that Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock lined up for the Russian

With their season on the line, the Dodgers will send Clayton Kershaw to the mound on three days rest for Game 4 against the Nationals. Washington will counter with right-hander Joe Ross. Is the series headed back to Washington for Game 5 or will the Nationals be on their way to the NLCS?Go inside the numbers and matchups that will decide Tuesdays game, then vote for which team will win?at the bottom of the page.Inside the pitching matchupWhen Joe Ross is on the mound: Ross is a two-seam fastball/slider guy whose fastball runs up to 93-94 mph. He doesnt throw his changeup much and his slider has good 12-to-6 break and held righties to a .174 average. The problem is lefties destroyed his fastball at a .441/.505/.591 clip. He wasnt homer-prone, but he generates so few swings and misses against lefty hitters that it results in a high average allowed. You may have heard that the Dodgers lineup leans left-handed.The other concern is that Ross has pitched just 9? innings since returning from a sore shoulder that sidelined him for most of July and all of August. He allowed one run in four innings in his final outing but threw 90 pitches. If he starts, expect a quick hook. -- David SchoenfieldWhen?Clayton Kershaw is on the mound: Great fastball, great curveball, great slider, great command, great deception ... you know all this. Kershaw has cut his fastball rate from 70 percent in his early years to 60 percent by 2013 and is now down to just over 50 percent. He now throws his slider twice as often as his curve. Batters dont really do much with any of the three pitches.His start in Game 1 was a struggle, with 101 pitches in just five innings. The Nationals were patient -- some believe the best approach against Kershaw is to attack fastballs early in the count -- and Kershaws command was just a little off. The key was not chasing anything off the plate, and the Nationals had a chase rate of just 22 percent compared to 33 percent against Kershaw over the season. Thats 11 pitches they didnt swing at that Kershaw usually gets swings on.Jayson Stark made a great point about Kershaw in his piece on Monday: Hes so good in the regular season that when he allows even three runs, its a bad game. That creates enormous pressure to pitch great every time out. Does the mental weight of that catch up to him by October? Are our expectations just too high? He pitched on three days rest last year and was great, holding the Mets to one run in seven innings in extending that series. -- SchoenfieldPlayer in the spotlightJayson Werth. He had some terrific at-bats in Game 3, including a big home run in the ninth off Kenley Jansen. He has a .500 OBP in these three games and crushed lefties during the regular season at a .322/.411/.620 clip. Hell be a tough out. -- SchoenfieldWhat will decide Mondays gameCorey Seager has three hits in this series, all for extra bases, and all three of them have come on pitches on the outer half. He has seen 18 pitches out there, swinging at nine of them and not missing any of them. But he has seen 29 pitches on the inner half, and he has missed seven of his 17 swings against them (41 percent). Hes 0-for-7 with all three of his strikeouts in at-bats ending on pitches on the inner half.?-- ESPN Stats & InfoChoosing sides: Who will win???The Nats clearly have Uncle Mo on their side right now. But good ole Mo is only as good as the next days starting pitcher. In this case, that would be Joe Ross. Nothing against Ross, but hes no Clayton Kershaw. L.A. leverages the audio earthquake that is Dodger Stadium and evens up the series. -- Eddie MatzWith so many injuries and roster uncertainty, this whole season has been a back-to-the-wall proposition for the Dodgers, so theyve been through this already and are probably confident they can force a deciding Game 5. Expect all of that left-handed Dodgers hitting talent to be unleashed against right-hander Joe Ross in front of a home audience. -- Doug PadillaWhere the series standsWell, the Dodgers have to win! All hands on deck. If its a low-scoring game, Dusty Bakers ability to mix and match his bullpen will be a key. So far, so good, as the Nationals pen has tossed 12? scoreless innings.?-- Schoenfield Authentic China NFL jerseys . Spiller left Week 3s 27-20 loss to the New York Jets with a thigh injury, but fully practiced with the team all week and expects to be ready to go on Sunday. wholesale nfl jerseys . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net. http://www.overallcheapjerseys.com/ . The 15th-ranked Canadian men lost the opening two games of their European tour: 19-15 to No. 17 Georgia and 21-20 to No. cheap jerseys From China .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. cheap jerseys . 31, the CFL club announced Monday. The team also has yet to decide on the future of Doug Berry, who began the season as a consultant to the head coach but took over the offensive co-ordinators duties in July. TORONTO -- Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were born into a rivalry 11 years ago which doesnt really befit the sport they play.Hockey is more about team than any other sport. They are both the first to tell you that.They both constantly downplay their individual comparisons. They long ago tired of the narrative. Frankly, so have many of us.But it is on nights like these when the comparison is dragged back out because you have no choice.It is on nights like these, fair or not, that superstar players either add to their mystique or ... the complete opposite.And on this World Cup of Hockey semifinal night, No. 87 rose above everyone else yet again, while No. 8 struggled mightily.Its like the five-tool guy vs. the home-run hitter: The five-tool guy finds more ways to win all the time, said a Western Conference head coach not involved in the tourney, via text message after Canadas 5-3 semifinal win Saturday.Full-court player vs. half-court player, added an Eastern Conference GM not involved in the World Cup, via text message during the third period.World juniors, NHL playoffs, mens world championships, Olympics and now World Cup: Crosby owns Ovechkin by any definition.No question, if you had Crosby and Ovechkin swap uniforms Saturday night, Ovechkin might have had a better chance of scoring with Team Canada boasting a deeper squad.But the point is, its Crosby who led the way, its Crosby with the superb takeaway on the opening goal, its Crosby who set up Brad Marchand just 1:12 after Russia had taken a stunning 2-1 lead in the second period.Its Crosby, always Crosby, in the big moment, the bigger the stage.Hes able to impose his will or change the game at any time, said Team Canada defenseman Shea Weber, playing in his third best-on-best tourney with Crosby. Hes one of those guys thats got the ability to switch momentum.The great ones always seem to have perfect timing.I think thats one thing that makes him such a good player, is his determination, and he always comes up big in the big games, linemate Brad Marchand said. You see plays like that, thats where the leadership comes in. And when youre able to lead at this level, of a group of leaders, then youre able to take control. That just shows how special of a player he is, and he created that whole goal, and ultimately, that did lead to turning the game around.Its as if Crosby never stopped playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs, his short summer after winning his second NHL championship perhaps helping him find that top-level stride here in a September tournament.I tthink definitely playing later into the year and playing in those type of games helped to kind of transition to these type of games, Crosby said.ddddddddddddOne game, anything can happen -- the intensity, the emotion -- everythings so high. So, I think that that definitely helps.The Canadian captain tallied a goal and two assists in 16:43 of ice time, while Ovechkin was limited to one shot on goal in 20:29 of ice time.Different players with different talents playing different positions. Still, the discrepancy on this night between both superstars was staggering.I tried to do my best, obviously, Ovechkin said afterward. Sometimes it doesnt matter if you score goals or not. You just have to you play hard, and I tried to play my hardest. Everybody was on the same page, playing the same system.Credit to Ovechkin, who always faces the music after these tough losses -- just like he did after his Washington Capitals were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins just a few months ago. The pose is all too familiar: the gray specks of hair, the stare into emptiness, the look of a defeated man.Dont ever confuse Ovechkins desire. He wants to win so badly. But it just hasnt happened for him at the Olympics or the World Cup and certainly not in the NHL. Ovechkins downfall on this night had nothing to do with Crosby but rather with the matchups that Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock lined up for the Russian winger: Jonathan Toews line paired with the blue-line combo of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Weber.Just like in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic quarterfinal game, Ovechkin got a healthy dose of the Man Mountain, Weber, and it didnt go well for him.Ovies a big big man and can wear you down. Web doesnt get worn down; hes too big, Babcock said in explaining the matchup. I thought it was a good stable pair and a good group.Weber, who easily played his best game of the World Cup, takes pride in that kind of difficult challenge.Yeah, obviously hes a guy that can score at will, Weber said of Ovechkin. He scores 50 goals a year in the NHL. Hes a dangerous player. Any chance you get to play against a guy like that and shut him down, yeah, you take pride in that side of the game.Years from now, though, fewer will remember the job Toews or Weber did on Ovechkin. They likely will remember it as another big game in which Crosby got the better of Ovechkin.Like it or not, thats the story which doesnt seem to ever change. ' ' '