TORONTO - First things first: Episode 3 of The Baseball Podcast is up for your listening pleasure. Toronto Star baseball columnist and TSN contributor Richard Griffin joins me for a half-hour of talk on manager John Gibbons strategy when it comes to his starting pitching and struggling bullpen, whether Brett Lawrie will see increased action at second base and Jose Bautistas great start to the season. Give it a listen here. GIBBONS LIKES HIS OFFENCE The Blue Jays entered Thursdays action with 166 runs scored in 34 games. Thats an average of almost 4.9 runs per game, good for fourth in the majors. Manager John Gibbons is in his seventh season, over two tenures skipping the Blue Jays. He believes this is the strongest offence hes had. "I would think this is probably the top," said Gibbons. "My last go around here we were really strong in the pitching department. We had some good offences but I dont think it equaled what we have here now. You need that in the American League. You need to be able to slug it out." Toronto boasts the league leader in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) and walks. Hes Jose Bautista. Bautista and Colby Rasmus, with nine home runs each, are amongst the league leaders. Melky Cabreras 48 hits are the most in the sport this season. As a team, the Blue Jays rank second in home runs (44); second in slugging percentage (.432) and third in on-base plus slugging percentage (.761). ENCARNACION DISCUSSES FRANCISCO General manager Alex Anthopoulos has credited Edwin Encarnacion with helping to lure Juan Francisco to the Blue Jays. "Ive known Juan from a long time ago, he was playing with me in Cincinnati," said Encarnacion. "When he was young, I was older in here and hes one of my best friends. He had a couple of more (options) to go so I called him and asked him to come here because they can give him the opportunity to play here at this level." Francisco, 26, hit 18 home runs last season while playing with the Braves and Brewers but was cut by Milwaukee late in spring training. He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays on April 2 and began the year at Triple-A Buffalo. His contract was selected on April 20 to replace Adam Lind, who went on the disabled list with a back injury. Aside from the opportunity the Blue Jays could afford him, Encarnacion was pressed Francisco to come to Toronto out of fear he would sign with another American League East team. The division, specifically the ballparks in the division, are friendly to power-hitting left-handed bats. "Thats why I dont want him to go to another team, like Tampa or another team," said Encarnacion. SANTOS STARTING FROM SCRATCH Sergio Santos pitched a scoreless eighth inning in Wednesdays 10-0 win over the Phillies. Thanks to the big lead it was a pressure-free inning. After two-straight outings featuring blown saves and three on the season, Santos is in the process of rebuilding his confidence. "It was nice to execute on the things that I wanted to do as far as locating my fastball, moving it in and out," said Santos. "It was nice. Its a nice first step, hopefully in the right direction." His stuff is good. Santos has struck out 18 hitters in 10 1/3 innings. The problem is hes walked nine and of the 12 hits hes allowed, three have been home runs. Santos expects more of himself. "Hopefully I can build off what happened (Wednesday) night and never look back again," he said. LAWRIE UPDATE Brett Lawrie took part in batting practice and fielded ground balls before Thursdays game. He left the fourth inning of Monday nights game in Philadelphia with lingering tightness in his right hamstring. Fridays game against the Angels may be more hopeful than reality. Lawries more likely to return on the weekend. ." Also, defencemen "were found to be at a higher risk of suffering a concussion than other players, perhaps due to turning their back to retrieve pucks along the boards, which leaves them vulnerable. . Orlando is to begin play in the MLS for the 2015 season. Kaka, who currently plays with AC Milan, is expected to be loaned out to his home club Sao Paulo for the upcoming season before joining Orlando for next season.
http://www.cowboysrookieproshop.com/. Make that, almost always subjective. Saturday at Carrow Road, the spirit of fair play trumped the rulebook, costing Norwich City three points. . Wawrinka, who is seeded fourth, is in the top half of the draw with Serbian Novak Djokovic. The Swiss star outlasted Djokovic in a five-set quarterfinal thriller last year and stunned Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the final to capture his first-ever Grand Slam title. . -- Howie Kendrick had a two-run single in his first game batting leadoff this season, Chris Iannetta hit a pair of RBI singles and the Los Angeles Angels beat Cleveland 6-4 Tuesday night, sending the Indians to their fifth straight defeat.WINNIPEG -- Niklas Backstrom was supposed to be a spectator when his Minnesota Wild visited the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon. Instead, the goalie was called into action for the first time since suffering a concussion on Nov. 13 when starter Josh Harding was injured during the warm-up. Backstrom made a smooth transition, turning aside 37 shots in regulation and overtime before teammate Charlie Coyle scored the winner in the fourth round of the 3-2 shootout victory. "You have to be ready all the time and you never know whats going to happen so you have to find a way to be ready and be at your best," Backstrom said after picking up his second win of the season. Harding suffered a lower-body injury in warm-up after he slipped on a puck. Backstrom was returning from his first concussion, suffered after an elbow to the head by Nazem Kadri on Nov. 13 that led to the Toronto forward being suspended for three games. His first full practice was Friday. Wild backup netminder Darcy Kuemper was on his way to Iowa of the AHL, but was contacted at the Winnipeg airport and whisked to the MTS Centre to sit on the bench in case Backstrom needed relief. "He (Backstrom is) the difference in the game for us," Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo said. "I mean, obviously I give our players a great deal of credit for dealing with the adversity with what happened at the beginning of the game. Its a little bit easier to deal with it when you see your goalie go out and play the way that he was. "In the first period, we just werent good enough by any stretch and he kept us in it and gave a us a chance to continue to find our game and its a real credit to Backy." Minnesota moved to 15-5-4 and has won six of its past seven games and is 9-1-1 in November. The loss extended Winnipeg (10-11-4) winless streak to four games (0-2-2). It was the Jets eighth shootout of the season and third loss in the contest. Pavelec stopped 35 in regulation and overtime for Winnipeg. Aside from Coyle, who deked to beat Pavelec for his first career shootout goal and second attempt, Mikko Koivu also scored in the shootout. Bryan Little beat Backstrom for the Jets. Michael Frolik and Matt Halischuk each had a goal and assist for Winnipeg in regulation. Nino Niederreiter and Zach Parise scored for Minnesota, with Parises 11th of the season sending the gamme into overtime.dddddddddddd Parise added an assist and now has 12 points in his last 10 games. Jets coach Claude Noel said his team played a pretty good game against the surging Wild. "Theyve been the best team in the National Hockey League in the month of November," Noel said. "Its not been an easy task. Weve lost to them 2-1, 2-1 and now 3-2 in a shootout so were close, were getting there." This time, the back-breaker for the Jets came in the third period. Winnipeg was ahead 2-1 and it looked like the lead might be secure when Wild defenceman Marco Scandella was called for hooking at 14:02. But the short-handed situation was no challenge for the Wild. Ryan Suter, Mikko Koivu and Parise got on a 3-on-2 breakway and Parise fired a low shot past Pavelec with 4:48 remaining. "The puck got rimmed around, didnt quite make it to the defenceman and boom, they came back 3-on-2," Noel said. Pavelec thought his teammates played better, but was lamenting not getting two points. "The way we lost today, its disappointing," Pavelec said. "We had the game. We had it. We should close it up. We didnt and we lost the point." After a scoreless first period in which Winnipeg outshot the visitors 14-4, Frolik marked his sixth goal of the season late in the second when the Wild turned the puck over just outside their blue-line. Frolik got the puck and sent a pass to Halischuk, who fired high at Backstrom. The puck went into the air and then onto the ice near the crease, where Frolik was on the spot to flip it into the net at 13:07. Minnesota tied it up 1-1 at 3:21 of the third when Scandella took a pass from Parise and fired a shot from the high slot. Niederreiter got the rebound and put it past Pavelec. The Jets regained the lead just over two minutes later after Halischuk took advantage of his own rebound to score his second of the season. Winnipeg had four shots in overtime, with Wild winger Jason Zucker breaking up a 2-on-1 rush as Evander Kane was about to shoot and Devin Setoguchis low shot stopped by Backstrom. The Wild had one shot on net in overtime. Winnipeg embarks on a six-game road trip, beginning Monday in New Jersey. Minnesota finishes a four-game road trip in St. Louis on Monday. Notes: Veteran Winnipeg defenceman Mark Stuart returned to the ice after missing the past 10 with a hip injury. ' ' '
