ed a passage from Mike Marqusees War Minus the Shooting. In Pakistan, during the 1996 World Cup, England wanted to

MIAMI -- Christian Yelich reached 20 home runs in a season for the first time in his young career with the Miami Marlins.Yelich hit a solo home run off Max Scherzer in an 8-3 loss to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.The 24-year old outfielder had not hit more than nine home runs in a season before this year. He has a .299 average and a career-high 95 RBI.There is still room for him (to grow as a hitter), Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. That was one of the first true pull homers weve seen from him that he gets the ball up in the air he hits it clean and gets the right angle. Its coming. Hes only going to get better. Crossing those barriers, you start to know you can. To double (his homer total) in one season, your mind goes `I can do that.Tom Koehler (9-12) allowed four runs -- three earned -- in four innings for the Marlins. They had won three in a row to stay in contention for the second wild card spot.It kind of leaves us in the same spot, Mattingly said. It wouldve been nice if we could have won and cut a game off. Hopefully the Dodgers win tonight.Scherzer (18-7) strengthened his case to be the NL Cy Young Award winner. He pitched 6 2/3 innings to tie for the National League victory lead with 18.When we needed shut-down innings I was able to go out there and put up zeroes when we really needed it and it helped get the offense going, Scherzer said.Scherzer allowed three runs and struck out eight to push his major league-leading total to 267. Hes tied for with Chicagos Jon Lester for the most wins in the NL.He should be in strong consideration for a Cy Young, Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. I talked to him earlier and I gave him a number and said lets win six or seven of them and he said, `I want to win all of them. Thats the attitude you want and thats the attitude that he carries and the guys love playing behind him.Ryan Zimmerman hit a three-run homer and Trea Turner also homered for the Nationals.We got some good offensive days out of some guys especially after our offense was a little sleepy the last couple of days, Baker said.Washington ended a four-game losing streak and lowered their magic number to two to win the NL East over the New York Mets with a chance to clinch on Friday at Pittsburgh.Ive never been a part of anything like this, but its exciting, Turner said. Every game means something even down the stretch playing for home-field advantage or whatever it may be. Its exciting and I enjoy it.Yelich hit a solo home run and Derek Dietrich hit a two-run homer to chase Scherzer in the seventh and cut it to 6-3.Prior to the home runs allowed by Yelich and Dietrich, Scherzer had only allowed two hits.Obviously there in the seventh-of course Im frustrated about that, Scherzer said. You cant walk away from an outing like that feeling great when you give up two home runs especially when your last pitch is a home run. But youll beat yourself up and drive yourself crazy if you try to sit here every single start worrying about the negatives. This start had way more positives and thats what Im going to focus on.Wilson Ramos had an RBI double and scored on a sacrifice fly in the eighth to extend the Nationals lead to 8-3.Washington scored its first run when Koehlers pick-off throw to second went into centerfield and Yelich was unable to field it cleanly allowing Danny Espinosa to score.Zimmermans three-run homer, his 15th, to left field gave the Nationals a 4-0 lead in the fourth.You cant really afford to spot Max a 4-0 lead, Koehler said. More times than not he gets four runs, hes not going to give it back.Jayson Werth had an RBI single and Turner hit his 12th home run for a 6-0 advantage.TRAINERS ROOMMarlins: RF Giancarlo Stanton was held out of the lineup after starting and homering in the last two games. Medical says he felt he needed a day so we gave a day, Mattingly said. ... LHP Adam Conley (finger) pitched a three-inning simulation game Wednesday with hopes of returning to the team before the season ends.UP NEXTNationals: LHP Gio Gonzalez (11-10, 4.48) will take the mound on Friday in Pittsburgh against RHP Jameson Tailon (4-4, 3.39) to begin a three-game series against the Pirates in the final road trip of the season. Gonzalez has allowed six runs in two of his last three starts.Marlins: RHP Jose Urena (4-7, 5.59) will start Thursdays game against Atlanta RHP Josh Collmenter (2-0, 4.61). Urena allowed seven runs in two innings in his last start at Philadelphia.Adidas Nmd r2 Schweiz . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium. Adidas Gazelle Schweiz . -- New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis is retiring after a 16-year career to become the goalie coach for the Los Angeles Galaxy. http://www.nmdschweizkaufen.ch/ultra-boost-outlet.html . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. Nmd Schuhe Online . Hey!" The lower tier of the School End of Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road was packed solid with a very festive-sounding Chelsea choral section in this particular part of South Africa Road London, W12. Adidas Eqt Damen Sale . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne.A Pakistani player has reportedly accused an English counterpart of doing dirty things to a cricket ball. To some this comes as a surprise and an outrage. To those who know England-Pakistan cricketing relations, a little niggle like this is but a drop in the ocean. Indeed, compared to previous England-Pakistan contests, the summers England-India contest was a love-in. The series was as rancorous as a dispute in an all-boys boarding school; tiffs over Vaseline were as sticky as it got.For this reason I already anticipate with venomous glee the forthcoming series this winter. England versus Pakistan has often gone the same way as recent clashes between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The sport itself seems incidental. The dry pancake pitches of the Middle East dont promise particularly tasty cricket, but with England and Pakistan theres always enough masala off and around the pitch to spice up the play. Other series are kormas and bhunas and jalfrezis; this one is the vindaloo with the warning attached.Relations were not always strained. Writing in the Times in 1954, Sir Pelham Warner applauded a wonderfully spirited series between the two sides: There has not been one even remotely unpleasant incident. Oh, for those rosy days when there was decorum and decency, and people actually read the Times.A year later, all pretensions of friendship were washed away. The MCC were touring Pakistan and took umbrage, shall we say, to the lbw decisions of local umpire Idrees Baig. In Peshawar a group of MCC players kidnapped Beg, tossed him into a tonga, took him back to their hotel, and poured buckets of water over his head. (Thus we can trace the origins of two modern ills to the MCC: the kidnapping of travellers in the Frontier, and waterboarding.)This was a mere aperitif to later argy bargies. The fisticuffs between Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana are well-documented, as is Aaqib Javeds protestation that a jumper should be handed back on a diamond-studded gold plate, and of course Ian Bothams pro bono work for the Pakistan Tourist Board on behalf of his mother-in-law.Less well known is that an incident similar to Ian Bells non-run-out this summer occurred between the two sides in 1987. Bill Athey ran out Ramiz Raja in a move thhat had less spirit of the game than a spot-fixer on Nandrolone, appealing for a catch grasped two feet underground.dddddddddddd Did captain Mike Gatting recall the batsman? Please. This is England-Pakistan, not an afternoon tea party hosted by the BCCIs public relations chiefs wife.Like on the morning after a vindaloo, the pong of bitterness seems to stick around in the air. People from both countries remember, and make a point of doing so. In one Test in England, Graham Gooch was run out half a mile out of his crease, but somehow the home umpire gave him in. The reaction in Pakistan? Freeze-frame photos of the run-out were plastered on the sides of buses.Pakistans ill-fated tour in 2010 also lingers. An England fan I know says he can never forgive Pakistan for dragging the game into the gutter and ruining his cricket season. It should come as some consolation that many Pakistanis feel the same way about their own sides actions that year.Personally I have always remembered a passage from Mike Marqusees War Minus the Shooting. In Pakistan, during the 1996 World Cup, England wanted to practise on a square but were not permitted because it was the surface for the forthcoming match. An England player allegedly pulled out a 1000-rupee note and asked a senior official to reconsider. An utterly despicable and abominable act: everyone knows that in Punjab such a service would cost at least Rs 1500, plus VAT.On reflection, though, perhaps its better to ignore these antagonisms. Let bygones be bygones; forgive and forget; ignorance is peace. Drinking the world-class Murree Beer with a friend recently, I asked if he knew the origins of the Rawalpindi brewery. No, came the answer, so I told him the companys first owner was the father of General Dyer, he of the 1919 Amritsar massacre. My friend swore off Murree for life, his world forever drier, forever duller. I still dont understand his position. History is history, I say, and beer is beer, and cricket really should be just cricket.Which is all very well until that Jonathan Trott starts on my main man Wahab Riaz again, to which I say: Bring it on. ' ' '