Mets take rubber contest of series with Nats

Baseball Betting Lines

09/08/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Evans' pinch-hit double in the seventh inning drove in the winning run as New York upended Washington, 3-2, to capture the rubber match of a three-game set.

Luis Hernandez went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Carlos Beltran knocked in the other run for the Mets, who won a series deciding game on the road for the first in eight tries time this season.

R.A. Dickey (10-6) gave up a pair of runs on five hits while striking out one over six innings to grab the win, while four different relievers combined to blank the Nationals over the last three frames, including Hisanori Takahashi, who earned his fifth save by retiring the side in order in the ninth.

Livan Hernandez (9-11) was charged with the loss after allowing three runs on six hits while walking two and fanning four over 6 1/3 innings for the Nats, who have lost 10 of their last 13 rubber games.

Wilson Ramos' first major league home run accounted for the Washington offense.

The Mets broke through first with a pair of runs in the third. Dickey singled with one out, moved to second on an Angel Pagan single and scored when Hernandez followed with a double. Beltran then brought Pagan home with a sacrifice fly.

Washington got the game tied in the fifth when Michael Morse singled with one out and scored when Ramos belted his long ball to straightaway center with two down.

The Nats loaded the bases in the sixth with one out on two singles and a hit batter, but Roger Bernadina fouled out to third and Morse grounded out to end the frame.

Josh Thole then led off the decisive seventh with a walk and moved to second base on a Ruben Tejada sacrifice bunt that also brought an end to Hernandez's outing with left-handed swinging pinch-hitter Lucas Duda looming on deck.

Washington skipper Jim Riggleman countered with southpaw Sean Burnett and Mets manager Jerry Manuel then called on the righty-swinging Evans, who made the strategy pay off with a broken bat double down the first base line by that put New York back in front to stay.

The Nationals had just one base runner over the final three innings.

Game Notes

New York finished its 10-game road trip with four wins...The Mets open a 10- game homestand Friday against Philadelphia...Dickey beat the Nats for the first time in five games, including four starts...The Mets are 59-4 when leading after seven innings...Washington catcher Ivan Rodriguez was scratched from the lineup shortly before game time as he was feeling ill...Hernandez is 12-15 in 36 career starts against the Mets and has lost six of his last eight decisions to them...Washington is 11-6-2 in home series since April 23...The Nats are 10-11 in rubber games this season.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash 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.