 |
March 19, 2002 You may have known that Stanhope's Mariano Rivera is among the all-time DMBL leaders in saves. But Did you know he recently passed Dennis Eckersley to move up within the top 10 in all-time appearances?
With three saves on the season so far, Rivera has moved within a save of all-time leader Roberto Hernandez, formerly of Tijuana. The top four saves leaders, including Trevor Hoffman of Arkansas and Troy Percival of Phoenix, all are active though so there surely will be plenty of jockeying throughout the season. Larry Walker's third home run of the season, leading off Tuesday's 7-1 Arkansas win over Honolulu off Russ Ortiz, was the 250th of his career. The top 10 is still full of active players, except Albert Belle, who is 7th with 266. By the time Walker passes Belle, he won't be the only one: Vancouver's Jeff Bagwell began the season tied with Belle but has yet to hit one out. Hoboken's Mike Piazza and Harrison's Rafael Palmeiro were 10 and 11 behind Belle, respectively. It took Gary Sheffield of Harrison the ninth game of the year to put one over the fence, but it was No. 200 lifetime. It came the same day as Walker's 250th and it was dramatic: a three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth off Philly's Jose Mesa to tie the game 7-7. Philly went on to win in 13 innings, 13-7.
When Bob Wickman blew a save for Carolina on March 7, it broke a logjam near the bottom of the all time top 10 in blown saves; but only for the moment. Nine of the closers in the top 12 not only are still active, but many are still closers. Wickman started the year tied for 10th with Jose Mesa of Philly and Honolulu's Ugueth Urbina with 20 blown saves. With his first blown save, however, he tied Armando Benitez, who's in Philly's bullpen this season, with 21. Mesa joined the two when he was saddled with a blown save when he gave up Sheffield's milestone dinger. The first one to 22 will match John Wettleland for 8th on the list. Vancouver's Edgar Martinez ended the week with 11 RBIs for the season, 5 coming in Sunday's 8-2 win over Stanhope, but also 890 for his career, just one behind Belle for 8th on the all-time list. One would expect the DH to pass Belle during the Iron Fist's road trip this week, in Stanhope Monday or in Columbia for a three-game set through Thursday. Trailing only league leader Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa has 15 RBIs and should soon pass Belle as well, as he continues to chase teammate Edgar. The two started the year 8th and 9th, respectively, on the all-time RBI list, just 17 apart. More Milestones articles can be found in the Milestones Archives. |
Not only did Mariano Rivera record back-to-back saves March 7-8 to help Stanhope sweep a three-game series from
Harrison, he also tied Dennis Eckersley for 8th all time in appearances at 346 games. He pitched the final
1 2/3 innings to save a 6-4 win March 8 and matched Eck. Rivera passed him when he mopped up the final 1 2/3 of a 14-3
loss to Tijuana on March 14.
Luis Gonzalez became the first of player of what could be as many as half a dozen to reach the century mark in
terms of career home runs. The Phoenix outfielder connected on No. 100 Saturday against Wanaque, his fifth of the season.