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Daniel Murphy and left-handed pitching for the Washington Nationals have played key roles in the first two games of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.Murphy is 4-for-6 in the first two games and the Dodgers are 1-for-14 against left-handed pitching in this series.Now the series shifts to Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon for Game 3 and not only will the Dodgers have to face Murphy three or four more times, their hitters will have to face left-handed starter Gio Gonzalez.He wants to be in that position, Washington manager Dusty Baker said of Murphy. You know, thats where it starts. You have to want to be in that position. He has a high level of concentration, and he has a pretty good idea what he wants to do with the ball. And he knows when hes supposed to keep it off the ground. He knows when hes supposed to make contact. He also knows when he should go for the bunt, go for the homer. He has a great idea on how to play and how to hit and how to play this game.In seven postseason games against the Dodgers, Murphy is 11-for-27 (.408) with three home runs and five RBI. He was 7-for-21 last year for the Mets, hit two home runs in Los Angeles and had three hits in two RBI in Sundays 5-2 win.Murphy also was on second base prior to Jose Lobtons three-run home run that turned an early 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.He has a way of -- what he always does is he puts an at-bat together, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. You know, especially in the post-season, he really doesnt go out of the zone. He really stays in the strike zone and finds a way to use the whole field. And left on left, right on left, it really doesnt matter for Murphy.Meanwhile getting the left-handed hitting second baseman out has hardly been the only issue for Los Angeles, which is tied heading into Game 3 for the fourth straight season. After finishing the regular season with an MLB-worst .213 average against left-handed pitching, the Dodgers have not been productive when facing southpaw relievers Sammy Solis, Marc Rzepcynski and Oliver Perez.Solis held the Dodgers to one hit in seven at-bats in the series opener and retired Adrian Gonzalez for the final out of the sixth with two on. Rzepcynski issued three walks Sunday but struck out Yasmani Grandal and retired Howie Kendrick with the bases loaded in the fifth before retiring Charlie Culberson and Corey Seager in the sixth.I dont really think that guys are too concerned about the history, Roberts said. I think that we are looking forward to this one game, Game 3, and weve got some history with Gio. So hes going to have to make pitches to beat us.Gonzalez is 3-1 with a 1.69 ERA in five career starts against the Dodgers. On Aug. 10, 2015, he allowed seven hits over eight shutout innings in an 8-3 win at Los Angeles and on July 20 in Washington, Gonzalez allowed one run and three hits in six innings of an 8-1 victory.The hitters on the Dodgers postseason roster have combined for a .163 average (23-for-141) against Gonzalez. Gonzalez is 2-for-17, Yasiel Puig is 1-for-11, Utley is 3-for-20 and Justin Turner is 2-for-19.Its never easy facing that lineup, Gonzalez said. I would never say, hey, just go out there and pitch. You definitely have to some have common sense to throw some of these guys. You cant just groove a fastball right down the middle.The hitter with the best numbers against Gonzalez is catcher Carlos Ruiz, who is 7-for-29 (.241).Gonzalez was 11-11 with a 4.57 ERA during the regular season and was 0-2 with an 8.31 ERA in his last three starts. Against left-handed hitters, he gave up a .241 average with one home run.Monday will be Gonzalezs fourth postseason start for the Nationals and he has a 3.21 ERA in three no-decisions in the playoffs. He started Games 1 and 5 against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012 and two years ago Gonzalez pitched four scoreless innings in the Game 4 loss at San Francisco.Even if Los Angeles struggles against Gonzalez and other left-handed pitching, it might have the edge in starting pitching by sending Kenta Maeda to the mound. Last year Brett Anderson started a 13-7 loss in New York and lasted three innings in Game 3.Maeda went 16-11 with a 3.48 ERA in 32 starts during his rookie campaign. He led the Dodgers in wins, innings (175 2/3) and strikeouts (179). Maeda also led qualifying rookie starters with a .229 opponents batting average, a 1.14 WHIP and a 3.58 strikeout-to-walk ratio.Maeda also was the only Dodger to make every start.It was an honor and I was happy that I was able to pitch throughout the whole season, and especially this year with a lot of injuries, there was no time for me to afford missing starts, Maeda said through an interpreter Sunday morning before flying back to Los Angeles to rest. Cheap Hydro Flask With Straw Sale . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. Hydro Flask Cheapest . 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Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs South Africa v Pakistan, Cape Town, January 2003 One of the great things about Test cricket is that it is often difficult to tell which side is winning. You cant tell what sort of pitch this is, goes the maxim, until youve seen both sides have a bat on it. There is a valid argument here, and sometimes a first innings does little more than frame the contest. But other elements of the game besides the score - the intangibles such as momentum, confidence, aggression and injustice - are all determined from the first ball of the match.This is to say that opening partnerships are vital. They set the tone. No wicket is more important than the first one, no score more ominous than 100 for 0. When it comes to really big stands, one name reoccurs: Graeme Smith. There have been 13 opening stands of 300 or more, and Smith appears in four. He has a share of the biggest (415 with Neil McKenzie) and has three triple-century partnerships with the unpredictable live wire Gibbs (no other pair has more than one). Of the three, the 368 against Pakistan was comfortably the most entertaining.Pakistan were, admittedly, a shower. They lost the first Test by ten wickets and this by an innings. They lost their entire match fee for bowling so slowly. But how else could they contend with Gibbs when his famously fast hands and scattered brain clicked in sync? He bullied Waqar Younis and Saqlain Mushtaq with a range of shots that caused grown men in the stands to miss their mouths with their sandwiches, according to Wisden. Smiths 151 was more restrained but no less lordly. History records him as an ugly player. But he was also an unyielding one.Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss England v Australia, Edgbaston, August 2005 The Test with the most famous ending of all also had a beginning to remember. Those of a curmudgeonly bent might say that the most important moment came before a ball had been bowled, when Glenn McGrath rolled his right ankle in the warm-up. In a weird attempted double bluff, Ricky Ponting stuck England in, as if to demonstrate that his side could duff them up under any circumstances. He was wrong. Strauss and Trescothick took advantage of some non-McGrathian lines from Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie and launched one of crickets most famous attacks. Shane Warne was brought in after only 13 overs; Trescothick hit him back over his head for six. Warne then got Strauss on the brink of lunch with a big legbreak, but by that point England had made 111in 25 overs and were ahead of the game, and back in the series.Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes England v Bangladesh, Lords, May 2010 Imagine playing in a team that has lost 57 out of its 66 matches. Imagine returning to a ground where, on the only previous occasion you had played, you lost in less than three days, by an innings and 260 runs. Keeping morale up, giving your all - the bare minimum we expect of professional sportsmen - is more difficult than it should be.In this match, Bangladeshs openers had the incentive of playing at the home of cricket, but the signs were ominous after Jonathan Trott took England to a first-innings 505, dashed off at more than four an over. Geoffrey Boycott, watching, said Bangladesh didnt belong in Test cricket. Tamim and Kayes, 21 and 23 respectively, had to fashion a response.Judging by their initially leaden footwork and wild heaves, they were so nervous it was a wonder the rest of Lords couldnt hear their hearts thumping. But after eight overs of very skittish cricket, Tamim settled and crashed Tim Bresnan for three boundaries in six balls. Three overs later, Kayes got stuck into a rusty James Anderson.dddddddddddd Tamim reached a quick 50 in the 22nd over before he was run out by a direct hit from Kevin Pietersen. Regardless, the 88-run stand settled the nerves. As if to demonstrate that fact, the pair put on 185 in the second innings, with Tamim making an outrageous, flamboyant century from 94 balls. Bangladesh still succumbed to loss number 58, but they had proved a point.Michael Atherton and Marcus Trescothick Sri Lanka v England, Galle, February 2001 While on the subject of failure, an 83-run opening stand in an innings defeat doesnt seem especially worthy of praise. But Atherton and Trescothicks mini-masterpiece in Galle set the tone for one of Englands finest series wins. Everything was against the tourists: suffocating humidity, a boisterous opposition, and a slump to ninth in the world rankings. By the end, England were convinced the umpires had it in it for them too. It was open conflict disguised as cricket.Marvan Atapattus unbeaten double-hundred meant Sri Lanka kept England in the field for 170 overs - hardly the ideal start to a Test series. England, with the added pressure of a long tail, needed the top order to hang around. On his previous overseas tour, to Pakistan, Atherton had done just that as leading run scorer, with a strike rate of less than 35. Here he showed his junior partner, a green Trescothick, how to negotiate Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena and the rest. Trescothick went on to make his first ton, and though he shared another painstaking partnership with Atherton in the second innings, there was little resistance beneath them, and England lost by an innings and 28.The tour was far from over. Lionhearted bowling from Darren Gough and some middle-order accumulation got England a win in Kandy, and then two not-outs from Graham Thorpe sealed the series in Colombo. But England would never have found the necessary application and grit had Cockroach and Banger not shown the way in Galle. Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes West Indies v England, Antigua, April 1990 A fine example of cricket as a game that punches you in the face, and then, for good measure, kicks you in the nuts. For 20 years, touring the Caribbean was like playing football at Old Trafford. Teams arrived already beaten. Graham Goochs England had more reason than most to be cowed. They were on a mind-boggling run of one win in 25 Tests, while their opponents hadnt lost a series in a decade. Yet an attack of Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small, Angus Fraser and David Capel somehow outbowled Ian Bishop, Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall and Patrick Patterson, for a nine-wicket win in the first Test. An abandoned game, a draw and a loss left the series all square with one to play.Part of Englands success had been subduing West Indies GOAT opening pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes. In the first four Tests, they managed only a single substantial score between them: Haynes 109 in the fourth. Yet when England were still hopeful of a truly remarkable series win, the pair pulled out a partnership for the ages. Nearly 300 runs were plundered as England finally succumbed to the psychological torture of playing cricket in the Caribbean: the heat, the cacophony from the stands, the imminent threat to life of facing Marshall and pals, the tired muscles, the aching brains. The bowlers sprayed the ball around and were duly punished. England ended the tour with an innings defeat, and just a modicum of pride. ' ' '