Cook stellar on mound as Rockies edge Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

06/04/2008 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Cook pitched eight dominant innings, and the Colorado Rockies edged the Dodgers, 2-1, to take two of three from Los Angeles, in the process winning their first road series in more than a month.

Cook (8-3) scattered six hits and fanned six, allowing one run with one walk on 118 pitches.

Jeff Baker's two-run homer in the second was all the offense needed for the Rockies, who won two straight in LA to break both an eight-game losing streak and 13-game road skid. Brian Fuentes threw a perfect ninth for his eighth save.

The Rockies hadn't won a series away from home since taking two of three in Houston from April 18-20. The series win was the first overall for the Rockies since taking two of three from the Mets in Colorado from May 23-25.

Rookie prospect Clayton Kershaw (0-1) gave up five hits and two runs over five frames, fanning five and walking four to take his first career loss in his third start.

"I was a little too wild, I was a little too inconsistent," said Kershaw. "I made one bad pitch to Baker, and he put it out of the ballpark. That's what happens."

Matt Kemp's RBI infield single in the sixth was the only offense for the struggling Dodgers, who have dropped eight of 10.

Chris Iannetta legged out an infield single to lead off the second for the Rockies, and Baker brought him in with his first homer of the season, a drive into the stands just left of dead center that gave the Rockies the early 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers cut the deficit in half with some small ball in the sixth. Chin- Lung Hu reached base on an infield single, and Chan Ho Park bunted him over to second. Hu headed to third on a Juan Pierre groundout, and Kemp was able to leg out an infield single of his own as Hu crossed home.

That was all for the Dodgers' offense however. Cook and Fuentes combined to toss three scoreless frames, with a two-out single by Delwyn Young in the eighth the only blemish.

"I was hoping it would," said Cook when asked if he thought Baker's home run would hold up. "I was able to make good pitches today, and guys were playing great defense behind me."

Russell Martin hit a hard-line drive to center with two outs in the ninth, but it held up for Willy Taveras to make the game-ending catch.

Game Notes

Todd Helton reached base on an infield single in the first, his only hit of the day, to extend his hitting streak to 11 games...The Rockies improved to 4-19 in their last 23 road games. Their 13-game road losing streak, which ended on Tuesday, was the longest road skid in the majors since the Kansas City Royals lost 13 straight road games spanning two seasons, from October 2, 2005 to May 3, 2006.

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Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch

Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.

Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.

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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.