ekansekans's blog: "df"

MIAMI -- Hanley Ramirez had been hitting the ball hard all series with not a lot to show for it. Frank Gore Jersey . The Marlins star was rewarded in the series finale against the Washington Nationals, smacking a two-run homer that proved to be the difference in a 5-3 win Monday night to split the four-game series. "I think I have been hitting balls hard just right to people," Ramirez said. "Its nothing I can control. At the end of the day, its that W. Its why we are here." Ramirezs homer off of Edwin Jackson (5-7) broke a 2-all tie in the third inning. "The home run by Hanley was big," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said. "It was huge to take that lead." Carlos Lee also drove in two runs and Emilio Bonifacio laid down a successful squeeze bunt to drive in the other run. Carlos Zambrano (5-7) allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings, and snapped a four-game losing streak. "Thats the way were supposed to play and know how to play," Zambrano said. "The game today was outstanding." Heath Bell pitched a scoreless eighth, and Mike Dunn pitched the ninth to record his first career save. Dunn allowed a two-out single to Bryce Harper and walked Ryan Zimmerman before striking out Adam LaRoche to end the game. "Dunn has closing stuff," Guillen said. "He throws 95 (mph), has a pretty good slider, and throws strikes." Zimmerman reached base five times and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle for the Nationals, while Danny Espinosa needed a homer to accomplish the feat. "To come down and go 2-2 with a team thats given us a lot of trouble in the past, we would have liked to take three of four," Zimmerman said, "but 2-2 is not bad." Jackson allowed four runs in five innings to take the loss. "I couldnt get into a rhythm -- balls wide, balls up, balls down," Jackson said. "When I did throw strikes, it was pretty much across the middle and they were able to hit them." Jesus Flores hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the Nationals first run in the second inning before Zimmerman connected on a solo home run an inning later to give Washington a 2-0 lead. Zimmermans homer was the 16th against the Marlins in his career, the second this series, and his most against any club. Lee tied it at 2 with a two-run single in the third inning. Two batters later, Ramirez hit a two-run shot to left-centre field to give the Marlins a 4-2 lead. Zimmerman led off the sixth with a double and scored on a single by Morse to pull the Nationals within a run at 4-3. After Zambrano walked Roger Bernadina to load the bases, Flores bounced into an inning-ending double play. It was the fourth inning-ending double play turned by the Marlins, which tied a season high. "We hit a bunch of balls right at them," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. "They doubled us up a couple of times in huge situations. Maybe a little bit of aggressive base running in a couple of those line drives." The Nationals had two runners on base in the seventh, but Randy Choate struck out LaRoche to end the threat. In the bottom of the seventh, Justin Ruggiano doubled and scored on a squeeze bunt by Bonifacio to extend Miamis lead to 5-3. "Ive got the best guys to execute that play," Guillen said. "Weve got Bonny who is one of the best bunters and Ruggiano is a pretty good baseball player. Hes got a good idea how to play the game and thats why we did it." NOTES: The Guillen-Harper situation from Sundays game in which Guillen had words for Harper, who pointed a bat at Guillen for disputing the amount of pine tar he had on his bat, continued to be discussed before Mondays game. Guillen spoke briefly to Johnson on Sunday, and Johnson felt Guillen was trying to intimidate Harper. "I just dont like any time an opposing manager talks to one of my players at the plate," Johnson said. Guillen denied trying to intimidate the Nationals 19-year old All-Star. "I never try to intimidate anybody," Guillen said. "Thats the last thing that went through my mind. I just think it was unprofessional what (Harper) did, he was showing me up. I never showed him up. Every time I talk about this kid, I (praise) him. ... You think Im going to intimidate him? I might intimidate Davey, but Im not going to intimidate (Harper). He would kick my butt." Guillen added: "I like this kid, I think this kid is good for baseball, hes going to get better, but if he continued to do that (stuff), he might not make it." Harper said he puts pine tar high on his bat because "it looks cool." Harper went 1 for 4 without any incidents and was 2 for 16 in the series. ... Nationals RHP Drew Storen had a rehab appearance Sunday with Double-A Harrisburg and is expected to make another Tuesday before joining the team for the first time this season. ... The Marlins will travel to Chicago to face the Cubs for a three-game series marking Guillens first return to the city after managing the White Sox for eight seasons. RHP Anibal Sanchez (4-6, 4.12 ERA) will start for Miami and will face LHP Travis Wood (4-3, 3.05). The Nationals will host the Mets and will send LHP Ross Detwiler (4-3, 3.43) to the mound to oppose LHP Jonathon Niese (7-4, 3.73). Aldon Smith Authentic Jersey . BBC and Sky said late Wednesday that Redknapp has left after nearly four seasons in charge and with a year left on his contract. The decision would cap a difficult few months for the 65-year-old Englishman, in which he missed out on the England coaching job and Spurs failed to reach Europes top club event despite holding a 10-point lead over their nearest rival at one stage of the Premier League season. Randy Moss Elite Jersey . -- Aaron Rublee won in a photo finish Sunday to capture the mens C1 200-metre race at the Canadian canoe/kayak national trials. http://www.sf49ersfootballstore.com/authentic-carlos-rogers-super-bowl-jersey/ . Upton hit his 100th career homer shortly before his sibling accomplished the same feat, Ian Kennedy threw six effective innings, and the streaking Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 on Friday night. Gore Jersey . The No. 1 overall draft pick threw his first NFL pass for a long touchdown, just like Peyton Manning in 1998, then led Indianapolis to two more touchdowns. San Francisco 49ers Jersey . Once that bid slipped away, a win was plenty for him and the New York Mets.Paddling through the longest race of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Canadas Richard Weinberger captured bronze in Londons Serpentine Lake on Friday morning. His 10-kilometre open water marathon swim of one hour, 50 minutes and 0.30 seconds earned Canada its third swimming medal of these Games. Weinberger, of Victoria, B.C., got off to an early lead in Londons chilly, 21-Celsius water on Friday; he tore off his swimming cap within his first few strokes and quickly worked his way to the front of the thrashing pack. an extremely physical race, thats why I avoided being in the pack and I tried to be on the outside or up the front with (gold-medal winner Oussama) Mellouli," Weinberger said. "I tried to swim a smart race and things turned out in my favour." Open water swimming can get physical, as its lack of lanes allows the swimmers to draft through the water in a very tight pack; while race officials watch to ensure that things do not get out of hand, an errant elbow or foot occasionally connects. Canadas entry dropped to fourth at the mid-point of Fridays race but stayed close to the leaders and conserved his energy for the remainder of the gruelling swim. Meanwhile, Tunisias Oussama Mellouli jumped into the lead and surged ahead for gold. With the win, he became the first swimmer to win an Olympic medal in the marathon as well as in the pool; the Tunisian also took bronze in the mens 1500m freestyle six days ago when he finished his race just 0.68 seconds behind silver medallist Ryan Cochrane, of Canada. In the marathon event, Melloulis 1:49.55.10 pace proved too much for his competitors to catch. "I was worried that the other guys would pass me when Mellouli got away. Things were the same as in Portugal at the trials and it is pretty hard to catch him once he got away so I just kept my cool and concentrated." Just under one year after Weinberger won gold in the Olympic test event on the same course, the 22-year-old made his move in the final 3km of the race. Colin Kaepernick Camo Jersey. . He picked up his pace and advanced into a dead heat with Thomas Lurz for second place. Weinberger, one of the youngest swimmers in Fridays race, has said he looks up to Germanys Lurz, 32. "He has been under (one hour and) 15 minutes, and there are only a handful of people that have been under that mark," Weinberger told CTVOlympics.ca earlier this year."I have such great respect for him because he has won so many world championship titles. He is just a great swimmer all around." Lurz is also the bronze-medal winner from the Beijing 2008 Games, and he proved his abilities again on Friday. He bettered his finish from four years ago to capture silver in 1:49:58.50, pushing through the pain in his final metres to complete his race 1.8 seconds ahead of Weinberger at the last. Reigning world champion Spyridon Gianniotis, of Greece, settled for fourth in 1:50:05.30. Weinberger is Canadas first Olympic medallist in the 10km open water swim, as Canada did not send any representatives to the events inaugural Olympic Games in 2008.  Competing in the worlds rivers, lakes and seas, open water athletes often have to contend with waves, jellyfish and even the occasional crocodile in their races. Water temperature can vary, and Hyde Parks chilly temperatures has been a factor for some swimmers in London. In Thursdays womens race, Brazilian swimmer Poliana Okimoto, a seventh-place finisher at Beijing 2008, had to be removed from Londons chilly water after she began to suffer from hypothermia. "A lot of people will have problems with that," Weinberger told CTVOlympics. "Im not saying I wont, but Im Canadian, so I love the cold water." On Thursday, Torontos Zsofia Balazs finished 18th in the womens race. ' ' '