Basisphilosophie » six months, jeopardizing

The Toronto Blue Jays start their second-half quest to regain ground in the American League East as they open a three game series with the Texas Rangers tonight at Rogers Centre. Toronto went into the break two games above .500 at 49-47. It could have been so much better, though, as the Blue Jays were 14 games above .500 on June 6 and held a six-game advantage atop the American League East. But thanks to losses in 23 of 34 games Toronto finds itself four games back of Baltimore in the American League East. The Blue Jays also limped into the break, dropping seven of their last nine games. "Were in second place," outfielder Jose Bautista said. "Were obviously not playing the baseball that we started off playing and that were capable of playing. Weve had a lot of injuries to deal with. "Bottom line is, weve got to figure out how to win some of these games that weve been losing, especially close ones. Hopefully we can manage to keep winning enough games to stay in one of the top two positions in our division, and when we get all our big bats back, kind of get back in the thick of things." Still, the Blue Jays have at least 49 wins at the break for the first time since 2006 On Friday, Toronto will hand the ball to righty R.A. Dickey, who has lost five of his last six starts. Dickey lost to Tampa Bay on Sunday, but pitched well, giving up just two runs in six innings, but still fell to 7-9 on the year to go along with a 3.82 ERA. Dickey, who started his career with Texas back in 2001, is 2-1 against his former team with a 2.91 ERA in six games (3 starts). Toronto took two of three from the Rangers earlier this season. No team needed the break more than Texas, which has lost eight straight and 22 of its last 25 games. The Rangers have also lost 11 of their last 12 on the road and now occupy last place in the American League West, 21 games back of first-place Oakland. "Commitment is doing what the game asks you to do and not looking for a reward for what youre doing," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "Im in the process of getting this new bunch to understand what it means. Dont worry about stats or numbers. Its about the team. Some people need to check their attitude and check what commitment is." The Rangers havent dropped nine in a row since May 30-June 8, 2003. "It has been tough," Washington said. "Through it all, they have handled it very well. In reality, wed liked to have handled it better and get more wins. It didnt happen, but I didnt see any letdown." Getting the call for the Rangers on Friday will be All-Star Yu Darvish, who was one of the few bright spots on the team, going 8-5 with a 2.97 ERA. Darvish, though, is just 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA over his last five starts. "Just a little erratic. He usually finds himself on the course of the ballgame," Washington said. "There have been a couple of games there where hes been having trouble just trying to find the pitches he wanted to use as a combination." Darvish is 2-2 with a 2.63 ERA in six career starts against Toronto. Jordan Devey Jersey . Lexie Lou earned a commanding 4 1/2-length win Sunday in the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks. Chris Jones Jersey . Redden played a total of 1,023 regular-season games with Ottawa, the New York Rangers, St. Louis and Boston. He finished with 457 points (109 goals, 348 assists) and a plus-160 rating over his career. http://www.cheapchiefsjerseysonline.com/?tag=austin-reiter-jersey-online .com) - Fair Grounds commences its road to the Kentucky Derby Saturday with the 71st running of the $200,000 Lecomte Stakes. Larry Johnson Jersey . The team said Saturday that the 36-year-old Robidas is expected to miss four to six months, jeopardizing his return this season. He was injured when he slid hard into the boards in the second period of a 2-1 shootout loss to Chicago on Friday. Alex Ellis Jersey . On Thursday, a judge said Varlamov could be released if he posted $5,000 bond and be allowed to travel with the team but he was ordered to stay away from his girlfriend, among other restrictions.FUKUOKA, Japan -- Tessa Virtue of London, Ont., and Scott Moir of Ilderton, Ont., were edged out by Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White for top spot in record performances Saturday in ice dancing at the ISU Grand Prix Final. Davis and White, the current world champions, earned 191.35 points while Virtue and Moir, the Olympic champs, finished at 190.00. They are the two highest scores ever in the event. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France were third at 169.11. "We had a great skate," said Moir. "Weve been training so well and working so hard all season. We did our technical elements really well at this event. Well need to come out with more speed and more emotion heading into the Games and hopefully that can put us on top." Virtue agreed: "Were right on track. Our approaches are bang on. Its a process, we still have two more months to train before the Games and we need to trust that process that it will get us where we need to go." Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., dropped from fourth to fifth overall after the free dance. "We know we can grow in both programs," said Weaver. "Were going to be fast at work at home and make sure everything is bigger and better and stronger for the Games." In pairs, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the gold medal with Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia second and Qing Pang and Jian Tong of China in third. Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont.dddddddddddd, and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., were fifth. Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto sixth. Both Canadian pairs had trouble with their side-by-side jumps and spins. "We needed to apply that same kind of feeling and attack we had in the short program yesterday (Friday)," said Radford, who set a personal score with Duhamel in Fridays performance.. "Its never easy to start off the program with a major mistake." "Well take our performances here and work on improving ourselves at home ," said Moore-Towers. "Despite the mistakes we kept fighting and didnt let things go." Also, Japanese skater Mao Asada won the Grand Prix Final despite failing to land two triple axels early in her free program. Asada was first after the short program and overcame a fall on her opening triple axel and an under-rotation of the triple axel on her second combination jump to finish with 204.02 points. Julia Lipnitskaia of Russia was second with 192.07 points followed by Ashley Wagner of the United States with 187.61. "It was my first time to do two triple axels in the long program," Asada said. "I felt I needed to challenge myself so thats why I had two triple axels." Asadas failure to complete the jump could jeopardize her chances of beating rival Kim Yu-na of South Korea at the Sochi Olympics. She also under-rotated a pair of double loops in Saturdays routine. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Adidas Hockey Jerseys Wholesale Nike Baseball Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale NFL Jerseys China Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys Authentic Cheap NHL Jerseys Canada Cheap Nike MLB Jerseys Cheap Soccer Jerseys China NCAA Jerseys Cheap Nike NHL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Store Cheap Football Jerseys Store Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Jerseys NCAA China Jerseys NFL Cheap Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys ' ' '