Bekanntmachungen » e and the position of Plushenkos main challe

TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays have used power, speed and pitching on a recent surge that has put them in first place in the American League East. Their 3-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday showed just how well that combination can work. Edwin Encarnacion provided the power with his 14th homer of the season, Jose Reyes provided the speed by equalling a career best for a game with three stolen bases and left-hander J.A. Happ provided the pitching with seven runless innings. Put it all together, and you get a team thats on a season-best six-game winning streak and has won 16 of its past 21 games. "I dont know if you ever see it coming," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "What it really comes down to is were just playing good baseball. The starting pitching has been really good, our offence has been alive, the bullpen has been solid." The Blue Jays (29-22) swept the three-game series with the Athletics (30-20) who lead the AL West despite losing their past four games. "Our three pitchers and their three pitchers were very good," Gibbons said. "And in those tight ball games, some clutch hitting and some great base running made the difference in most of those games. So ride it, ride it." It was Torontos second straight sweep after taking three games from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Happ (4-1) allowed four hits and three walks while striking out seven in his longest outing of the season. "Hes filling up the strike zone," Gibbons said. "Hes really doing a nice job of using his fastball on both sides of the plate. Hes locked in right now. (Catcher Erik) Kratz has done a great job with him." Dustin McGowan replaced Happ in the eighth and allowed Josh Donaldsons 11th homer of the season. Casey Janssen pitched the ninth inning to earn his seventh save in as many attempts this season. "Definitely wanted to pitch off the fastball today and Kratz did a great job behind the plate," Happ said. "We were on the same page and tried to use that. "First and foremost it was about me throwing the ball where Im supposed to throw it, and then pitching off the fastball and using everything. I thought today we did a good job establishing the fastball." As left-hander Drew Pomeranz (4-2) allowed five hits, four walks and two runs in four-plus innings. "I think I maybe tried to locate a little too much instead of going right at guys and ended up walking too many people and being in bad counts a lot," Pomeranz said. "I wasnt attacking guys like I should have." The Blue Jays did not have a hit until Encarnacion homered to left on a 2-2 fastball with one out in the fourth. It was the 14th of the year and the 12th of the month, tying him with Jose Bautista for the team record for homers in May. The run also snapped a string of 18 consecutive runless innings for Pomeranz. Toronto went on to load the bases in the inning on singles by Brett Lawrie and Dioner Navarro and a walk by Steve Tolleson, but Kratz grounded into a double play to end the inning. The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the fifth on a single to centre by Kevin Pillar, an infield hit by Reyes and a walk to Melky Cabrera. Bautista singled off right-hander Jim Johnson to score one run, but Reyes was thrown out at home by left-fielder Yoenis Cespedes. Encarnacions pop to centre field dropped in but Bautista was forced at second on centre-fielder Craig Gentrys throw to Johnson covering second base. Gibbons immediately challenged but the review upheld the call. Unconvinced, Gibbons argued and was ejected for the first time this season. "I was looking up at that (score) board and it looked pretty obvious to me," Gibbons said. "Their video probably isnt as big as that board maybe. I guess its a good system but its not a perfect system. That was big right there. We were sitting pretty good with a chance to blow the game open if hes safe. The out call changes the whole complexion a I thought they got it wrong out there." Bautistas sacrifice fly against right-hander Luke Gregerson in the seventh gave Toronto a 3-0 lead, scoring Reyes who opened the inning with a single and stole second and third. The three steals in a game equalled a career best for Reyes who has done it eight times. The previous time was Sept. 25, 2008, against the Chicago Cubs when he was with the New York Mets. "He can really generate his own runs when he gets in scoring position," Gibbons said. "Jose is feeling good right now. ... Hes exciting, thats one of the reasons they brought him over here." The Athletics completed a nine-game trip at 5-4 starting with five wins against the Cleveland Indians and the Tampa Bay Rays. "You go through these periods," As manager Bob Melvin said. "Youve just got to fight your way through it. "Youre not always going to score seven, eight runs a game and right now were going through a drought." NOTES: The last time the Blue Jays were alone in first place later than May 24 was July 6, 2000. aRight-hander R.A. Dickey lowered his earned-run average to 3.95 with his 8 1/3-inning outing in Saturdays win to drop his ERA below 4.00 for the first time in his Blue Jays career. a The Blue Jays open a three-game series at Rogers Centre against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday with right-hander Drew Hutchison (3-3, 3.45 ERA) facing Ottawa left-hander Erik Bedard (2-2. 2.63 ERA). aAttendance was 45,277, the fourth sellout of the season. Alexander Mogilny Jersey . The star receiver certainly isnt celebrating it with the Texans mired in a franchise-record 13-game skid. Carter Hutton Jersey . -- Colin Kaepernick insists he just happened to pull on a pair of socks with dollar bill prints all over them Wednesday morning -- before he learned he had struck a new fortune with the San Francisco 49ers. http://www.authenticsabrespro.com/Pierre...-sabres-jersey/. The All Blacks played their best rugby of recent years when they beat South Africa 38-27 in Johannesburg two weeks ago, clinching the Rugby Championships in a match which has been hailed as one of the best ever played. Pat Lafontaine Jersey . With the suspension, Nigeria is unable to take part in any kind of international fixtures. FIFA had issued a warning to the NFF last week after the federation was served with court proceedings from the government that prevented the NFFs president from running the NFFs day-to-day affairs. Jeff Skinner Jersey .com) - Maria Sharapova reached her 10th career grand slam final after beating Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets at the Australian Open on Thursday.BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Javier Fernandez of Spain successfully defended his European figure skating title ahead of two Russian rivals despite several small mistakes in the free skate on Saturday. Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. Sergei Voronov was second with 252.55 points and Konstantin Menshov had 237.24 in third as neither could challenge the Spaniards lead from the short program. Coming two weeks before the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, the championships offered competitors a chance to assess their preparation. Fernandez, who had an awkward landing after a quad salchow and managed only a double lutz when a triple was planned, said it was essential to eliminate errors to be able to contend for a first Olympic medal. "There are mistakes where you lose points and points and points," said Fernandez, who skated to Henry Mancinis "Peter Gunn" and "Harlem Nocture," a jazz standard. "In a competition like the Olympics, every single point matters." At last years Europeans, Fernandez became the first Spaniard to win a major figure skating title. Plushenko, the Olympic champ in 2006 and a two-time silver medallist, skipped the Europeans but his absence nearly overshadowed the Russian mens trio. One of the biggest figure skating stars of the past 15 years, Plushenko is scheduled to perform a short and a free program behind closed doors for Russian skating officials on Tuesday for a chance to claim the countrys only mens slot at Sochi. Leading up to the Europeans, Voronov and Menshov were mentioned behind Russian champion Maxim Kovtun as contenders ffor the title and the position of Plushenkos main challenger.dddddddddddd But Kovtun finished fifth here and afterward seemed resigned to his fate. "After the third quad attempt, I understood this wasnt going to happen," Kovtun said. "I dont really know what happened because it was all fine in the warmup and I had a great practice on (Friday)." Voronovs silver was his best result in international competition. Though he won the Russian nationals twice, in 2008 and 2009, his career had stagnated. He refused to speculate about Plushenkos tryout, but made it clear that if he were to be selected by Russia, he was ready for the Olympic challenge. "Of course I want to go, who doesnt want to go to the Olympics?" Voronov said. "Plushenko is an authority in figure skating but we all want to go and there is only one spot. Its not us who decides." Adding to the intrigue, International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta was showered with questions by reporters in Budapest and had to explain at length the ISUs policy allowing countries to replace injured or ill skaters at the Olympics between the team event and the individual events. The team event makes its Olympic debut on Feb. 6, a day before the opening ceremony. With a solid free skate which included two quad jumps, Menshov managed to climb to third overall after finishing 11th place in the short program. "It seems like I always have to overcome some difficulties," Menshov said. The risk of a second quadruple jump in the short program, which he failed to complete both here and at the Russian nationals, made him fall so far behind. "Im not confident on it yet," he said. The Europeans end on Sunday with the pairs free skate. 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