Tigers expect Sheffield back in finale with ChiSox

Baseball Betting Lines

09/06/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers should have Gary Sheffield back in the lineup this afternoon when they play the rubber match of a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park.

Sheffield, who is second on the team with 24 home runs, has been on the disabled list since August 21 because of a sore shoulder. The Tigers have been just 6-8 without him and could certainly use his bat in the middle of the lineup for a possible September push towards the postseason.

In the second game of this set on Wednesday, Timo Perez's run-scoring single in the 11th inning lifted Detroit to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park. Ivan Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with two doubles for the Tigers, who won for only the third time in their last eight games.

Heath Phillips (0-1) started the 11th for Chicago and quickly recorded two outs. Brandon Inge then doubled to the gap in left-center before Carlos Guillen was intentionally walked. Perez then stepped up to the plate and won it for Detroit with a single to right.

Bobby Seay (2-0) picked up the win for Detroit, which still trails Cleveland by seven games in the American League Central and is 3 1/2 games back of the New York Yankees in the wild card.

Kenny Rogers, who was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, started for the Tigers and went five innings and gave up one run on two hits while striking out six and walking two. The 42-year-old lefty had been on the shelf since July 26th with left elbow inflammation.

Danny Richar had two hits including a home run for the White Sox, who had won the first two games of this series and fell for the 11th time in their last 14 tries.

Hoping to draw the Tigers closer to the idle Yankees today will be right- hander Chad Durbin, who is getting the start in place of the injured Jair Jurrjens.

In 17 starts this season Durbin, who filled in for an injured Rogers earlier in the year, is 6-6 with a 4.89 earned run average. He is 8-6 overall with a 4.76 ERA.

Durbin is 1-0 in two starts this season against the White Sox, but is just 2-6 lifetime against them with an 8.89 ERA in 13 games, 11 of which have been starts.

Chicago will counter with lefty Mark Buehrle, who is 9-9 with a 3.47 ERA. Buehrle picked up a no-decision on Friday against the Cleveland Indians, as he allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings of his team's 8-5 loss.

Buehrle defeated the Tigers the last time he faced them and is 12-8 against them with a 3.23 ERA in 23 games (22 starts).

Chicago has won five of its last six against the Tigers and nine of 14 from them this season, including six of the eight matchups in Motown.

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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.