Power-swinging Marlins resume series with Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

07/31/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Even a trip to spacious Petco Park couldn't derail the Marlins' power train. Florida seeks a sixth straight victory at the Padres' home park as it continues a three-game set tonight with San Diego.

The Marlins got home runs from Gaby Sanchez and Cody Ross in last night's 4-2 victory, giving them 10 long balls in their last five games. Hanley Ramirez and Logan Morrison also drove in a run each as Florida has now won two straight, four of six and 10 of its last 14 overall.

"They're making adjustments," Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez said of the recent homer surge. "They are staying back more. They're not swinging at bad pitches. I think that's the key. They are not swinging at bad pitches. Their strike zone is smaller. They're getting ahead more in the count."

Chris Volstad benefited from the home runs, yielding two runs over five-plus innings to get his first victory since June 13.

Florida also spoiled the debut of Miguel Tejada, who went 0-for-3 with a walk in his first game with the Padres since being acquired from Baltimore on Thursday.

"I don't want to put pressure on myself," Tejada said. "I just want to play the same game I've always played. I do whatever I can do to help the team."

Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley had an RBI apiece for the Padres, who had won five of six coming in and saw their lead over the second-place Giants fall to 2 1/2 games in the National League West.

Yorvit Torrealba went 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games and Wade LeBlanc allowed four runs on five hits in a 6 1/3-inning start to suffer the loss.

San Diego had a five-game series winning streak halted, a run that included a three-game sweep in Florida from June 25-27. The Padres have now lost five in a row at home to the Marlins, who haven't lost at Petco Park since July 8, 2008.

The Marlins hope to continue their power run tonight and help Ricky Nolasco earn a third straight winning start.

The right-hander is coming off Monday's win over the Giants as he pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed a run on four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. He has a 3.40 earned run average in his last seven starts with 57 strikeouts, and is 11-7 with a 4.35 ERA on the season.

Nolasco is an excellent 7-2 with a 3.93 in 11 road starts this season. The 27- year-old is also 2-2 with a 3.94 ERA lifetime versus San Diego.

Kevin Correia has won back-to-back starts after going 0-2 in his previous seven and will look to improve on his 7-6 mark and 5.09 ERA this season.

The 29-year-old righty bested Pittsburgh last Friday, yielding three runs -- two earned -- on six hits and three walks over six innings.

Correia recorded a win over the Marlins on April 28 even though he gave up four runs in five innings of work. He is 2-2 versus them lifetime in 12 games (five starts) with a 6.94 ERA.

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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.