Arroyo and Votto lead surging Reds past Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

08/22/2010 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bronson Arroyo twirled seven strong innings to help the Cincinnati Reds take a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the finale of a three-game set.

Arroyo (14-7) gave up just two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts for the Reds, who have won eight of their last nine. Joey Votto went 2-for-4 with a solo home run, three RBI and two runs scored while Ryan Hanigan drove in a pair in the win.

"I didn't have overwhelming command today," said Arroyo. "But I did get them to hit the ball where our guys were at. In the sixth, I still had some gas in the tank but I told them to watch me. It's nice to win here."

With the win, the Reds maintained their 3 1/2 games lead over the Cardinals for first place in the NL Central.

A.J. Ellis went 3-for-3 with an RBI while Matt Kemp added a solo home run for the Dodgers, who were looking for their first series win since taking two of three against Washington from August 6-8.

Clayton Kershaw (11-8) was saddled with the loss as he was charged with three runs on five hits with five walks and 11 strikeouts over seven innings.

"Clayton settled down after the first inning," said Dodgers manager Joe Torre. "But when you don't put up runs it puts a lot of stress on our pitchers. We struggled against a pretty good pitcher today."

The Reds jumped on top in the first inning. Brandon Phillips led off with a single and, after Miguel Cairo struck out, back-to-back walks to Votto and Jonny Gomes loaded the bases. Chris Heisey then struck out, but Hanigan punched a two-run single to center for a 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers got one back in the second when Kemp led off the frame with a blast over the center field wall, his 21st home run of the season.

The score remained that way until the fifth when Los Angeles tied the game. With one out, Casey Blake singled and Jamey Carroll followed with a base hit. Ellis then stroked a single to center to make it a 2-2 game.

Cincinnati, though, took the lead right back as Votto led off the sixth with a shot to left, his 29th homer of the season, for a 3-2 advantage.

Arroyo worked around a leadoff single in the sixth then threw a scoreless seventh before handing the ball to Nick Masset, who tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

The Reds gave themselves some insurance in the ninth as Votto's two-run single off Jonathan Broxton with the bases loaded made it a 5-2 game.

Francisco Cordero set the Dodgers down in order in the ninth to pick up his 34th save of the season.

Game Notes

Cincinnati continues its nine-game road trip in San Francisco on Monday...The Reds won the season series, 5-4...The Dodgers hit the road and begin a three- game series in Milwaukee on Tuesday...It was Cincinnati's first series win in Los Angeles since May 14-16, 2004...Arroyo is 3-4 against the Dodgers in his career.

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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.