly; Yuma’s magic number to clinch another Western Division title dropped to four. Interestingly, if the current standings hold out, the Firebirds and Rebels would face off in the first round of the playoffs—that should make for some great sibling rivalr Interestingly, if the current standings hold out, the Firebirds and Rebels would face off in the first round of the playoffs—that should make for some great sibling rivalry fun!

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 6, BROOKLYN 4

WP: Sean Marshall (2-2, 3.38)

LP: Daniel Bard (6-9, 3.35)

SV: Bailey (21)

Sean Marshall and Andrew Bailey picked up the slack after an off night for Cole Hamels—5.2 IP, seven hits, four runs allowed—and their work proved vital as Jayson Werth’s seventh-inning homer gave the Flying Squirrels a very rare three-game sweep of the MOABS in Frostbite Falls. The sweep pushed Frostbite’s division lead to a season-high eight games. Evan Longoria also homered in the win, and Ryan Howard and John Buck launched long balls for the visitors.

POTTSYLVANIA 5, ST. FRANCIS 4

WP: Aroldis Chapman (5-2, 1.81)

LP: Rafael Betancourt (1-1, 4.50)

Jeremy Hellickson’s uneven outing (eight walks in 6.2 IP) was erased as the Creepers scored three unearned runs off of Roy Oswalt in the sixth. But while they may not count against his ERA, the runs were mostly Oswalt’s doing: he muffed an easy grounder from the first batter of the inning, walked a batter between a force-out and fly-out, and then left one on a platter for Aramis Ramirez. Those runs only tied the game—Hideki Matsui ended it as the first hitter in the bottom of the ninth with a homer to right.

CENTRAL CA 7, AC/BC 0

WP: Daniel Hudson (14-7, 3.31)

LP: Zack Greinke (5-8, 4.31)

Dan Uggla’s seventh-inning grand slam broke open a 2-0 ballgame as the .45s won their sixth-straight game and stayed 2.5 games behind Philadelphia in the wild card. Daniel Hudson allowed six hits and one walk while striking out five batter over six innings, and Bud Norris was nearly perfect (one hit allowed) to earn a three-inning save.

CASSELTON 4, WORCESTER 1

WP: Brandon McCarthy (4-1, 2.77)

LP: Wandy Rodriguez (7-8, 5.50)

SV: Romo (3)

The host Horned Toads banged out 12 hits, including Casey McGehee and Geovany Soto homers, to keep their squad six games back in the wild card and push the injury-riddled defending champs further away from a playoff spot. Recent free-agent signee Brandon McCarthy hurled another good game, allowing one run on five hits and two walks in 6.1 IP.

LOS ANGELES 6, PHILADELPHIA 1

WP: Dan Haren (13-10, 4.99)

LP: Dustin McGowan (0-1, 6.59)

Dan Haren was outstanding in his chance to gain revenge on the team that traded him at the deadline, allowing just three hits and one run through eight innings. Haren matched his former team in hits at the plate, going 3-for-4, but in an even more astonishing turn of events, all three Haren hits were doubles. Los Angeles’ youngsters showed a glimpse of what is to come, as Eric Hosmer (HR), Chris Davis (HR) and Mike Stanton (three-run 2B) drove in all of the Wolverine runs.

COWBOYS ELIMINATED; PENCE GOES OFF

Pence did all he could to keep the .45s in the chase

September 4: The Sin City Cowboys became the first 2011 BARB team completely eliminated from playoff contention, but they immediately had the chance to be a spoiler for a league power. In addition, Central California’s postseason hopes were kept alive by a Hunter Pence two-inning outlash.

Anthony Guerra’s Sin City squad has been all-but eliminated for a while now. They compete in the league’s toughest division and had injuries to some of their top players (Nelson Cruz, David Wright, etc.) that severely damaged their hopes of competing. But they are in position to be a dark-horse team in 2012: starters like Bumgarner, Shields and Wainwright and a big name who was a PTBN fortify the rotation, and Cruz and Wright team with Ian Kinsler, Brennan Boesch, Gaby Sanchez and Ian Desmond for a good offense.

But they were officially eliminated from the 2011 playoffs on September 4. Sin City beat the Casselton Horned Toads, 7-3, but the division-leading Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels eked out a 2-0 victory at Los Angeles and wild-card leading Philadelphia beat Worcester by the same score.

That meant September 5-7 was a chance to directly harm the playoff chances of the Brooklyn MOABS. Brooklyn came into Las Vegas five games out in the Eastern division and ½ back in the wild card and ready to make a move after enduring a stretch of losing. The first game saw Kyle Lohse throw a good game (7 IP, 2 ER, 4K) and the Cowboy offense knock out Justin Masterson with four runs before making an out in the third inning. The Cowboys went on to win it, 5-3.

The next day was expected to be a good pitching matchup (Yovani Gallardo v. Jaime Garcia), and it didn’t disappoint. Gallardo went eight strong, striking out six and walking none, but he allowed a third-inning solo shot to Alex Rios. Garcia only pitching into the sixth frame, but two relievers allowed only four base runners in the final three and two-thirds innings.

But while Brooklyn was falling to their sixth loss in the last 10 games, neither Frostbite Falls nor Philadelphia could capitalize and take bigger division leads. The Flying Squirrels lost two straight to Worcester, the first in shutout fashion, and the Rebels lost 5-4 to Casselton and then 4-3 to St. Francis in 10 innings.

So with a month left in the BARB season (October 7 is the final regular-season day due to scheduling problems with 13 teams), only one playoff spot is almost assured: The Yuma Firebirds have a 13-game lead in the West and a magic number of nine. St. Francis leads the Central by 4.5 over Philadelphia, and Frostbite Falls is on top of Brooklyn by five games in the East (and the Flying Squirrels have yet to experience their annual late-season collapse).

Brooklyn, New England, Central CA and Casselton all sit within five games of Philly’s wild-card lead, and Worcester can’t yet be counted out at just nine back.

Other than Sin City, three other teams are almost completely eliminated: AC/BC, Pottsylvania and Los Angeles. In a quirk attributed to the schedule, LA sits a game and a half behind Pottsylvania in their division but has not been eliminated for the division title while the Creepers have. AC/BC has been eliminated from Western contention and is 18.5 behind in the wild card.

HOW THE REMAINING SCHEDULE BREAKS DOWN FOR CONTENDERS

Starting September 8:

Brooklyn: @ Frosbite Falls (3), @ LA (2), @ Worcester (3), vs. Sin City (3), @ Worcester (3), @ St. Francis (2), vs. St. Francis (5!?), vs. Frostbite Falls (1), @ LA (3)

Casselton: vs. Worcester (2), @ Pottsylvania (2), @ Central CA (3), vs. AC/BC (3), vs. Yuma (3), @ Philadelphia (3), vs. Philadelphia (3), vs. Worcester (3)

Central CA: vs. AC/BC (3), vs. Yuma (5), vs. Casselton (3), @ St. Francis (3), @ AC/BC (1), vs. AC/BC (1), vs. Yuma (3)

Frostbite Falls: vs. Brooklyn (3), @ Philadelphia (2), @ Sin City (3), vs. Worcester (3), @ Sin City (3), @ Pottsylvania (2), vs. Pottsylvania (5), @ Brooklyn (1), @ Philadelphia (3)

New England: @ Yuma (3), @ AC/BC (5), vs. Pottsylvania (3), @ LA (3), vs. Yuma (1), @ Yuma (1), @ AC/BC (3)

Philadelphia: vs. LA (3), vs. Frostbite Falls (2), @ LA (1), @ AC/BC (3), vs. Yuma (3), vs. Sin City (2), vs. Casselton (3), @ Sin City (5), @ Casselton (3), vs. Frostbite Falls (3)

St. Francis: @ Pottsylvania (3), vs. Sin City (2), vs. Pottsylvania (1), vs. LA (2), vs. Central CA (3), vs. Brooklyn (2), @ Worcester (1), vs. AC/BC (2), @ Brooklyn (5), vs. Worcester (2), @ Worcester (1), vs. Sin City (3)

Worcester: @ Sin City (3), @ Casselton (2), vs. Brooklyn (3), @ Frostbite Falls (3), vs. Brooklyn (3), @ LA (2), vs. St. Francis (1), vs. LA (5), @ St. Francis (2), vs. St. Francis (1), @ Casselton (3)

In other BARB action:

CENTRAL CA 7, NEW ENGLAND 1

WP: Jered Weaver (13-10, 3.74)

LP: Tim Hudson (5-11, 4.53)

Hudson, one of the newest Yankee Stompers, was beaten by two players the .45s kept in the fold because they were in the wild-card race instead of trading for prospects. Jered Weaver threw six shutout frames with six strikeouts, but Hunter Pence was the bigger story: 4-for-5, two runs, five RBI, a 2B and two HR. Pence hit a two-run bomb in the first and drove in three with an opposite-field shot in the second to knock out Hudson.

AC/BC 6, YUMA 4

WP: Wade Davis (1-2, 5.79)

LP: Brian Matusz (2-4, 2.93)

SV: Cordero (16)

Yuma scored four in the second inning and carried a 4-3 lead into the sixth in Anaheim before the wheels fell off for Matusz. Milton Bradley led off the inning with a home run to tie the game before three straight singles and a ground out put up two more runs for the final tally. Howie Kendrick hit a third-inning homer for AC/BC and Ryan Hanigan launched a two-run shot for the Firebirds.

THE .45's WIN A MARATHON: FRIARS FRET

A wild and wooly affair saw the visiting Cowboys and the host .45's battle to a 2-2 tie in extra frames, as two teams jockeying for next year put up seven innings of goose eggs before both clubs bat awoke in the 16th!

Starters Rich Harden and Jered Weaver each reached the sixth having allowed only one run, but a solo shot by Chris Iannetta against reliever Travis Wood gave the .45's a 2-1 lead after seven. With the game in their grasp, however, closer Brian Wilson was greeted with a leadoff double in the ninth by rookie Gabe Sanchez. Aging veteran Jorge Posada's swinging bunt led to an out, but with a thin bench, the pitcher Wood was allowed to 'sacrifice'. Not so! The 'bastard play' was on, and with a drawn-in infield, Wood hit a seam past the immobile Pablo Sandoval, an RBi single to score Sanchez and tie the game.

With a deep group of rookie left-handers to nullify Central California's best weapons, Sin City put up the zeroes, using starters Madison Bumgarner, Jaime Garcia and A.J. Happ to neutralize the opposition. Relievers J.P. Howell and Jose Mijares accomplished the same trick for the .45's, and the innings went by quickly, with eight K's over the next seven frames.

But when the southpaws ran out......BOOM!

Sin City took the lead in the TOP OF THE 16th: Usually a starter, Kyle Lohse (the seventh Cowboys pitcher) hit a sharp single to left. Alex Avila and Ryan Theriot worked walks to load the bases, and Ian Kinsler hit a two-run double off rookie Bud Norris (5-0, 4.44). When all was said and done, Sin City had a 5-2 lead headed to the bottom of the 16th....

....where everything pretty much fell apart. Lohse, trying to extend the game, gave up a leadoff single to Ramon Hernandez (playing 1B after a double switch!). While only a single, it was a long one that hit the top of the wall in left, and only the backstop's aging knees (and, perhaps, the fatigue of the long game) had discouraged him from taking a flyer at second. Sensing disaster, the Cowboys called on their eighth pitcher of the day....ace James Shields. Uh-oh. Pablo Sandoval hit a fielder's choice to force out Hernandez, but Marco Scutaro (really?) pulled a ball down the left-field line and just fair, over the wall, a two-run shot!

Deep breath. Sin City's lead was down to 5-4. Surely their ace could get a few more outs? But Shields walked Iannetta with one down. Rookie Danny Espinosa, looking for a first-pitch fastball.....GOT ONE! ...and GOT ENOUGH of it! Another two-run shot, back-to-back, off Shields (3-13, 6.97), who has to be unluckiest pitcher in the history of this league. Central California wins, sticking around in the West race, while the Cowboys status as cellar-dwellers remains unchanged. After a game like this, each club could use a day off!

In other BARB action.....



PHILADELPHIA 9, LOS ANGELES 4

WP: Cliff Lee (10-6, 3.89)
LP: Homer Bailey(2-1, 5.46)

Cliff Lee went eight frames, Chipper Jones added four singles and a pair of RBI for his new club, and the Rebels beat down the host Wolverines with a 13-hit attack. Los Angeles scored all their runs in an error-aided third after Lee hit Mike Stanton with two out to load the bases and rookie Eric Hosmer hit a two-run single. But Philadelphia answered in the fourth, wiping out L.A.'s brief 4-2 lead with a five-run frame off Bailey and Ted Lilly, pitching in relief.

This was the fourth straight win for the Rebels (53-45), and (most intriguingly) may signal a change in the tenor of the club's games. After underachieving on offense for most of the year, and beginning the day having both scored and allow the same number of runs (451), the game's result pushed Ronald Melkonian's club 'into the black' on offense.

YUMA 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 2

WP: Rafael Soriano (2-2, 3.52)
LP: Andrew Bailey (0-5, 3.38)

The Squirrels took a 2-0 lead in the seventh when Yuma starter Brian Matusz (2.00 ERA) allowed the other club to put six consecutive runners on base, eventually forcing extra innings, where the Firebirds forced a tie, and extra innings---where Ryan Braun punished former Squirrels closer Joakin Soria with a two-run, game-winning, walkoff blow.Yuma thus improves to 68 wins, tops in the loop, and the significant Vegas favorite to win it all........

ST. FRANCIS 3, POTTSYLVANIA 1

WP: Brett Myers (9-8, 3.97)
LP: Mark Buehrle (3-12, 5.14)
SV: Bell (1)

Kevin Youkilis hit his BARB-leading 11th triple to key a two-run sixth, Brett Myers had his best start in weeks, and new closer Heath Bell earned his first save with his new club as the Friars held on to win a pitcher's duel against the visiting Creepers. Losing pitcher Mark Buehrle and Myers actually took shutout bids into the sixth, where fourth OF (and former Creeper) Felix Pie led off with a single. Youkilis cashed in with his triple for the game's first run, and Paul Konerko singled home the "Greek God of Walks" for the only runs St. Francis would need. Pinch-hitter Max Ramirez would eventually supply the Creeper's only run with a solo shot leading off the eighth.


WORCESTER 7, AC/BC 6

WP: Brandon Morrow(5-3, 4.33)
LP: Matt Capps (1-9, 5.34)
SV: Mariano Rivera (22)

Newly-acquired Juan Uribe hit a pair of HR late in the ballgame, including the go-ahead shot with a man aboard in the ninth, as Worcester erased a 6-1 deficit in the final two frames to come out ahead. Earlier, the members of Alex Coffman's Ball Club had bunched together six hits, including rookie Mark Trumbo's first HR of the year, to knock out Elims starter Ryan Dempster. But Crawford and Uribe homered back-to-back to start the eighth to give Worcester hope, and the lineup batted around against Cordero and Okajima to give the visitors a chance in the ninth....which they seized.

Uribe's second bomb doubled his production with St. Francis, and after struggling to hit his (admittedly-considerable) weight with the Friars, he is batting .330 in his first week with the Eliminators. Change of scenery, and all that.

CAN FRIARS STAY RELEVANT?

Jose Bautista continues to pursue the league league in HR (36) and RBI (100 in his teams' first 108 games). Teammate Kevin Youkilis continues to wrestle for the batting title (.350, tops among qualifiers) and leads the world in runs scored, with 100. All good, and so, no surprise, the St. Francis Friars lead all of BARB with 600 runs scored.

But cracks in the Central-leading Friars armor are evident, notably among the starting team, which has been wracked by injuries to their pitching staff: veteran Roy Oswalt has spent two stints on the DL, and young lefties Jorge De La Rosa, Dallas Braden and Clayton Richard have all been lost for the season due to injury.

Thus, with teams like Philadelphia making bold moves to improve their chances, the Friars have finally begun to 'trade talk' in earnest with other BARB teams, seeking arms, any arms, to bolster both their injury-wracked rotation and their underperforming bullpen. In previous weeks, St. Francis has made deals for starter Ricky Nolasco, and new closer Heath Bell. Now, with some depth in hand, St. Francis has made another series of moves to upgrade their hurling for the final stretch of play.

First, satisfied with the acquisition of Bell, St. Francis acquired a useful left-handed reliever from Alex Coffman's Ball Club.....as insurance for LHP Scott Downs, who has been listed 'day-to-day' of late due left hamstring soreness. But the cost was high: veteran closer Francisco Cordero, who had lost the closer job following the acquisition of Bell.

Also coming over in the deal for salary reasons as much as anything is the former jewel of the Cubs farm system, 3B Josh Vitters. Despite being a former first-round pick, the Friars urged caution on Vitters, who they described as being 7th on their organizational depth chart. "In all candor," said acting GM Jack McKeon, "money played as big a role in this deal as the players involved. We are top-heavy in payroll, with limited flexibility, and we still haven't addressed our biggest need, which is starting pitching. Expect our club to remain active up until the trading deadline. We want to make the playoffs, and we aren't taking that for granted."

As if a prophet, McKeon later announced that the club had cut its ties with some injured veterans in order to pursue other well-traveled hurlers, reinvesting some of the payroll dollars they saved by deleting Cordero's salary. Ironically, the move comes with a benefit to a player earlier released by second-place rival Philadelphia, as the Central-leading Friars delved into the free agent market...but, again, the price was high!

St. Francis informed the agent of injured reliever Brandon Lyon that they were granting the franchise pitcher his unconditional release, but that still leaves the club 'on the hook' for over $3M in salary. Also receiving his walking papers: the brittle throwing arm of Joel Zumaya, to the tune of $1.5 M.

Goodbye, four-and-a-half million! But, the moves allowed the Friars to sign two veterans, adding former Rebels LHP Joe Saunders to a split contract. Saunders, who had been working out in Arizona following his dismissal by Rebels GM Ronald Melkonian, is slated to join the major league rotation, almost immediately, to be followed by recently-reactivated veteran Roy Oswalt.

At the same time, the Friars have signed former Yuma setup man Rafael Bettancourt, and it is believed they intend to demote or release disappointing reliever Jason Frasor. The signings add $1.33 M to the club's payroll, and further bolster a staff that recently added AC/BC lefty Franklin Morales.

"Morales, Betancourt, Saunders to the rotation...and we activate Roy today!" Thus, acting GM Jack McKeon confirmed he has got some moxie back for both the starters and bullpen corps, and it couldn't come at a better time with Philadelphia making moves to bolster their offense.

CAN THE FRIARS HOLD ON?

Matt Guerrier looked downcast. Summoned by manager Jack McKeon to make an emergency start, the setup man had just given up four runs without retiring any batters in the second inning against visiting Philadelphia, with the big blow being a two-run single by Andre Ethier. Handing the ball over to McKeon, Guerrier slumped toward the dugout, he and his teammates down, 4-0.

To make matters worse, the injury-wracked ball club, which had once boasted the best record in all of BARB, had slumped, losing 10 of their last 14 games. How could this have happened? Let us count the ways: one by one, young lefties Dallas Braden, Jorge DeLaRosa and Clayton Richard have been lost for the season with injuries....while veteran Roy Oswalt has been sidelined much of the summer with a bad back, and RF Shin Soo-Choo out with a broken hand.

Yes, July was a weary month for the Friars. A trade for RHP Ricky Nolasco had helped the rotation, and rookie Zach Britton had also made some effective starts for St. Francis. Nevertheless, the latest loss (Richard) placed a strain on the club's rotation, and with Brett Myers and Brandon Arroyo also slumping, things were even worse. So it was that on Game Day 100 the Friars sent Guerrier, a career reliever, to the mound as an emergency starter.

After an inning and a half, the visiting Rebels had staked Matt Garza (1-5, 4.70) to a 4-2 lead, but Garza couldn't hold serve. Kelly Johnson (now playing LF) cashed in 2B Neil Walker with an RBI double in the fourth, and CF Chris Young smacked his eighth HR of the year off Wade Davis in relief to tie the ball game. Leo Nunez, Jason Frasor and Scott Downs put up zeroes in relief of Guerrier, meanwhile, and so in the eighth new Friars closer Heath Bell was given a 5-4 lead to protect, and a chance to make Downs a winner. The former Worcester setup man gave up a solo bomb to rookie Dustin Ackley, however, tieing the ballgame and giving teammate Jason Motte a chance to be the hero out of the pen.

St. Francis's bench punished Motte, however. Rookie Daniel Murphy came off the pine to hit a double leading off the bottom of the ninth, and St. Francis's fourth pinch-hitter of the day (OF Felix Pie) singled home Murphy with two out for a walk-off win, making a winner out of Bell (8-2, 2.19) in his St. Francis debut despite the burly reliever's blowing the save versus Ackley. The 6-5 win at home caused the Friars to improve to 5-5 over their last ten games, keeping hard-charging Casselton and resilient Philadelphia momentarily at bay.

Still, the question for the Friars is real: can they really make the playoffs with a sagging rotation? The only pitcher acquired this season (Ricky Nolasco) is regarded as more of an innings-eater than a true ace. Oswalt's expected return from a back injury should help, but the brittle veteran has to be watched closely, and can't really be counted on to provide that many innings down the stretch. Meanwhile, Bronson Arroyo and Brett Myers have both fallen on hard times. The only bright spot for the Friars on the pitching side of the equation has been Bell, whose acquisition allows them to push back the talented but erratic relief corps to earlier in the game. "We need some of our starters to step up," admitted McKeon after the game. "I can't keep sending middle relievers out to start. This was an emergency deal. Our payroll makes it tough to talk trade with other clubs right now, and we have to make sure that we don't completely gut our farm system."

LEE GOES FOR ONE-HIT SHUTOUT

The crafty lefty shut down the .45s

July 18: Cliff Lee, now the ace of the Philadelphia Rebels (after the trade of Roy Halladay), and the rest of Ronald Melkonian’s squad traveled to Central California and saw Lee pitch dominant ball for eight innings (one hit, no runs allowed). Would he be able to finish out the masterpiece?

Lee, who had thrown a 14-strikeout, two-hit shutout of the Pottsylvania Creepers his previous time out, carried his success over into the high-profile matchup with .45s ace Jered Weaver. Through three innings, Lee was perfect and Weaver had yet to allow a run on two Rebels hits.

Andre Ethier changed that for the visitors. He got a hold of a 1-0 fastball from Weaver leading off the fourth and buried it in the right-center field bleachers for a 1-0 Rebels lead. Adrian Gonzalez, sensing Weaver was upset from leaving his previous pitch up in the zone, lined a shot through the pitcher’s legs and into center field for a hit. Weaver settled down, however, striking out Torii Hunter and popping up Dustin Ackley. But Mike Aviles, playing in place of the injured Alex Rodriguez, seemingly stole some of A-Rod’s magic and launched a ball just over the left-center field wall for a 3-0 Philly lead! That wasn’t all. Matt Wieters stepped up next and joined the party with a bomb down the right-field line.

Four runs on three homers in one inning quieted the Central California crowd, and they wouldn’t have much to cheer for most of the game. Lee allowed his first base runner on a Hunter Pence single in the bottom of the fourth, but he was perfect from then until hitting Pence with a pitch in the seventh. Neither time did the .45s make anything of their chances.

Jeff Niemann had replaced Weaver by the top of the eighth, but apparently he wanted to join the whiplash party: the first batter of the Rebel eighth, Ethier, put one in the seats in almost exactly the same spot as Wieters’ home run.

Lee entered the bottom of the ninth having thrown 93 pitches and allowed just the two runners, and he had a 5-0 lead. Was there any question he would finish it out?

Maybe the question was raised by his fatigued left arm. Chris Iannetta, who had entered the game on defense in the top of the ninth, drew a walk, the first of the day from Lee. Michael Bourn slapped a single down the right field line to move Iannetta to third. Pence just got a piece of one and hit a bounding ball to Gonzalez, but the Gold Glove first baseman couldn’t handle it! The first run of the day for the .45s put them in “slam range”, and they had two on with no one out. The crowd that was left started raising a ruckus to get into Lee’s head. Dan Uggla had a productive at-bat, grounding to Gonzalez to move Bourn and Pence to third and second, respectively.

Up came Matt Holliday. Behind him loomed the heart of the Central California batting order in Pablo Sandoval and Prince Fielder. The prospects looked bright for the home team. Holliday didn’t disappoint, hitting a ground ball just out of Ackley’s reach at second to score both Bourn and Pence! Just like that, the Rebel lead had been cut to 5-3, making it a save situation. Enter closer Jose Valverde to face the Panda. If he could reach safely, Fielder would come up as the potential winning run.

But, alas, Sandoval did one of the things he’s “good” at: hitting into double plays. Valverde’s second offering was a tailor-made twin-killing right at Jeter. The Rebels escaped with a win, ensuring they would stay within five games of division-leading St. Francis. While not finishing like he had hoped, Lee got the win to move to 9-5 with a 3.58 ERA.

In other BARB action:

LOS ANGELES 15, ST. FRANCIS 2

WP: Aaron Harang (2-5, 5.60)

LP: Brett Myers (7-7, 3.77)

The Wolverines, who were blasted by the Friars a couple of times earlier in the season, exacted their revenge on the road. They scored five in the first and four in the third, along with one in the seventh, two in the eighth and three in the ninth, to halt the Central Division leaders and move out of the cellar for the first time since early-April. Aaron Harang, just off the disabled list, allowed three hits and four walks in six scoreless innings. New acquisition Homer Bailey gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but the game was out of reach long before that. Starlin Castro was the leading LA hitter with three base knocks (including a home run) in four at-bats, three runs and three RBI.

WORCESTER 5, BROOKLYN 3

WP: Brandon Morrow (3-1, 4.71)

LP: Rafael Perez (0-4, 5.19)

SV: Rivera (19)

The defending BARB champions, hanging on to hope in the East, broke Brooklyn’s league season-high 11-game winning streak with a comeback in Worcester. The Elims actually jumped out to a lead with single runs in the fourth and fifth off Justin Verlander (including a Mark Teixeira homer), but the Moabs put up three in the sixth to knock out Worcester starter Wandy Rodriguez. Brandon Morrow entered and pitched two and two-thirds innings of hitless relief with six strikeouts as his offense tied it in the sixth and scored two un-earned runs in the eighth to take the lead for good. Despite the loss, the Moabs are still tied for the best record in the league and four games ahead of second place in their division.

POTTSYLVANIA 4, YUMA 3 (15)

WP: Carlos Marmol (1-3, 2.22)

LP: Matt Thornton (5-3, 3.48)

SV: Samardzija (3)

Chris Carpenter went 10 innings for the second time this season, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits, but he was in showered and home by the time this one finished. No one scored from the third until the 12^th (when both teams scored once), and it was scoreless again until Hideki Matsui’s one-out homer in the top of the 15^th inning. Typically wild Jeff Samardzija entered and pitched a perfect 15^th for the save. Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena also homered for the Creepers.

AC/BC 3, NEW ENGLAND 1

WP: Clayton Kershaw (7-5, 2.57)

LP: Alexi Ogando (2-4, 3.50)

SV: Okajima (2)

New England traveled to Anaheim with designs on moving to within three games of the West lead, but they couldn’t solve Clayton Kershaw. The lefty struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one un-earned run on two hits and three walks, and David Ortiz hit a two-run homer and scored the third run in the AC/BC victory.

RECHARGED NEW ENGLAND SWEEPS FRIARS

It's a new era in BARB, as two teams which have never previously contended (New England and St. Francis) found themselves with 40 or more wins, with the Friars boasting a BARB-leading .662 winning percentage and an eight-game lead in the Central Division. But all of that changed in late June, as the Yankee Stompers came into Kansas and...well....stomped on their hosts pretty good, capping a four-game series with a doubleheader sweep!

In the opener, the Yankee Stompers (still dealing with the effects of trades shuffling their roster) were forced to use a variety of relievers early and often after Alexei Ogando could only last two innings. Joey Devine (1-1, 6.48) earned his first win of the year, however, when he and three relievers post six innings of shutout relief. Brandon Arroyo (5-7, 4.09) allowed just one run for the Friars (an RBI single by Corey Hart), but left trailing 1-0 in the sixth. Another newcomer, CF Austin Jackson, hit a two-out solo HR off Matt Guerrier to extend New England's lead to 2-0, so that when rookie starter Kyle Drabek came in, a run-scoring groundout by Jose Bautista was not enough to prevent him from collecting his second save of the season!

NEW ENGLAND 2, ST. FRANCIS 1!

Jackson, who had begun spring training with AC/BC, was wearing his third uniform of the young season after coming over in a trade with Philadelphia just days previously, and his insurance bomb was the first impact on the race of all the recent wheeling and dealing.

New England GM James Herndon had to be happy with the results, including the finale of the series. Ricky Romero (7-4, 4.96) gave the bullpen a break with six innings of one-run baseball to outduel Brett Myers (6-5, 3.07), and another player recently acquired (Jonathan Axford) collected his first save of the year by going the final three frames. Neil Walker had a pinch-hit triple off Axford to make the game close, but Axford (New England's ninth pitcher in the double dip) had enough off a margin to shrug off two late scores:

NEW ENGLAND 4, ST. FRANCIS 3!

Being swept by the opposition at home was a rude awakening for the Friars, who had come into the game with the loop's best record and an eight-game winning streak. Some owners are beginning to wonder if acting GM "Trader" Jack McKeon has lost his touch, as the club's only move to shore up its injury-plagued pitching staff has been to acquire Ricky Nolasco from Philadelphia. With Dallas Braden and Jorge De La Rosa lost for the year, and Myers and Arroyo struggling, the club seems to have a keen need to find a reliable lefty starter. So far, however, the Friars have shown little interest in dealing before the All-Star Break.

In other BARB action:

LOS ANGELES 5, AC/BC 4 (14 innings)

WP: Jeff Francis (1-0, 5.58)
LP: Hideki Okajim (0-4, 5.52)

Chad Billingsley's early departure put a strain on the visitors, as Alex Coffman's Ball Club was forced to use six relievers, and (eventually) usual starter Zack Greinke in relief in a long ballgame that went in the home team's favor largely due to rookie Michael Pineda. Pineda hurled three hitless innings in extra frames, long enough for 3B Chris Davis to hit a two-out, walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 14th, giving the sagging Wolverines just their 17th win of the season.

YUMA 4, POTTSYLVANIA 2 (Game 1 of DH)

WP: Brian Matusz (1-1, 1.59)
LP: Santiago Cassila (1-1, 2.87)
SV: Storen (9)

YUMA 4, POTTSYLVANIA 1 (Game 2 of DH)

WP: C.C. Sabathia (9-4, 2.92)
LP: Chris Carpenter (4-11, 4.42)
SV: Storen (10)

Ryan Zimmerman homered twice for the visiting Firebirds in the opener, lefties C.C. Sabathia and Brian Matusz allowed just two earned between them on the afternoon and rookie Drew Storen continued to collect saves as part of Chris Melkonian's bullpen-by-committee to cinch a doubleheader sweep against the lowly Creepers in Pottsylvania.

The wins allowed the Firebirds to keep pace with hard-charging New England in the West, maintaining a slim (two game) lead. Pottsylvania, meanwhile, still has four regulars hitting below .200, and Skip Schumaker playing 2B instead of the free-swinging Aaron Hill. It's hard to believe that this club recently played in the BARB World Series, but a perfect storm of injuries and declining player performance has found them in major rebuilding mode less than 20 months after nearly winning it all. Such is baseball...

PHILADELPHIA 5, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 4

WP: Jason Motte (1-0, 2.66)
LP: Dan Wheeler (2-4, 6.68)

Jered Weaver outpitched Matt Garza 3-2 through seven frames, but reliever Dan Wheeler served up a long ball to pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo leading off the eighth to tie up the ball game, then stuck around long enough to surrender Adam Jones's walkoff RBI double as the Rebels bailed out reliever Jason Motte, who had earlier blown a save courtesy of Hunter Pence's two-run, go-ahead single.

GOOSE EGGS

The Pottsylvania Creepers and Los Angeles Wolverines are, arguably, BARB’s worst teams. The Creepers have a better record by a few games, but they actually have a worse run differential. In any case, it was the two lowest-scoring teams facing off on June 17. The pitching staffs didn’t disappoint…

Mark Buehrle faced off with Tim Hudson in this matchup in Chavez Ravine, and the wily veterans showed good stuff all night long. Buehrle walked four and allowed three hits over eight innings, striking out six. The only time he faced a runner in scoring position with less than two outs was the fourth inning, but he induced a double play to end the threat. He didn’t earn a decision, though.

Hudson was even better. Seven innings, three hits, five K’s and no walks. He retired the last 12 hitters he faced. But he left with the score tied, as well.

Neither starter allowed a run, meaning it was 0-0 into the late innings. Buehrle came out to start the ninth and immediately allowed a double to Starlin Castro. He was instructed to intentionally walk Logan Morrison before Creepers closer Carlos Marmol entered. Marmol showed his wild side, going to a 3-2 count on his first hitter, Carlos Santana, before the young catcher grounded into a force at second and beat out the throw to first. Marmol struck out the next hitter after going 3-2 again, bringing up Mike Stanton. The big flychaser hit a soaring drive on the first pitch he saw, but it fell a few feet short of the left field fence and regulation ended without a run.

Pottsylvania made a charge in the 10^th, with Danny Valencia, Blake DeWitt and Erick Aybar all walking with two out. Michael Pineda stepped up big, however, getting Matt Kemp to roll over and ground out to first.

The contest stayed scoreless through 12 without much of a threat from either side.

DeWitt did his best to un-tie it, but his booming shot (relatively speaking) over Stanton’s head in right field bounced up against the wall for a double. After Aybar grounded out, Kemp lined a single to right. Stanton showed off his arm, gunning down a stunned DeWitt at home! Kemp advanced to second, but two were out and Carlos Pena, who is almost an automatic out these days, came up to face Matt Lindstrom.

Pena must have guessed correctly on the 2-2, however. Lindstrom didn’t bother turning around to watch as Pena did what he does best (when he makes contact), launching a no-doubter to right-center field. 2-0, Creepers!

Santiago Casilla, who came on in the 12^th, gave up an infield single to Castro in the bottom of the 13^th but retired the other three batters, and Pottsylvania ended up in the win column.

But as BARB nears the half-way point, the Creepers will have to work hard to stay above Los Angeles. The Wolverine youngsters are continually improving, and eventually the run differential has to show up in the standings, right?

In other BARB action:

BROOKLYN 8, YUMA 7 (16)

WP: Neftali Feliz (7-3, 3.20)

LP: Aaron Crow (0-1, 9.00)

SV: Madson (1)

Andrew McCutchen’s second home run of the day provided the only run in extra innings and made a winner of Neftali Feliz in Arizona. McCutchen, who also drove in single runs in the second and fourth innings, hit a solo shot to give the Moabs a 6-5 lead in the sixth, but Yuma tied the game in the eighth. Feliz threw five hitless innings, including being perfect through the first four, before handing the ball off to Ryan Madson for his first Brooklyn save.

CASSELTON 1, PHILADELPHIA 0

WP: Ernesto Friero (5-0, 2.23)

LP: J.J. Putz (2-1, 1.93)

Curtis Granderson drove in, and scored, the only run in a scintillating pitchers’ duel with an eighth-inning homer off of J.J. Putz as the defending Central Division champs picked up a game on the second-place Rebels. John Danks, the Horned Toads’ starter, allowed four hits through six innings and only threw 69 pitches, but management removed him for a pinch-hitter with a chance to score in the seventh (which obviously didn’t pan out). Ernesto Frieri came on in relief and allowed one runner on a walk (before erasing him on a double play) in three innings for the win.

AC/BC 9, WORCESTER 0

WP: Chad Billingsley (5-7, 4.14)

LP: Johnny Cueto (0-5, 9.38)

Chad Billingsley, Brian Duensing and Matt Capps combined on a seven-hit shutout of the vaunted Eliminator offense, but the big story from Anaheim was Alex Gonzalez. The shortstop was 4-for-5 with a double and homer (missing the cycle by a triple), three runs and seven RBI for nearly all of the AC/BC offense. After hitting a three-run double in the fifth and three-run homer in the, Gonzalez had a chance for the cycle in the eighth, but he flew out.

SIN CITY 6, NEW ENGLAND 2

WP: Kyle Lohse (1-0, 5.47)

LP: Roy Halladay (10-3, 2.54)

Roy Halladay struck out eight in seven innings in his first start as a Yankee Stomper, but nine Cowboys hits scored six runs off of “Doc” in the sixth and seventh innings and Sin City went on to the victory. Jaime Garcia went 5.1 innings of one-run but wasn’t involved in the decision because he threw 93 pitches and was taken out with a runner on third base. Miggy Cabrera hit his third home run in two days in the losing effort.

HALLADAY DEALT NO-DECISION--THEN DEALT AWAY

Halladay is excited to be free of the revolving door that is the Rebel locker room

Philadelphia Rebels ace Roy Halladay was streaking. A decision in every start of the season, including eight straight wins dating back to a 3-1 loss to Brooklyn in mid-April. He hadn’t given up more than three earned runs in any of the victories. So it came as a surprise when the Worcester Eliminators rocked him on June 15…but an even bigger surprise (or no surprise at all, depending on your view point) was yet to come.

After going eight innings against the Pottsylvania Creepers in his previous start, Halladay had a 10-2 record, 1.72 ERA, seven complete games and five shutouts. The front-runner for the Cy Young Award, for sure. But the defending champs weren’t impressed.

Worcester came in with some injuries, but even with Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel on the disabled list they hit like they were facing a AA pitcher. Hanley Ramirez led off the top of the first with a walk (a rare occurrence from Halladay, who had walked just 12 in his first 99.1 IP), and Carl Crawford singled. One out later, Robinson Cano made him pay. Cano launched a no-doubter over the left-center field wall at Citizens Bank Ballpark, a quick 3-0 lead.

Halladay seemed to settle down, throwing perfect second and third innings. Elims starter Wandy Rodriguez, just off the DL, got out of trouble in the third when Ichiro Suzuki was thrown out at home after trying to score from second on a shallow single, and the score stayed 3-0.

Cano led off the fourth and reached on an error by shortstop Elvis Andrus. He scored on Delmon Young’s double to make it 4-0. Chris Johnson struck out, but Nick Swisher walked in front of Russell Martin, who copied Cano’s first-inning feat: a blast to left-center, just a few feet away from the first landing site! Just like that, Halladay and the Rebels were down, 7-0. Ronald Melkonian’s brain trust kept “Doc” in the game for a fly out and single before Jon Rauch was ready to come in. Crawford flew out on the big righty’s first pitch, and after just three and a half innings the hosts seemed in an insurmountable hole.

The Rebels finally got on the board in the fifth. With two out and no one on, Andrus walked and Adrian Gonzalez singled, bringing up Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod joined the three-run blast parade with a shot just inside the foul pole in left, and Philly closed the gap to 7-3.

The Rebels added another run in the sixth, but Mark Teixeira hit a two-run bomb in the seventh to make it 9-4. Even with a rare Andrus home run, the ability of the Eliminator bullpen meant the game was almost assuredly going to the loss column for Philadelphia.

But maybe, juuuuust maybe, the Worcester manager micro-managed too much.

Heath Bell started the bottom of the ninth after getting the last out of the eighth and got a groundout before Adam Jones hit a seeing-eye single to right. Mariano Rivera was brought on, and Miguel Montero greeted him with a single to left. Matt Wieters pinch-hit for Matt Belisle, and Craig Kimbrel was brought on, oddly for Rivera. Maybe the Eliminators were looking for a strikeout. Kimbrel’s first offering, though, was lined the opposite way for a run-scoring single, making the score 9-6. Mike Aviles stepped up and doubled in Montero, with Wieters moving to third.

Brandon Morrow came on and walked Ichiro to load the bases, bringing up Andrus. The scrawny shortstop lined a game-tying single to right-center.

So it was, with runners on first and third base, one out and four runs in to tie the game, that Adrian Gonzalez stepped up. Morrow quickly got two strikes on the powerful lefty, but pitch number three didn’t reach the catcher. Gonzalez hit a high-arching shot towards the right-field bleachers. Nick Swisher took a few steps back, but he realized there was nothing he could do. If he caught it, Ichiro would tag and score to win the game. He wouldn’t have had a chance anyway, as the ball barely cleared the wall (much akin to Juan Uribe’s pennant-winning shot in Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS) for a three-run homer.

It was all over. Halladay was rocked for seven runs (six earned) over 3.2 IP, easily his shortest start of the year. His offense, however, bailed him out at the expense of an astonishing meltdown from arguably the league’s best relief corps, and the Rebels, with a 12-9 win, weren’t pushed back farther in the Central Division.

The next day came the bombshell. Melkonian, wheeling-and-dealing as ever, had traded Halladay, as well as Austin Jackson and Miguel Montero, to New England.

In return, the Yankee Stompers gave Philadelphia catcher J.P. Arencibia, outfielder Torii Hunter, and right-handed starters Dan Haren and Max Scherzer. Why trade the best pitcher in the league, Ron?

“We get a top ace for an ace, a promising young arm in (Scherzer) who is performing extremely well, making our rotation stronger as a whole, we increase our team’s struggling offense with Hunter who should provide immediate help in that department, as well as give us a gold glove in CF, with Ichro in RF and Either in LF, and gives us a more valuable and promising catcher in JP over Montero.”

League observers noted that Jackson and Hunter are very comparable players, with the younger player leaving Philly. Questions are beginning to rise (again) whether Melkonian wants to win, or if he’s just trading for the sake of trading.

Another trade was completed, with Central California sending Anibal Sanchez to the Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels. Prospect righty Kyle Gibson and a player to be named go to the .45s.

“We’re happy with this,” said Flying Squirrels GM Andrew Friedman. “We didn’t think Fausto Carmona would be the answer to the fifth spot in our rotation the rest of the season, so to pick up a pitcher as dominant as Sanchez can be is big. We might have mortgaged our future somewhat to do it, but we have some talent in the minors that will soon make up for the guys we traded.”

League historians noted that Sanchez made his BARB debut with the Squirrels in 2006, earning a win and a losing a game with two saves in five appearances.

In other BARB action:

AC/BC 6, YUMA 0

WP: Clayton Kershaw (4-4, 2.85)

LP: Matt Cain (5-7, 5.65)

SV: Gregg (1)

Solo home runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings gave Kershaw all of the support he would need as he combined with Kevin Gregg on a shutout of the West-leading Firebirds. Cain struck out nine but was charged with four runs over his six-plus innings. Kershaw K’d six over 6.1 innings, allowing six hits and one walk. Gregg earned his first save because he came on in the seventh with a three-run lead before the team scored three more.

YUMA 5, CASSELTON 4

WP: Matt Thornton (1-0, 3.27)

LP: Mike Adams (1-2, 2.78)

Casselton took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth in Yuma, but Mike Adams didn’t record an out as Nick Markakis and Ryan Braun singled before Joey Votto hit a booming, game-ending triple. Adams pitched both the seventh and eighth innings and appeared somewhat fatigued in the ninth, but Horned Toads management stuck with him. Matt Thornton pitched three scoreless innings for the win in relief of starter Tommy Hanson.

CASSELTON 6, SIN CITY 5 (16)

WP: Brad Ziegler (1-1, 3.12)

LP: Jeremy Affeldt (0-4, 6.87)

Jaime Garcia and Gavin Floyd both went seven-plus innings, but they were both in bed and asleep by the time the game finished. The Cowboys tied the game in the ninth on a Ryan Theriot single and briefly took the lead on Jorge Posada’s solo homer in the top of the 16^th, but Asdrubal Cabrera and Brandon Phillips knocked back-to-back RBI singles in the bottom of the inning to end the nearly five-hour affair.

POTTSYLVANIA 6, BROOKLYN 1

WP: Jeremy Hellickson (7-5, 3.88)

LP: Justin Verlander (2-5, 5.16)

Aramis Ramirez did damage to Justin Verlander’s ERA, hitting an RBI single and three-run homer off the fastballing righty before the end of the third inning. Ramirez later added another shot off Moabs’ mop-up man Daric Barton (yes, you read that right) for five RBI on the day. Hellickson gave up four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts over eight innings, allowing his only run on a Brian McCann groundout in the second.

'THE GUIDED MIGUEL' LAUNCHES FIVE IN SERIES

New England---The West-leading Yuma Firebirds, a perennial post-season fave, began their latest road trip sporting a season-high ten-game winning streak and the loop's best mark (43-19), but when the dust settled somewhere near Beantown, the Yankee Stompers, led by DH Miguel Cabrera, swept a three-game set from Chris Melkonian's troops to put themselves back in the pennant race!

In the first game of the set, Tim Stauffer left in the sixth trailing 3-2, but Kerry Wood (5-0, 2.82) struck out Ryan Braun to end a threat with runners on and keep the game close. 2B Dustin Pedroia reached with one out on a Jason Bartlett error in the bottom of the frame, and Corey Hart delivered an RBI double to take Stauffer off the hook.

In the seventh, Matt Latos (6-3, 4.18) gave up an RBI single to rookie Jose Tabata, and Cabrera led off the eighth with his second home run of the game, and a 5-3 New England lead! Jonathan Papelbon worked around a leadoff double in the ninth by Nick Markakis, collecting his 12th save of the year in nailing down the opener.

Cabrera went yard twice in the second game, as well: blasting a two-run shot in the first off David Price for an early 2-0 lead, and (with the score still tied) launching a one-out, three-run bomb off Luke Gregerson (3-3, 4.34) in the eighth, giving Danny Haren (7-3, 5.09) a chance for the win. Papelbon again came in and sputtered (a ringing double by Victorino with one down), but fanned pinch-hitters Denard Span and Ty Wigginton for a 5-2 win, and his 13th save.

Two close contests, settled late in favor of the home team, and that set up the final match of the series. The finale was nowhere near as close, however, as Cabrera and company batted around in the sixth, scoring their first run on 'Miggy's' fifth bomb of the series, but also knocking out Tommy Hanson (7-3, 3.96) with five more safeties in the bottom of the second, the icing on the cake an RBI single by Pedroia at the expense of reliever Tyler Clippard. That made things smooth sailing for Gio Gonzalez, who gave up a pair of unearned runs in six frames. Rookie Alexei Ogando was a bridge to Papelbon, who came out for the third straight game and finished up with his 14th save.

An impressive three games for New England, part of a seven-game winning streak that stopped Yuma's run in the West and brought them within five games of the Firebirds, who have begun to deal with a wave of injuries. Still, at 43-22 there was little cause for alarm: despite the setback, Yuma still sports the loop's best record.

In other BARB action:

PHILADELPHIA 10, BROOKLYN 0
WP : Cliff Lee (6-2, 2.85)
LP: Ubaldo Jiminez (2-2, 3.23)


Cliff Lee gave up doubles to B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist in the early innings, worked around an error with two out in the third, and then retired the last nineteen hitters without breaking a sweat, finishing with a two-hit shutout, while his fellow Rebels cashed in poor defense on the part of the Moabs: the visitors committed a total of four errors, all with Ubaldo Jiminez on the mound. 'The U' was gone by the end of the fifth, and the route was on, helping the host Rebels snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 27-24 overall.

It is rumored that Rebels GM Ronald Melkonian has a move in place for the month of July that is intended to vault him back in contention, but despite this win, Philadelphia is six back of the Central-leading Friars, and twelve games back in the 'W' column.

POTTSYLVANIA 6, SIN CITY 0
WP: Jeremy Hellickson (6-5, 4.14)
LP: James Shields (2-7, 6.42)


Rookie Jeremy Hellickson used just 108 pitches to go the distance, holding the Cowboys to just five hits en route to his first-ever BARB shutout, backed by a pair of HR from Aramis Ramirez. It was a rare day of dominance for the Creepers, who have struggled to score runs for their starters, and managed only six hits even in this effort. The Creepers have scored a BARB-low 176 runs through their first 60 games, less than three runs per outing. Their 'Murderer's Row' could drive their manager to suicide: Erick Aybar (.192), Carlos Pena (.169), Ramirez (.185), Ryan Ludwick (.180), Brad Hawpe (.159), Skip Schumaker (.143)....

AC/BC 10, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 2
WP: Zack Greinke (4-1, 3.22)
LP: C.J. Wilson (5-6, 4.41)

Josh Hamilton went 4-for-4 with 5 ribbies, Milton Bradley (hitting just .162, and playing for his job) finally hit a home run, and Alex Coffman's Ballclub rolled to an easy win in their Southern California digs. Brittle Chipper Jones also had a good day, reaching base and scoring three times from the top of the order, sufficient for a 8-0 lead after six. Zack Greinke, bidding for a shutout, settled for an easy win that kept the ball largely away from the club's Achilles heel (the bullpen).


FROSTBITE FALLS 5, CASSELTON 4
WP: FelixHernandez (-2, 3.42)
LP: Josh Beckett (4-5, 5.93)
SV: Bailey (3)


Albert Pujols had three hits, Adam Lind chipped in a pair of RBI doubles, and visiting Squirrels got their 30th win of the year to pick up a game on East-leading Brooklyn, as 'King Felix' took a shutout into the eighth before needing some serious relief help, when Casselton C Geovanny Soto came off the deck to belt a three-run bomb to get his club back in the game. But Sean Marshall only gave up one more run, and Andrew Bailey remained perfect as the club's new closer.

Speaking of relief, Frostbite fans are scratching their heads about the normally-reliable Joakim Soria, who has not only lost nine games in relief, but his hold on the ninth frame. Will 'The Mexicutioner' (love that nickname) recover his late-inning flair, or will the Squirrels pursue relief help in the second half?

ST. FRANCIS 5, WORCESTER 1 WP: Cliff Richard (6-1, 2.98)
LP: Ryan Dempster (4-4, 5.37)
SV: Benoit (2)


"It's so funny, but we don't talk anymore." If you don't get the reference, never mind...the fast-working Richard probably wouldn't either, working quickly to scatter six safeties, missing a shutout when he bunched three of the safeties in the ninth. By that time, however, the host Friards had the game well in hand, thanks for four long balls at the expense of starter Ryan Dempster, two of them solo shots by LF Jose Bautista, who leads all of BARB with 21 round-trippers.

With the win, St. Francis becomes the second club to reach 40 wins (40-24) before the All-Star Break, largely due to the lineup's league-leading 353 runs in 64 games.