Pirate Galaxy » summer, he seems keen to prove himself worthy

WASHINGTON -- In a game long overdue for a clutch hit, along came Hanley Ramirez with a man on second and none out in the 10th inning. Ramirez already had two singles, but the other team pitched to him anyway. He raised his average to .390 and essentially won the game with an RBI double, the kind of clutch hit the Los Angeles Dodgers have been getting lately -- and the sort of thing that has totally deserted the Washington Nationals. Ramirez drove in Adrian Gonzalez, then scored on Andre Ethiers sacrifice fly in Saturday nights 3-1 win. Among the teammates congratulating Ramirez in the dugout was starter Zack Greinke, who wondered why the Nationals bothered to throw the Dodgers cleanup hitter a strike. "He said: Even me, I would have walked you," Ramirez said. As it turned out, Ramirez and Greinke -- who raised his average to.406 -- combined for half the Dodgers 10 hits, but everything seems to be going right for a team that has won seven of nine and 19 of 24 to pull within a half-game of the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West. "Were winning all kinds of different ways as the momentum has started to go our way," manager Don Mattingly said. "We lost of lot of these early in the year, but now it seems like were hanging in there, feeling like were going to win these." Ethier won Fridays game with a ninth-inning homer, and the first two games of the series yielded outcomes that kept the teams trending in opposite directions. The Nationals have lost seven of nine to fall below .500 and into third in the NL East. They went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and are 2 for 21 with RISP in the series. "Im sure everyone is sick of hearing it, but its got to turn around at some point," Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond said. "And if it doesnt, then were going to keep on trying until we run out of time." In seven of the 10 innings, the Nationals had legitimate scoring chances. They looked like a rock band that decided to play all of its worst hits on the same night. First inning: bases loaded, none out. Second inning: leadoff double. Third inning: pair of one-out singles. Fourth inning: leadoff single. Seventh inning: first and second, one out. Eighth inning: first and third, one out. They failed to score each time. In the fourth, they managed three consecutive fielders choices. Even Greinke is mystified. "They should be scoring more than they have," Greinke said. Greinke allowed the only Nationals run on his final pitch, when pinch-hitter Roger Bernadina hit an RBI single and was thrown out trying to advance to second, ending the sixth inning. The run ended Greinkes scoreless innings streak at 21, a Dodgers season-high. Jose Dominguez, Paco Rodriguez, Ronald Belisario, J.P. Howell, Chris Withrow and Kenley Jansen did the rest. Withrow (1-0) pitched the ninth for his first career win, and Jansen handled the 10th for his 11th save as the Nationals fans, clearly running out of patience, booed their team off the field. The Nationals wasted a solid outing from starter Gio Gonzalez, who matched a career-high with 11 strikeouts. Greinke, who had won five consecutive starts, scattered seven hits and remained one shy of 100 career wins. The Dodgers keep winning even though rookie Yasiel Puig has cooled off. He is 0 for 9 with five strikeouts in the series. "You see a little bit of confusion up there," Mattingly said. "Theyre starting to do some things to him -- he seems to be caught in-between a little bit. Hell be OK. He just needs to catch his wind and clear his head a little bit." Notes: Dodgers OF Matt Kemp (shoulder), eligible to come off the disabled list Sunday, hit in a simulated game for the second straight day and hit two home runs. ... Nationals LHP Ross Detwiler didnt complete a full bullpen session Saturday and will miss at least two more starts while dealing with a lower back strain. ... Washington 1B Adam LaRoche missed his second consecutive game with the flu. Emre Can Jersey . Neymar curled home a free kick from just outside the area to put the 2014 World Cup host ahead in the 44th minute. Three minutes after the break, a simple through pass from Paulinho freed Oscar and the Chelsea star rounded goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong to extend Brazils lead. Douglas Costa Jersey . The Cincinnati Reds remain perfect with their speedy rookie outfielder in the starting lineup. http://www.juventusfcpro.com/Kids-Medhi-Benatia-Jersey/ .C. at the helm of the top team in the Eastern Conference. His tenure as the GM in Vancouver was all too brief. Though he led the Canucks to what was then a franchise record-shattering campaign in just his second season, Nonis was gone and replaced one year later. Carlo Pinsoglio Jersey . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Mattia Caldara Jersey . Still, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke thought taking him out before the fifth inning was an unusual move. "Im looking up at the board and hes got two hits given up and one run, and Im taking him out after the fourth inning," Roenicke said. Such is the positivity around the England set-up at the moment that you can imagine, if confronted by the lemons currently queuing up to make a mess of the UKs political system, they would happily get down to the business of serving up lemonade - and without delay.Much of Englands fizz over the last 18 months has been provided by the batting of Joe Root and he will be exercising his transferable skills this week when he returns as a permanent member of the Test top three for the first time since the 2013-14 Ashes. The argument against moving Root up the order has been along the lines of not weakening one of the sides strengths but, after the failure of Nick Compton to make the No. 3 spot his own, England have decided to once again take the plunge.An Australian-style system of putting your best batsman at first drop should be slightly more straightforward to implement than an Australian-style points system on immigration (as favoured by the Brexit camp in last months EU referendum) and Root - currently No. 4 on the ICCs Test batting rankings - made the sort of calming noises that English politicians have become incapable of when referring to the challenge ahead.Never mind that his combined average at opener or No. 3 is 33.75, compared to 63.07 in the two spots lower down. Never mind that he ended up out of the side by the time of the fifth Test in Sydney after being hastily promoted to fill in for the departed Jonathan Trott three winters ago. Never mind that he was bowled by a shooter at Lords - where Englands Test against Pakistan will begin on Thursday - in his most recent Test innings, batting at No. 3 after an injury sustained by Alastair Cook.To slip into business speak, Root sees the doughnut where everyone else sees the hole. He said that Cook had teased him for having weaselled his way down the order, after they briefly opened together in the 2013 Ashes (Root again replacing Compton), and suggested he was confident he had the game to thrive in a position that was so secure in Trotts possession between 2010 and 2013.Ive matured quite a lot as a player and my game has developed a lot, he said. It will be interesting to see how it goes. It would be wrong to compare it to batting anywhere else. Ive batted at No. 3 before but as a kid I always opened so Im used to batting against the new ball.dddddddddddd Its only since Ive been playing for England that I moved further down anyway. I have experience of opening, batting at No. 3 and Im just looking forward to getting on with it.It certainly will be interesting to see how it goes against a Pakistan attack expected to be adept at asking questions with the new ball. Roots eagerness to please may, of course, see him come unstuck again, but bobbing back up the order had begun to look inevitable, in part because of Trevor Bayliss preference for the Australian way of doing things. It has not taken long for Bayliss and Cook to wear him down.There have been a few conversations over the last six months about looking more long-term, not in one series in particular, but that it was something that could happen down the line, Root said. That was in their thoughts and gave me an opportunity to think about it. I was asked leading up to the selection that it could be a possibility, and I said: Yeah, I think that could be the right thing to do. All parties were pretty happy on where it stands.Trevor mentioned it to me, so from that point its been in my thoughts and I started trying to get my head round it being a big change, but there is not a lot of difference there. You could be in second ball but how Id line up and look to play would probably not change a huge amount. Look to play the situation as it is and take the game from there. Any opportunities to score, Ill still try to do that.It is less than a year since Root was shunted up a place from No. 5 - where he has made more than half of his Test runs, at an average of 73.12 - but his contribution of 63, 38 not out and 130 in consecutive innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge immediately vindicated the move. Despite slim returns against Sri Lanka in the first part of the summer, he seems keen to prove himself worthy of another promotion.Cooky takes the mick out of me saying youve got such a great record batting where you do, but you should do it at the top where it really matters. He is right. He said you only did the five Tests and then weaselled your way down the order. Im pretty happy with the opportunity and I just want to get cracking now. Wholesale Hoodies NFL Shirts Outlet Jerseys NFL Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '