Huff's HRs lift Giants; D'Backs lose despite Johnson cycle
Baseball Betting Lines
07/24/2010 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aubrey Huff hit two home runs and drove in three, as the San Francisco Giants spoiled Kelly Johnson's cycle and beat the Diamondbacks, 7-4, in the continuation of a four-game series.
Andres Torres added the tie-breaking two-run triple in the seventh inning for the Giants, who took advantage of several Arizona errors to improve to 4-1 on their road trip. San Francisco beat Arizona by a 3-0 score in Thursday's series opener.
Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez got out of several jams to allow only one run. However, the left-hander lasted just five innings, as he threw 109 pitches, gave up four hits, walked five and struck out 10.
Santiago Casilla allowed three runs in the sixth while recording two outs, and Chris Ray (1-0) got the final one to get the win. Brian Wilson recorded the final four outs to earn his 28th save.
Johnson finished 4-for-4 and became the fourth player in team history to hit for the cycle, but it was not enough to keep the Diamondbacks from losing their fifth consecutive game to the Giants.
Edwin Jackson (6-9) took the loss after allowing six runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks in six-plus innings.
Huff and Johnson traded solo home runs in the first inning, and after Edgar Renteria hit an RBI single in the fourth, Huff's second homer gave the Giants a 3-1 lead in the sixth.
San Francisco held that lead because Sanchez avoided big trouble. Arizona had runners on second and third with one out in the first after Johnson homered, but Sanchez fanned Mark Reynolds before Rusty Ryal grounded out.
In the fourth, Arizona had runners on first and second with one out, but Sanchez got Chris Snyder to pop out, then struck out Jackson. The Diamondbacks loaded the bases with one away in the fifth before Sanchez again escaped trouble by fanning Reynolds and Ryal.
Arizona broke through against Casilla in the sixth. With runners on second and third and two down, Johnson tripled to center field to plate two and even the game. After Casilla walked Justin Upton, he was replaced by Ray, who gave up an RBI single to Adam LaRoche before getting out of the inning.
But the Giants re-took the lead in the seventh. Nate Schierholtz led off with a single before Eli Whiteside attempted a sacrifice bunt. However, Jackson couldn't make the throw in time in a close play, leaving runners on first and second.
Pinch-hitter Eugenio Velez followed with another bunt, and this time Jackson's throw sailed past first base, allowing Schierholtz to score. Torres then tripled to center to plate the remaining runners, putting San Francisco in front, 6-4.
Johnson came to bat to begin the eighth needing just a single to complete the cycle, and got just that, as he flared a base hit to right. However, Upton followed by grounding into a double play.
Huff's RBI single in the ninth provided the Giants a three-run lead before Wilson worked around a leadoff single by Ryal in the bottom half to close the game.
Game Notes
Huff recorded his 12th career multi-homer game...Prior to Johnson, Stephen Drew (2008), Greg Colbrunn (2002) and Luis Gonzalez (2000) also hit for the cycle for the Diamondbacks.
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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.