Shields, Rays down Angels, regain share of first in AL East
Baseball Betting Lines
08/24/2010 - Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Shields pitched six-plus innings and fanned 10 batters as Tampa Bay edged the Angels, 4-3, and moved back into a first-place tie in the AL East.
B.J. Upton hit Scott Kazmir's first pitch of the game over the wall in left field. Upton finished with two RBI for the Rays, who won for the eighth time in 10 games and are tied with the Yankees atop the division. New York lost in Toronto, 3-2, earlier Monday.
Shields (12-11) surrendered eight hits and three runs -- two earned -- to win for the fifth time in his last seven starts. Rafael Soriano struck out the side in the ninth to get his major league-leading 38th save.
"We scored three out of the gate and I was able to go deep in the game," Shields said. "I had good command of my fastball as well as my change-up. I got into a nice rhythm. Every win now is pretty big."
Kazmir (8-11), who broke into the majors with Tampa Bay in 2004 but was traded to the Angels in August of last year, suffered yet another loss, his sixth over his last eight starts. The lefty was touched for five hits and four runs -- three earned -- in 5 1/3 innings.
"Giving up three passes in the first inning is a recipe for disaster," Kazmir said. "If I would have gotten by the first inning, it could have been a whole different outcome. It was frustrating."
Hideki Matsui stroked a two-run double for the Angels, who lost for the sixth time in eight games.
Kazmir struggled in the first inning, hitting a batter, walking another and making an errant pick-off throw. That led to Ben Zobrist's two-run single and the Angels were in a 3-0 hole.
Upton doubled to left to score Sean Rodriguez in the second, but Matsui hit a two-run double in the third.
Peter Bourjos made a great catch in center field to rob Upton of a home run, as the Rays had two men on base in the sixth inning.
Los Angeles had two runners on base in the bottom half, but Torii Hunter grounded into a double play.
Howie Kendrick's sacrifice fly to right scored Bourjos in the seventh, but the Angels didn't have a man on base the final two frames.
Game Notes
The Angels hold an all-time home record of 41-17 vs. Tampa Bay...Los Angeles is 14-1-1 in last 16 series at Angel Stadium vs. the Rays with only series loss coming in the first meeting this year (May 10-12)...The Rays own the best road record in the majors at 38-24...The teams combined to hit 3-for-24 with men in scoring position.
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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.