Giants hope to secure series win over Cubs

Baseball Betting Lines

08/12/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco Giants try for a series victory over the Chicago Cubs this afternoon in the finale of a four-game series at AT&T Park.

The NL Wild Card-leading Giants have won two of the first three installments of this set and are coming off last night's 5-4 win. Pat Burrell homered and finished with three RBI, while Aaron Rowand also went deep for the Giants, who remained 2 1/2 games behind San Diego for the NL West lead.

"He plays with a lot of intensity, he's been through it," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Burrell, who's batting .293 with eight homers for San Francisco. "He's had a lot of fun with this, being in the National League and being in the race."

Shortstop Edgar Renteria was placed on the disabled list for the third time this season due to a strained left biceps. Juan Uribe took over at shortstop and went 1-for-4 last night.

San Francisco, which is a game ahead of both Philadelphia and Cincinnati for the final playoff spot in the National League, got a subpar outing from veteran Barry Zito on Wednesday. Zito threw 6 1/3 innings and permitted four runs and 10 hits in the no-decision.

Sergio Romo tossed 1 2/3 innings of relief for the win and Brian Wilson registered his 33rd save with two K's in the ninth.

Matt Cain gets the nod for Bochy's club tonight and he's 9-9 with a 3.06 earned run average in 23 starts. Cain was 3-0 in four starts before losing his most recent outing on Saturday at Atlanta, as he gave up three runs in five innings of a 3-0 loss.

The big righty, who is 6-3 in 11 home starts, will make his ninth career start against the Cubs this afternoon. Cain is 5-2 over the first eight appearances, all of which have been starts.

Chicago has dropped five of six games and got homers from Tyler Colvin and Marlon Byrd in Wednesday's loss. Tom Gorzelanny did not record a decision and pitched six innings of four-run ball. Justin Berg was dealt the loss for surrendering Burrell's leadoff homer in the bottom of the eighth.

"The guys battled, I can't fault that," Cubs acting manager Alan Trammell said. "We're somewhat shorthanded again, limited here and there. It seems that's too much of the story."

The Cubs may not have third baseman Aramis Ramirez in the lineup Thursday because of sore ribs, while first baseman Derrek Lee is on the bereavement list to be with his ailing grandfather.

Chicago hopes starter Randy Wells can stop his personal three-game losing streak when he takes the ball Thursday. Wells was decent in Saturday's 4-3 loss versus Cincinnati, but suffered the loss for allowing three runs on five hits and two walks in seven innings.

Wells is 5-10 in 23 overall starts and 2-5 through 11 trips to the visiting mound this season. The right-hander lost his only start to San Francisco on September 27 last season in a 5-1 loss. He tossed 5 1/3 innings and was reached for five runs and 10 hits.

Chicago and San Francisco are meeting for the first time since the Cubs took four of six matchups a year ago, including three of four at AT&T Park. The Cubs have won 14 of the last 23 encounters with the Giants.

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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.