Giants take rubber match from Nationals

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07/11/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Travis Ishikawa went 2-for-3 and drove in three, and rookie Madison Bumgarner tossed six-plus solid innings, as the San Francisco Giants earned a 6-2 win over the Washington Nationals in the rubber match of a three-game set.

Buster Posey added a two-run triple and Juan Uribe had an RBI single for the Giants, who have won seven of their last nine. San Francisco heads into the All-Star break at 47-41 and in fourth place in the National League West.

Bumgarner (2-2) earned the win for allowing one run on seven hits with six strikeouts. The 20-year-old left-hander was making only his fourth start since being promoted from Triple-A Fresno in late June. Brian Wilson retired the final four batters to notch his 23rd save of the season.

Adam Dunn turned in a three-hit game and knocked in a run for Washington, which has dropped three of its last four. The Nationals are 39-50 and in last place in the NL East.

Livan Hernandez (6-5) took the loss for surrendering five runs on five hits with a pair of walks and fanned four in five frames.

San Francisco plated a pair of runs in the first to grab the early lead. With the bases loaded and one out, Ishikawa lined a two-run single to right. Hernandez, however, was able to limit the damage by retiring the next two hitters.

Bumgarner worked out of trouble in the second, and the Giants tacked on three more in the third. With runners of first and second and no outs, Posey roped a two-run triple off the left-center field wall, and Ishikawa followed with a sacrifice fly for a 5-0 game.

Washington mounted a two-out threat in the sixth by loading the bases, but Mike Morse flied out to shallow right to end the inning.

Ian Desmond led off the seventh with a base hit to end the afternoon for Bumgarner. Chris Ray took over on the hill and walked pinch-hitter Willie Harris, then issued a RBI single to Cristian Guzman two batters later. After Ryan Zimmerman walked, Jeremy Affeldt came on and was greeted by a run-scoring single from Dunn to get the Nats within 5-2. Giants manager Bruce Bochy again went the his bullpen and brought in Sergio Romo, who recorded the final two outs of the inning.

Uribe's run-scoring single in the eighth put the Giants up 6-2. Wilson retired the final batter in the bottom half and threw a scoreless ninth to close out the win.

Game Notes

The Giants won two of three games from the Nationals at AT&T Park from May 25-27 and are 15-4 against Washington since the start of the 2008 campaign. San Francisco has gone 8-2 at Nationals Park during that period...Washington went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13, while San Francisco finished 3-for-6 with RISP and left four.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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