ery unsportsmanlike.Im hoping the commi

SEATTLE -- Mike Trout had a disappointing 25th birthday to cap yet another rough series for the Los Angeles Angels.Trout struck out four times against starter James Paxton, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Angels 3-1 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.I cant pick his stuff up. I dont know. It was just one of those days, said Trout, who struck out four times for the fourth time in his career, the last time also against Paxton on Sept. 7, 2014. Just not picking it up, not getting my foot down.Paxton was forced from the game in the ninth inning after taking Andrelton Simmons line drive off his left arm. X-rays were negative, and the left-hander has just a contusion on his left elbow. Hes listed as day-to-day.Paxton (4-5), who was on the verge of his first career complete game, struck out six with one walk in a career-high 8 1/3 innings.Seattle erased a 1-0 deficit with three runs in the fourth inning off Matt Shoemaker (6-12), although the Angels prevented a bigger inning with two stellar defensive plays.Seth Smith, Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz opened with consecutive singles for the first run. After Adam Lind was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Trout prevented a grand slam with a leaping catch above the center-field wall on Leonys Martins sacrifice fly that made it 2-1.Mike Zunino then bounced to shortstop Simmons, who threw out Cruz at home. Mike Freeman, called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Tacoma, followed with an RBI single.Paxton had good stuff and pitched a strong game. Shoe had his back up against the wall, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. In the fourth inning we made some nice defensive plays to keep ourselves in, but those guys kept pressuring us and got the three runs.Shoemaker allowed three runs on seven hits in seven innings, striking out three and hitting three batters.You could name it all, maybe a little bit of bad luck, some mislocated pitches that got hit fairly well, Shoemaker said. It was just kind of a mixture of things.The Angels pushed across an unearned run in the third after shortstop Sean OMalley booted Shane Robinsons one-out chopper. Robinson came around on singles by Kole Calhoun and Albert Pujols.In the ninth, Simmons reached on an infield single on the liner off Paxton. Tom Wilhelmsen came on and allowed a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Ji-Man Choi, but got Johnny Giavotella on a game-ending ground out to short.The sweep was the first of the Angels by Seattle since Sept. 26-28, 2014. Trout had two homers, a triple and seven RBI in the series, but also struck out seven times in 11 at-bats.Against Paxton, Trout is 2 for 20 with 10 strikeouts.CANOS STREAK ENDSSeattle 2B Robinson Cano was given the day off, ending his consecutive games started streak at 167, the longest in the majors.CHEERING FOR ICHIRPlayers were still on the field after the game when the scoreboard at Safeco Field showed Ichiro Suzukis 3,000th hit in major league baseball for the Miami Marlins at Colorado, drawing applause from Mariners players and fans. Suzuki, who made his major league debut in 2001 with Seattle at the age of 27 after an illustrious career in Japan, had a team-high 2,533 hits in his 11 1/2 seasons with the Mariners. He set the major league record for hits in a single season with 262 in 2004.TRAINING ROOMAngels: 3B Yunel Escobar, who injured his left knee on the final play Saturday, was scratched Sunday from the leadoff spot after the knee bothered him during pregame warm-ups.UP NEXTAngels: After a day off Monday, Los Angeles heads to Chicago for a two-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. In two career starts against the Cubs, RHP Jered Weaver (8-8, 5.11) has allowed just one earned run in 13 innings.Cheap Air Max 720 . The head of USA Boxing came out swinging Tuesday with an open letter to Tyson -- a former Olympic hopeful himself -- that accuses the former heavyweight champion of trying to poach fighters who might be candidates for the U. Air Max 720 Discount .J. -- Seven games into a disappointing season, New York Giants defensive catalyst Jason Pierre-Paul is getting the feeling hes back. http://www.cheapairmax720.net/ . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Air Max 720 Best Price . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to look at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. Air Max 720 Sale .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona.This is the time of year when teams fighting for spots in the College Football Playoff might be tempted to run up big margins in hopes of impressing the selection committee.Whether that strategy actually makes a difference is up for debate.Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, who chairs the College Football Playoff committee, says the committee doesnt take margin of victory into account.We talk about how that team has performed each and every week, Hocutt said. We talk about `Was that a convincing win? ... I believe, in certain games a convincing win can be a 14-0 score, and in other games it can be a 35-7 score. I think in the game of college football, a convincing win can vary. But in no way do we incent margin of victory.Yet that didnt stop Louisville coach Bobby Petrino from bringing up margin of victory recently when he complained about his teams position in the rankings. Maybe I made a mistake, looking back at it, he said. (Against) Florida State, we shouldve kept all the starters in and scored 80 points and done that.Louisville beat Florida State 63-20 on Sept. 17, though the Cardinals playoff hopes suffered a major blow Thursday night when they fell 36-10 at Houston.Of course, scoring 80 against Florida State technically shouldnt have mattered to the committee if it isnt taking margin of victory into account. But how do the committee members not pay attention to the actual scores of games?I think they do to some degree, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. Thats probably the best way to say it. I think they take all of it into consideration. But its a very bright group that, in some cases, it probably doesnt matter too much to them, and in some cases it does.Jeff Sagarin, who has his own rating system to rank teams, says common sense shows that the playoff committee does factor in the scores of each game. Sagarin cited the 2014 season, when eventual national champion Ohio State leapfrogged TCU to earn the fourth playoff spot after trouncing Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten championship game.Their problem is if they ever verbalize, `Oh, we look at scores, then people will castigate them for encouraging teams to run up the score, so they have to pretend they dont, Sagarin said.Sagarin says his own ratings are based on who did you play, where did you play and what was the score. His rankings at the start of this week were virtually identical to the CFP rankings, with one notable exception.The CFP rankings had Clemson fourth and Louisville fifth, while Sagarins ratings reversed the order of those two Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Those rankings were done before Louisvilles loss to Houston. Both the CFP and Sagarin had Alabaama first, Ohio State second, Michigan third and Washington sixth.ddddddddddddYou get better accuracy predicting future games when you use the score, Sagarin said. Thats all I can say about it. If people want to ignore the scores, thats their business, but the committee, I dont think they do (ignore the scores).Alabama coach Nick Saban, whose team has appeared in each of the first two playoffs, says he doesnt believe margin of victory should be factored into the CFP rankings.I dont think that beating another team by an embarrassing score really should be something that (should be rewarded) from a sportsmanship standpoint or a common respect standpoint for the other team and their players and their families, Saban said. Thats not really something that should be a part of the game.But Hocutt acknowledged the committee discusses what constitutes a convincing win. How often has the eye test come up as a way to judge a team during the playoff era? Sagarin notes the frequent references to style points.Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher recalls the example of his 2014 team that went undefeated in the regular season but only earned a No. 3 seed in the playoff behind Alabama and Oregon, who had each lost a game. Florida State played several close games that year, and committee members often referred to the Seminoles lack of game control without specifically mentioning scores.We were undefeated, hadnt lost in two years, but game control, Fisher said this week. I havent heard `game control anymore. Did that one go out of the equation?Ohio State coach Urban Meyer says he doesnt mind a scenario in which the committee considers how well a team played without specifically analyzing the victory margin. Meyer was concerned that if the victory margin becomes an ultimate measuring stick, teams might start acting ...I guess the term is very unsportsmanlike.Im hoping the committee -- I have great confidence there -- just looks at the body of work, the strength of schedule and how they played, Meyer said.The dilemma in that approach is determining how a team played without considering victory margin. That backs up Sagarins notion that scores are taken into consideration, whether or not the committee says so.Its not something evil, Sagarin said. Scores reflect what happened in the game. Thats all.---AP Sports Writers Cliff Brunt, Joe Reedy and John Zenor contributed to this report.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25---Follow Steve Megargee at www.twitter.com/stevemegargee ' ' '