TORONTO - For the fourth time on this home stand the Blue Jays enjoyed a lead of at least three runs.
Dan Hampton Bears Jersey . They lost, overall a fourth in a row, while dropping their record to 1-3 in those games in which the offence has gotten off to a hot start. Brandon Morrow and the newly-recalled Chad Jenkins were the culprits in a disastrous third inning which saw the Red Sox score six times to erase a 3-0 deficit en route to a 7-6 victory. "I came in with one goal and that was to pitch late in the game and keep us in it," said Morrow. "I let down the team in a big way today." Morrow flirted with disaster from the get-go, walking two Red Sox in each of the first two innings only to escape with double play ground outs. After two quick outs in the third, it all unraveled as Morrow walked four-straight hitters to force in Bostons first run. Manager John Gibbons had Morrow on a short leash and promptly called for the newly-recalled Chad Jenkins, who immediately gave up back to back home runs, a grand slam to A.J. Pierzynski and a solo shot to Will Middlebrooks. "He just didnt throw strikes, its pretty simple," said Gibbons of Morrow. "Its a simple solution. Weve been walking way too many guys all year. I mean everybody. Thats unlike us. Weve got some strike throwers." The afternoons eight walks ran the pitching staffs season total to 99, second-most in all of baseball. After Morrows brief outing, which felt much longer than its 2 2/3 innings would indicate, Torontos starters have given the club 127 2/3 innings of work, an average of just less than 5 1/3 innings per game. The four clubs which trail the Blue Jays are nipping at Torontos heels and each has played fewer games. Gibbons, with 138 games left to play, isnt about to panic despite his clubs obvious weakness, a starting rotation which was thought to be a problem when everyone reported to Dunedin more than two months ago. The skipper closed ranks. "You know what, I mean this is a team," said Gibbons. "Its not hitters against pitchers. Its 25 guys. Im not going to get caught up in all this … weve been struggling in certain areas. Its no secret. But were going to get better." Theyre going to have to get better. Much better, in fact, with the schedule about to bombard them with 20 consecutive games starting Tuesday until the next off day on Monday, May 19. You dont want your best left-handed reliever pitching the seventh inning when youre trailing by four runs, for example, as Brett Cecil had to on Saturday. Back to Morrow, who has pitched six innings only once this year, reached five innings twice and on two occasions hasnt made it to the end of the fourth. Hes had issues controlling his fastball dating back to spring training. Most of his fastballs on Saturday were up. "Its embarrassing to not be able to command your fastball," said Morrow. "I had decent command of the other stuff. I threw my curveball for strikes, threw the split for strikes for the most part. I was just wild with the fastball, mainly arm side and up. Thats number one which I have to do. Command the fastball to be successful." Pitching coach Pete Walker was ejected in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes during a mound visit with Morrow. Home plate umpire Jeff Kelloggs strike zone was small but it went both ways. "He voiced his frustration a little bit out there," said Gibbons. "Nothing wrong with that." Morrow wasnt looking for excuses. "A lot of my pitches didnt miss by just a fraction of an inch," said Morrow. "I was all over the place for a lot of it. Its not a good feeling when you can take the blame for the game and place it squarely on your shoulders." The offence mounted a comeback, scoring twice off Junichi Tazawa in the eighth and once, on a solo home run by Jose Bautista, off Boston closer Koji Uehara in the ninth. The Jays had the tying run at second and the winning run at first when Edwin Encarnacion lined out to centerfield to end the game. Toronto will turn to R.A. Dickey on Sunday as the Blue Jays look to avoid a Red Sox sweep. The man with the unpredictable pitch is tasked with bringing some predictability to the starting rotation.
Mike Ditka Youth Jersey.Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday it is inevitable that the league will one day take after European sports and have sponsor names on team jerseys.
Devin Hester Youth Jersey . After all, the No. 8 seed is chasing far loftier goals. Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., defeated American Jack Sock 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in Wimbledons second round on Thursday.TORONTO - Masai Ujiri and Tim Leiweke envision a training facility that will be both the talk of the NBA and a home to young Canadian players — a "Field of Dreams" facility that they say will help bring basketballs best to Toronto. Ujiri and Leiweke unveiled plans on Friday for the $30-million practice facility that will be built on the grounds of Exhibition Place, pending a city council vote on Wednesday. The deal for the 65,000 square-foot facility, which is set to open in time for the 2016 NBA all-star game in Toronto, was approved unanimously by the citys executive committee on Wednesday. "One of the major reasons were building this is to keep our guys, so for a guy like Kyle Lowry (who signed a multi-year deal in July), he knows exactly what were doing here and that was important to his thinking about the commitment that this ownership group has made toward our basketball team," said Leiweke, the outgoing CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. MLSEs soccer club Toronto FC practises at the KIA Training Ground just north of downtown Toronto, while the MasterCard Centre just west of downtown is the training home of hockeys Maple Leafs and Marlies. The Raptors practise and play at the ACC, where players have the added off-day hassle of concert crowds or hockey games, and the training room is so small that Ujiri said three players getting treatment is a crowd. Ujiri and his staff took a peek in top facilities across North America to gather ideas. "We took ideas from everybody," said the Raptors GM. "Masai turned out to be a really good thief," Leiweke added. "We visited the best facilities in football and basketball, pro and college, and I think I went to maybe five or six of them. I know combined, my whole staff, we probably went to 12 or 13 of them, which is awesome," Ujiri said. "We get to see the University of Oregon, its spectacular, you cant even believe thats a college. You go to some of these facilities, you go to the Clevelands (the Cavaliers training ground), you go to the University of Virginias. . . theres some really good new high-performance centres that you can really take a lot out of." The two-storey facility will be avvailable for groups such as the Ontario Basketball Association and Canada Basketball, and its been a long time coming, said Leiweke and Ujiri, for a basketball-mad city that has boasted the last two NBA No.
Gale Sayers Womens Jersey. 1 draft picks in Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins. Leiweke arrived in Toronto from Los Angeles, where "you have all these great Meccas" of basketball such as the Lakers Toyota Training Centre and USCs Pauley Pavilion. "Now name me what people think of when they talk about the great breeding grounds, the great facilities when you think about Bennett and Wiggins and all those kids playing," Leiweke said. "And Canada Basketball has no home," he added. "They are vagabonds. This gives us a place ultimately to make a statement about what kids can aspire to be and where they want to play. I think this will have as big an impact on amateur basketball as it will on what (Ujiri) is trying to do with the Raptors." Opening its doors in time for the all-star game was key. "For the guys (Ujiri) wants to get here, whoever that might be, theyre all going to be here during all-star week. It is great we get to showcase this to an entire league in 2016, and that bodes very well in making people understand the kind of organization we aspire to be now," Leiweke said. "Its huge to keep players and to get players." Leiweke met with the media a day after he confirmed he was leaving his job as CEO of MLSE as of next June at the latest, but said he didnt regret the timing of the announcement. "I think the reason were doing this today is to prove that this is business as usual, we plow straight ahead, and anyone that has been in this organization for the past 16 months and has seen what were doing here, what they understand very clearly is that ripple caused more of a ripple in the media and the public," Leiweke said. "But internally here, we plow straight ahead and we are as damned and determined as every to finish our mission statement here. "So there will be not one change in our attitude and that wont change in our commitment and our dedication to getting our projects done, and this is one of my highest priorities." ' ' '