SAN DIEGO -- Theres too much at stake for the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night for Madison Bumgarner to be, well, Madison Bumgarner.While their National League West title chances fade with every Los Angeles win -- the Dodgers magic number is two -- the Giants are locked in a three-way battle for the two National League wild-card berths with the New York Mets one game ahead and the St. Louis Cardinals one-half game behind.The Padres should be easy prey for any playoff bound team, except for the fact that San Diego has won seven of its last eight games against the Giants -- a fact that has had much to do with San Franciscos second-half plunge.Also, Bumgarner has not had the greatest career marks against the Padres (10-7, 3.27 ERA in 27 games and 26 starts) and at Petco Park (4-5, 3.87 ERA in 13 games and 12 starts).On Saturday night, however, the 27-year-old left-hander attempts to become the third-youngest Giant to win 100 games.This should be Bumgarners game to win, unless ...In his last start, for example, Bumgarner decided to take on the Dodgers Yasiel Puig while apparent cruising to a victory in Los Angeles. Well, the wheels fell off that one in a loss for the Giants after Bumgarner had departed.The Giants certainly dont need a repeat performance Saturday night, although Bumgarner has already been party to one ugly incident at Petco Park this season.On May 18, Bumgarner stared down Wil Myers after striking out the Padres main threat in the third inning. Myers offense was glancing up at the video board to check the velocity and the replay. When he noticed Bumgarners reaction, Myers said: Cmon man, dont stare me down. A benches clearing face-off ensued. Bumgarner later said: I just wanted to be mad for a second.Bumgarner and Myers made up later in the game when the pitcher reached first.Now theres a rematch, and Myers is one of the few Padres holdovers from that May 18 lineup that Bumgarner faced. Two nights ago, the 25-year-old Myers was the veteran of a Padres lineup that numbered six rookies.Bumgarner is 14-9 with a 2.57 ERA. He ranks third in the majors in ERA and strikeouts (241). Bumgarner needs four more strikeouts to pass Cy Seymour as the Giants single-season record holder. Seymours record of 244 has stood for 118 seasons.Bumgarner is 2-2 with a 3.18 ERA against the Padres this season. He was 2-0 in the first half with a 1.72 ERA as the Giants beat the Padres nine straight times. He is 0-2, 4.97 in the second half.Starting for the Padres Saturday night will be right-hander Jarred Cosart, who is 0-3 in eight starts for the Padres with a 5.45 ERA. He will be facing the Giants for the first time as a Padre.
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Cheap Jordans From China . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games.
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Wholesale Air Jordan 12 Paypal . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. RIO DE JANEIRO -- From a battery of surveillance cameras to extra security guards, Olympic officials have taken a series of measures inside Rios doping lab to prevent a repeat of the manipulation of samples that sabotaged the drug-testing system at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.Dr. Richard Budgett, the International Olympic Committees medical director, said Monday that officials are very confident the increased security will protect the thousands of urine and blood samples being stored and tested at the laboratory for the Rio de Janeiro Games.We take it extremely seriously, Budgett said. We are making sure everything is being done so that the integrity of those samples is maintained.The additional measures were implemented following the scandal over state-sponsored doping in Russia, including evidence that tainted samples were swapped out for clean ones during the Sochi Games. A report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren found that samples of Russian athletes were passed through a concealed hole in the wall during the middle of the night in Sochi, with the help of Russian intelligence officers.The Sochi sample swapping was part of a systematic program of doping and cover-ups overseen by Russias sports ministry that also extended to dozens of summer and winter Olympic sports, according to McLarens report.All of us fighting for the clean athletes were deeply shocked by the McLaren report and felt betrayed in many ways, Budgett said. We are doing everything we can do to make sure it doesnt happen again.Samples in Rio are being transported directly from the doping control stations at the venues to the lab, where they are being opened without delay for analysis, a process that Budgett said reduces and probably eliminates the possibility of tampering with the samples.Budgett said a huge security presence involving national guard and private security officers is in place, along with an extensive network of surveillance cameras.I will get the footage personally of the surveillance camera pointing at the door of the freezer where the samples are kept, he said. That will be a months worth of footage of surveillance of the freezer.A guard is posted round-the-clock in front of the freezer to check everyone who enters the area to take out samples. Technicians must enter two at a time. A large number of international expertss, including four doping lab directors and WADA observers, are on site, sometimes staying all night, Budgett said.ddddddddddddThe whole thing is very carefully controlled, Budgett said. There will be forensic examination of samples as well to make sure there has been no tampering.In addition, officials are using new doping control kits that should be tamper proof, he said. McLarens report found that Russians were able to open the doping containers to change the samples.McLarens report -- which was based largely on testimony from former Russian anti-doping lab director Grigory Rodchenkov -- prompted calls for Russia to be banned entirely from the Rio Games. The IOC instead allowed international federations determine which individual Russian athletes met the criteria to compete.Of course, we look at ourselves and wonder how we could have done better in Sochi, Budgett said. At the time we thought we had great expertise in place, but when you have a director of a lab involved in that way, clearly that is a challenge. Lessons have been learned.As with other games, the IOC will store Rio doping samples for 10 years so they can be retested when improved techniques become available. More than 4,000 samples are being collected in Rio.The message to all cheats is, `Beware, you will be caught eventually, Budgett said.No further positive cases have been recorded in the final two rounds of retesting of stored samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Games, Budgett said. A total of 98 athletes tested positive in the first two waves of reanalysis. Six athletes have been formally disqualified and stripped of medals so far.Budgett also said a verified test for gene doping should be ready in a matter of months rather than years.A new test has been developed in Australia to detect if cheats are injecting synthetic genes which cause the body to produce more of the naturally-occurring hormone EPO, which in turn boosts the bodys ability to carry more oxygen in its blood.The new procedure, when approved by WADA, will be used to test samples from the Rio Olympics after the games.---Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/stevewilsonap. His work can be found at
http://bigstory.ap.org/content/stephen-wilson ' ' '
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