WASHINGTON -- The Washington Nationals have a nine-game lead over the New York Mets in the National League East race.But that doesnt mean the three-game series between the two teams that begins Monday wont be important.Wed like to beat them, Washington manager Dusty Baker said after Sundays 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. We know they have to beat us. It should be a very interesting series.The Mets come to Washington with an eye on the National League wildcard while the Nationals hope to finish with the second-best record in the league and get a possible homefield advantage for the playoffs, perhaps against the Los Angeles Dodgers.Weve got to keep playing, Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters Sunday in Atlanta. We know we can play with (Washington) them. Theyve got a little bit of a pitching issue right now, similar to us. Weve just got to go in there and play. For its about winning games, I dont care who theyre against. You cant look at any particular thing, you just have to go in and win as many games as you can.New York will start right-hander Rafael Montero against the Nationals on Monday. He is 0-0 with a 4.63 ERA this season with New York. He was 8-9, 5.30 in the minor leagues this year with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Las Vegas. He pitched 4 1/3 innings on Sept. 6 against the Reds and gave up three hits and four runs.Baker did not name a starter for Monday or Tuesday against the Mets but the Nationals twitter account late Sunday reported that veteran right-hander Mat Latos would start on Monday against the Mets, with A.J. Cole going on Tuesday and Tanner Roark pitching Wednesday.Latos pitched for Baker in Cincinnati in 2012 and 2013 and was 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in six minor league starts in the Washington system this year. He signed with the Nationals as a minor league free agent on July 3 and is 1-0, 7.71 in two games for the Nationals this year.Latos was with the Chicago White Sox earlier this season -- he pitched against the Nationals one game -- and he was 6-2, 4.62 in 11 games in the American League this year before coming to Washington.Other options for the rest of the season for Washington include two rookie right-handers: Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez.Gioloito made his big league debut against the Mets at home in June while Lopez lost 5-1 to the Mets on Sept. 4 in New York. Lopes has made six starts this year for the Nationals and Giolito has made four.Giolito, who began the year as one of the top pitching prospects in the minors, is 0-1, 5.59 in five games with Washington.There has been some concern about his velocity: he threw in the upper 90s last year but was clocked around 90 in his last outing Wednesday as he came out of bullpen in a game in which Strasburg left early.Lopez has shown a devastating curve at times and is 2-3, 5.52 in his time with the Nationals this year.Cole broke into the majors last year and beat the Mets on Sept. 2 in New York. Cole started at home on Thursday against the Phillies.Cole is 1-2 with a 4.56 ERA in four starts this year for Washington after spending most of the season at Triple-A Syracuse.New York had won eight of its past 11 games after downing the Braves on Sunday 10-3. Botas Ugg Bebe Baratas .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday. Botas Ugg Negras Mujer . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No. http://www.botasuggtiendaonline.es/botas-ugg-mujer-outlet.html . -- Running backs Darren McFadden and Rashad Jennings were back at practice for the Oakland Raiders on Wednesday despite being hampered by hamstring injuries. Botas Ugg Para Niña . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Botas Ugg Niña Rebajas .4 million title. Ryan Riess emerged with the title after a session in which he started behind, but used expert skill to gather the chips to his side amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold em. Riess put his final opponent Jay Farber all-in with an Ace-King. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Go to bed, my grandmother implored. It is late, and these Olympics are very far away.I was 6 years old, a boy in working-class Sao Paulo already obsessed with the Olympics, staying up to watch the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. Grandmother Lazinha -- we called her Zica -- was right. It was indeed late for a kid. But what she also meant, I understand now, was that no one living in the Brazil of those days was expected to go very far. Nor was my homeland itself.Now the games are here, and with that debut comes a renewed sense of possibility and hope -- a feeling that perhaps Brazil has finally arrived. Yes, there is economic and political turmoil, Zika, crime and the many other blemishes outsiders see. But for us brasileiros, hosting the games itself is like winning gold. As one volunteer, an unemployed engineer, said to me after the opening ceremony: We can do great things here, too.It wasnt always that way.As I watched my first Olympics on TV, Brazil suffered even more than it does now. There was hyperinflation, with everyday items costing up to 600 percent of their worth. After decades of military dictatorship, we had returned to civilian leadership but under an unpopular president we blamed for the economic crisis.A renowned economist referred to us as Belindia, a country where the rich lived like those in prosperous Belgium and the poor like the worst off in India. And yet ... we have always been far more complex, and better, than that.Flash forward to 1992. Im 10. The Olympics were in Barcelona that year and still a personal obsession as I began to dream of a career as a journalist like my uncle. At home in Brazil, my mother was a maid. And a manicurist. And a door-to-door saleswoman. The state school I attended in the South Zone of Sao Paulo was not that bad, but others in the same region were more a territory for gangs than places for learning. Brazil was still stumbling.That year, our Congress impeached President Fernando Collor over a money-for-influence scheme. Protesters then, like now, took to the streets to demand an end to government corruption. Those Olympics in Spain were truly a world away for us. With inflation still high, my mother would run to the supermarket each payday to stock up on supplies for the month, not knowing if the cost of milk might skyrocket the very next day.In those next few years, change did come. Brazil adopted a new currency and an economic plan that brought some stabilization and growth.By the time the Atlanta Games opened in 1996, my family had saved so much that we started a little restaurant near Rio de Janeiro. College, and my dreams of reporting, seemed closer. When Sydney played Olympic host in 2000, I was teaching English and taking a college preparatory course. Two years later, I managed to enter a good private university. Then came Athens in 2004, and the chance at a sports internship that included a special assignment: Helping to cover the Olympics from afar.From 2004 to 2008, Brazil improved so much that we started feeling overconfident. Social programs and a minimum wage policy dragged tens of millions out of poverty. We felt as if we were abbout to become a global player.ddddddddddddAmid a commodities boom, we spent big on flat-screen TVs, cars and expensive vacations. Lost your job? You could get another quickly.Thats what led me to wave goodbye to steady work and pay my own way to Beijing for the Summer Games of 2008. I wasnt even accredited to cover sports, so instead I wrote about protests and Brazilian spectators as a freelancer. All I wanted was to tick that box and tell my grandmother that the Olympics were indeed far, but I could now go there. And so I did.It only really sank in that I was at the Olympics the night Usain Bolt won gold in the 100 meters, setting a world record. I was in an area of Beijing called Sanlitun, and I celebrated with fans from all nations. In a way, that seemed to be what the Olympics are all about: an excuse to bring different people together.When I returned home, the global economic crisis began and Brazil, like everyone else, was hit -- although not nearly as hard as others. When the world sneezed, Brazil usually caught pneumonia. Now the world had pneumonia, and Brazil only a cold.Another remarkable thing happened that year: Rio de Janeiro was picked as a finalist to host the 2016 Olympics, alongside Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid. In modern times, Brazil had bid -- and lost out -- on the games three other times, for 2000, 2004 and 2012. We Brazilians never thought we really had a shot, especially against President Barack Obamas city of Chicago.So on Oct. 2, 2009, when then-IOC President Jacques Rogge opened the envelope and the card inside read Rio de Janeiro, back in my newsroom in Sao Paulo I yelled: YEAH!Because I walked the same rocky but successful path of so many Brazilians of my generation, I never felt that the International Olympic Committee was making a concession when it awarded the games to Rio. We did not get this honor because the IOC took pity on us. It was a deserved victory for a country that was more promising then than it is now. As a nation, Brazil should have the opportunity to show our rise, resilience and, yes, the shortcomings that remain.Friday night, when the fireworks went off and the games of the 31st Olympiad were declared open, I saw it all from the press box -- where I helped write the story of the first Olympic opening ceremony in my beloved Brazil. I felt proud, but tense. I wanted us to put on a good show. We didnt hide our flaws even as we exhibited what we do best through our love of music and dance, and in the message about our environment.Brazil celebrated the Olympics as it needs to be celebrated.My grandmother did not live to see the games come to our native soil, but I am sure that if she were here, shed smile knowing that the Olympics are no longer so very far, and that Brazilians like me helped make faraway so close.---Mauricio Savarese is an Associated Press reporter who writes about politics, crime and, yes, sports. He is a native of Sao Paulo, based now in Rio de Janeiro. He has covered, in person, three Olympics: Beijing, London and, now, Rio. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '