Cubs come alive in series finale against Brewers

Baseball Betting Lines

08/04/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aramis Ramirez, Geovany Soto and Blake DeWitt each hit a three-run homer, as the Chicago Cubs crushed the Milwaukee Brewers, 15-3, to avoid getting swept.

It was a big offensive day for the Cubs, who recorded a season-high in runs and totaled 16 hits -- including a career-high four from rookie Starlin Castro. Soto finished 3-for-5 with five runs batted in, while Tyler Colvin added a solo homer.

Ryan Dempster (9-8) gave up three unearned runs in six innings for Chicago, which dropped the first two contests of this series, which featured two lopsided games. The Brewers won Monday's opener by an 18-1 score.

Milwaukee starter Manny Parra (3-9) allowed six runs on six hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. He also struck out eight, but lost his fourth consecutive decision.

Jim Edmonds went 2-for-3 for the Brewers, who have lost six of eight overall.

Following Colvin's two-out homer in the third, Milwaukee took the lead in the fifth. With runners on the corners and two outs, a throwing error by Jeff Baker allowed Edmonds to score. Corey Hart followed with a two-run double to make it a 3-1 contest.

But the Cubs exploded for six runs in the sixth to take command. With two on and one out, Soto hit an RBI single. After Parra struck out Alfonso Soriano, DeWitt and Baker followed with run-scoring singles.

Parra was removed in favor of Todd Coffey as Ramirez came up as a pinch- hitter and slammed a three-run shot to left-center to make it a 7-3 game.

Soto's three-run blast off LaTroy Hawkins in the seventh extended Chicago's lead to seven, and the hosts added five runs in the eighth. Derrek Lee hit an RBI double, Soto added a run-scoring single, and DeWitt tacked on his three- run shot, which just sneaked over the right field fence.

Game Notes

Hawkins was ejected in the seventh after hitting Soriano with a pitch. Brewers manager Ken Macha was tossed shortly thereafter for arguing with home plate umpire Tom Hallion's decision...Carlos Zambrano pitched a scoreless seventh for the Cubs, who announced Wednesday he would be re-inserted into the rotation. He will get the ball Monday against San Francisco, taking the spot held by the injured Carlos Silva (irregular heartbeat). Zambrano has not started since June 25, when a blowup in the dugout resulted in a month-long suspension.

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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.