White Sox, Buehrle hope to extend home streak versus Mariners
Baseball Betting Lines
07/28/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Buehrle tries to lead the Chicago White Sox to their 10th straight home win this evening when they resume their four-game series against the Seattle Mariners at U.S. Cellular Field.
Buehrle has been a big reason behind the White Sox' recent surge to the top of the American League Central standings. The left-hander won for the sixth time in his last eight starts with a complete-game effort on Friday in Oakland, as he allowed a run and four hits to nail down the victory.
"As a starting pitcher, you're going to have so many good ones and then you're going to have bad ones throughout the year," Buehrle said. "I think I had so many bad ones at the beginning, I'm due to go on a little streak here and have a good one. Just keep it going."
Buehrle, who is 7-4 lifetime against the Mariners, is 9-8 on the year and his recent streak has lowered his earned run average from 5.40 to 3.96. He is also 6-0 with a 3.34 ERA in eight home starts versus Seattle.
Chicago continued to dominate the Mariners on Tuesday, as Alexei Ramirez, Paul Konerko and Andruw Jones each homered, and Gavin Floyd threw seven scoreless frames to lead the White Sox to an 11-0 rout.
Floyd (6-8) did not walk a batter in his outing, allowing only five hits while striking out six. The starter has allowed one earned run or less in all but one of his last 10 outings, lowering his earned-run average from 6.64 to 3.66.
Ramirez had three hits and drove in three, A.J. Pierzynski went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI, and Dayan Viciedo doubled twice and drove in a run for the Sox, who last won 10 in a row at home from April 15-May 4, 2006.
Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-10) gave up all 11 runs in five innings on 11 hits and two walks for the Mariners, who have lost four of their last six.
Seattle is also just 1-7 against the White Sox this season and a mere 7-25 in the Windy City since the start of the 2004 campaign.
Hoping to reverse that trend tonight will be surprising left-hander Jason Vargas, who is 6-5 with a 2.94 ERA. Vargas lost to Boston on Friday but pitched well, allowing two runs and eight hits in seven innings.
Vargas has faced the White Sox twice (one start) without getting a decision, but has pitched to a 2.45 ERA in the limited time against them.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -The Columbus Blue Jackets and defenseman Anton Stralman have agreed on a one-year contract, just minutes before they were to go to arbitration on Wednesday morning.General manager Scott Howson announced the re-signing.Stralman,
<< McCourty comes to terms with Patriots
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New England Patriots and first-round draft
pick Devin McCourty have agreed to terms of a contract.
McCourty's agent, Andy Simms, posted the news on his Twitter feed Wednesday
morning.
Terms of the
<< Panthers agree to terms with Clausen
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Panthers have reportedly agreed
to terms with rookie quarterback Jimmy Clausen.
According to the Charlotte Observer, Clausen has a four-year deal that could
be worth as much as $6.3 million.
T
<< Magic extend Van Gundy
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic have extended the contract of
head coach Stan Van Gundy through the 2012-13 season.
The team also announced Alex Martins has been promoted to team president and
Otis Smith to president of ba
<< Warriors' Lin hopes to beat Harvard stereotypes
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -The first Taiwanese-American signed by an NBA team hopes to overcome the negative stereotype of playing college basketball at Harvard, and eventually wants to be a minister in an inner-city neighborhood.Undrafted point guard Jer
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros have yet to lose a series to the Chicago Cubs this year. Starting pitcher Bud Norris getting his first victory in well over two months would keep that stretch going. Norris and the Astros aim for a fourt
Red Sox turn to Beckett aiming for sweep of Angels >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Beckett makes his second start since returning from
the disabled list this afternoon when the Boston Red Sox try to complete a
three-game sweep against the LA Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium.
Boston, which was swep
Struggling Rockies seek to bring skid to a close against Pirates >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies try to avoid their eighth straight
loss this evening when they play the middle test of their three-game series
with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Coors Field.
Following a 2-9 road trip, things didn't get a
Santana, Garcia duel again in Mets-Cards clash >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The last time St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jamie Garcia
faced New York Mets ace Johan Santana, the rookie was able to match the two-
time Cy Young Award winner pitch-for-pitch.
He may find that to be more difficult tonight.
Posey puts 20-game hit streak on the line as Giants battle Marlins >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Buster Posey tries to extend his 20-game hitting
streak this evening when the San Francisco Giants and Florida Marlins resume
their four-game series at AT&T Park.
San Francisco stayed hot on Tuesday, as Juan Uri
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.