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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Matt Garza plans to pitch as well as he can for the Chicago Cubs as long as hes with the team. Thats how hes dealing with all this trade talk. Garza pitched eight sharp innings for his third consecutive win, leading the Cubs to a 3-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night. "For the past six or seven years my name always comes up," he said. "Until my phone rings, Im going to be a Cub. Im just worried about the next five days." Garza (4-1) allowed one run and four hits, struck out five and walked three in his fourth consecutive quality start. The right-hander is 3-0 with a sparkling 0.90 ERA since yielding a season-high nine runs to the Cincinnati Reds on June 11. "Thats as good as Ive seen him in two years," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "Thats with seven lefties in the lineup. His command of the fastball down and away, he didnt need to throw many breaking balls. He had extra velocity when he needed it and threw first pitch strikes." With the Cubs well off the pace in the NL Central, Garza could be one of the top targets for contenders looking for pitching help ahead of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. "Sure I love pitching in October," Garza said. "Id love to be pitching with this team in October. Were scratching and clawing our way back into the toughest division." Luis Valbuena homered for Chicago, which has won five of seven. Alfonso Soriano and Brian Bogusevic each drove in a run, and Kevin Gregg pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 15 chances. Brandon Moss went deep for the Athletics, who had won five of six. Bartolo Colon (11-3) gave up two runs and nine hits in seven innings in his first loss since May 9. "It was a good matchup with two pitchers you expect to go deep into games," As manager Bob Melvin said. "We had a tough time figuring out Garza." As catcher John Jaso, one of the many left-handed batters, said he had trouble with Garzas fastball. "He moved it around on me the whole night," Jaso said. "When he struck me out it was on a curve that just dropped in. I hadnt seen it all night and it was perfect timing." Colon (11-3) was 8-0 with a 1.66 ERA in his previous nine starts. He won the AL pitcher of the month award earlier in the day after going 5-0 with a 1.75 ERA in June. "He made a good pitch to Soriano, who stayed on it and got the bloop single and then the home run," Melvin said. "Other than that he pitched like weve seen him all year." Colons first wild pitch in over four years helped the Cubs score in the first. Starlin Castro singled with one out, advanced to second on the wild pitch and scored on Sorianos single. Colons last wild pitch was on May 26, 2009, a span of 1,499 days and 443 innings. Valbuenas seventh homer of the season gave the Cubs a 2-0 edge in the third. It was his first home run in just over a month. Moss connected for his 15th homer in the fourth, but Dioner Navarro and Bogusevic hit back-to-back doubles to make it 3-1 in the eighth. NOTES: The Cubs designated RHP Shawn Camp for assignment and optioned LHP Chris Rusin to Triple-A Iowa, making room for RHP Matt Guerrier, acquired in a trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers, and RHP Pedro Strop, part of the deal that sent RHP Scott Feldman to the Baltimore Orioles. Sveum called designating Camp "not my finest day as a manager." ... Colon is the As first pitcher of the month since Dan Haren in May 2007. ... Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville will throw out a ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field on Saturday. ... As RHP Jarrod Parker (hamstring) had his start pushed back to Saturday. RHP Dan Straily (4-2, 5.00 ERA) will be recalled from Triple-A Sacramento to make Thursdays start. ... LHP Travis Wood (5-6, 2.85 ERA) starts for the Cubs. Hes 0-3 in his last five starts. ... The As drew a sellout crowd of 35,067 on fireworks night despite an ongoing BART strike. ... Soriano has 37 RBIs in his last 50 games. Air Force 1 Nz Cheap . One out away from finishing off an impressive shutout, they let a must-win game slip away. Air Force 1 Nz Cheap Outlet . Cleary also had two assists and Patrick Eaves added two goals for the Red Wings, who also ousted Phoenix in seven games during the first round of the 2010 postseason. Todd Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist for Detroit, which got a goal apiece from Tomas Holmstrom and Niklas Kronwall and suffered no shortage of offense despite the absences of Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen. http://www.airforce1nz.com/ . Bibeau, Torontos sixth-round pick at No. 172 overall in last years draft, was named the outstanding goaltender of the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup. Cheap Air Force 1 Nz .com) - The Toronto Raptors are paying Rudy Gay a visit on Wednesday night when they head into the Sleep Train Arena to take on the Sacramento Kings. Air Force 1 Nz Online . -- Crystal Webster avoided elimination at the 2013 Capital One Road to the Roar Olympic pre-trial curling tournament with an 8-5 win over Amber Holland on Thursday.NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute preseason game on Sunday as the NBA experiments with a shorter game.The contest will be four minutes shorter than the NBAs standard 48-minute game. The league said Monday that the teams will play four 11-minute quarters, one minute shorter than normal.At our recent coaches meeting, we had a discussion about the length of our games, and it was suggested that we consider experimenting with a shorter format, Rod Thorn, the NBAs president of basketball operations, said in a statement. After consulting with our Competition Committee, we agreed to allow the Nets and Celtics to play a 44-minute preseason game in order to give us some preliminary data that will help us to further analyze game-time lengths.There also will be only two mandatory timeouts per quarter. One will come at the first dead ball under 6:59 of the period if neither team has taken a timeout prior, and the second will be triggered by the first dead ball under 2:59 if neither team has taken a timeout since the first manddatory timeout.ddddddddddddThere are three mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters of the 48-minute game.A 44-minute game would bring the NBA closer to college and international play, where the games are 40 minutes. A 44-minute game also would be 328 less minutes over the course of an 82-game season, which would translate to about seven fewer games.But it would create some challenges for coaches.Im looking forward to gauging its impact on the flow of the game. Since there is a shorter clock, it affects playing time, so itll be interesting to see how it plays into substitution patterns, Nets coach Lionel Hollins said.Hollins called it a unique experiment that was worth participating in, and Boston coach Brad Stevens agreed.I appreciate the NBAs long history of forward thinking and willingness to try new ideas, Stevens said. We told the NBA that wed be happy to participate in this trial during a preseason game. I look forward to experiencing it and continuing the dialogue after Oct. 19.The game will be televised live on NBA TV. ' ' '