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DUNEDIN, Fla. Blair Walsh Jersey . —Jeff Niemann was
working on his slider, part of a repertoire that he hopes will land him one of
the two remaining spots in Tampa Bays starting rotation. For three innings
Friday he was satisfied things were going well. Then Toronto, which had pushed
across single runs in the second and third innings, erupted for five hits and
two runs on Niemanns first eight pitches of the fourth en route to a 5-0
victory. “I felt really good,” Niemann said. “You didnt exactly see the results
towards the end … but everything felt really great early on, and today was
really about getting the pitch count up. That was the biggest thing … and why
I went out there for the fourth.” “The slider, I threw close to 10. Usually its
less than five in a full game. Im trying to move it around to righties and
lefties and see what I can do with it. I think we had a few strikeouts with it
today, so its coming along,” he said. Ricky Romero, the Blue Jays opening day
pitcher, pitched four hitless innings and struck out four. Travis Snider,
competing with Eric Thames for the job in left field, Torontos only remaining
undecided position, hit his fourth spring home run. “I thought Jeff overall had
good stuff,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “He just ran out of gas. He gave up
four hits to that point, then all off a sudden everything came up in the strike
zone. He got hit pretty well.” “Its hard to gauge anything right now. There are
so many guys that arent playing and the guys that are playing are not swinging
the bats well,” he said. “Its frustrating because the things we want to work on
we havent a chance to work on—but you cant get frustrated in spring
training.” Niemann, Wade Davis and Matt Moore are in competition for the two
remaining starting positions behind James Shields, David Price and
Jeremy Hellickson. Maddon said hell wait “maybe a week or ten days down the
road, and try to make the right decision.” J.P. Arencibia singled home a run in
the second inning, Jose Bautista hit a sacrifice fly in the third, then
successive singles by Jonathan Diaz on a bunt, Colby Rasmus, Arencibia and
Snider chased Niemann. The Rays didnt get their first hit until Brandon Guyer
bunted toward third leading off the sixth against Chad Jenkins. Snider homered
off Jhonny Nunez in the sixth. “I think in (Sniders) final at-bat against Nunez,
who has above-average velocity, you saw him foul a ball off when he was behind
and the very next pitch he was able to make an adjustment on the same type of
pitch and hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell
said. “A year ago that might not have readily happened but its very encouraging
to see.” NOTES: Toronto 3B Brett Lawrie left early as a precaution because of
tightness in his groin. ... The Rays wore yellow “Fortune Favours the Bold”
T-shirts to commemorate shaving their head in a fundraiser for the Pediatric
Cancer Foundation. Maddon was joined by 36 players and coaches and 34 team
executives and staff, including principal owner Stuart Sternberg. ... Torontos
unbeaten streak reached 12 games. ... Tampa Bay will start opening day pitcher
James Shields against Pittsburghs Jeff Karstens Saturday at Bradenton. The Rays
have split-squad games, starting Brandon Morrow against the Phillies
Vance Worley and Drew Hutchison against the Braves Brandon Beachy. Percy Harvin Youth Jersey . Scott got hurt
during a 17-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday when the leg bent awkwardly
as he was tackled. He later rode a stationary bicycle on the sideline, hoping to
go back into the game. Brian Robison Jersey . Although the mens and
womens singles champions will each receive a record 1.15 million pounds ($1.85
million), most of the 1.5 million pound ($2.4 million) increase to the overall
pot will go to players who lose in qualifying or the early rounds. http://www.minnesotavikingsroom.com/brett-favre-jerseys
. Contreras was injured Friday. An MRI scan Saturday showed he tore his ulnar
collateral ligament and flexor pronator tendon. The 40-year-old Contreras had
right elbow surgery last year. Adrian Peterson Jersey .J. Upton and pitcher
James Shields were named the American League co-players of the week for the
period ending Sept. Erin Henderson Jersey . The Argentine star
pulled up as he made a run during the teams 1-0 win over Celtic in the Champions
League on Tuesday. He left the field in tears in the 35th minute of the
second-round, second-leg match at Camp Nou.ST. LOUIS —St. Louis Cardinals
rookie Joe Kelly had been right at home pitching at Busch Stadium—until
Wednesday night. Kelly entered the game against the San Francisco Giants with a
2.73 ERA in six starts at Busch. He allowed nine hits and seven runs in five
innings in a 15-0 loss to the Giants, though only four of the runs were earned.
“I felt good out there,” Kelly said. “I felt like I was making good pitches and
commanding both sides of the plate with my fastball.” It did appear that Kelly
(2-5) had his A game, as he struck out the first two batters he faced. But
Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey extended the inning with singles and Hunter Pence
had an RBI single to make it 1-0 “I felt like I was making good pitches down in
the zone,” Kelly said. “They just had their way.” Kelly hurt himself in the
third inning when after allowing a leadoff single to Angel Pagan and then threw
the ball down the right-field line on a pickoff attempt. Pagan scored on a
single by Marco Scutaro, who would go on to drive in seven runs. “Weve got to
have a short memory on this one and look forward to getting out here tomorrow
and changing what we looked like tonight,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said.
Ryan Vogelsong (10-5) gave up three hits in seven innings. He has gone at least
six innings in all 21 of his starts, the longest such streak for a Giant since
Bill Swift did it 24 straight times in 1993. Phil Loadholt Jersey. “Im just going out
there and trying to get outs and trying to get as deep as I can into a game,”
Vogelsong said. Pence had two hits and scored twice. He began the day batting
.143 (4-for-28) in seven games for the Giants since being traded from
Philadelphia. Cabrera had two hits and scored two runs. He leads the majors with
154 hits. In the sixth, Cabrera led off with a double against Kelly and after a
walk to Posey, Pence hit an RBI single. Brandon Belts single loaded the bases
and an error by second baseman Tyler Greene on Ryan Theriots ground ball led to
two more runs and Kellys departure. “I wasnt tired,” Kelly said. “I felt the
same the whole way until I got taken out of the game.” Brandon Crawford later
had an RBI single and Pagans sacrifice fly made it 7-0. Jon Jay had two singles
for the Cardinals in his third straight multihit game. He is 11-for-22 in his
last six games. NOTES: St. Louis reliever Mitchell Boggs had gone 23 straight
appearances without allowing a run. ... Allen Craig, who hit two solo home runs
Tuesday, was out of St. Louis starting lineup with soreness near his ribs. ...
Adam Wainwright (9-10) tries to reach the .500 mark when he opposes the Giants
Madison Bumgarner (12-6) on Thursday in the series finale. . . . Cardinals SS
Rafael Furcal was given a shot in his sore back and sat out. He is considered
day-to-day. ’ ’ ’
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