Dein erstes Forum » club has been ravaged by injuries,

If you look at the Toronto Blue Jays and the Pittsburgh Pirates its as though they are playing in parallel universes, where everything seems to work out for one team no matter what twists and turns fate throws at them, and nothing seems to go right for the team that cant seem to catch a break. I dont think I have to tell you the first team is the Pirates and the second is the Blue Jays. In Sundays games, both teams played 11 inning marathons. The Blue Jays lost their starter in the bottom of the third inning, 40-year-old Ramon Ortiz, to an elbow injury that could be career-ending. The Pirates lost their starter, Jeanmar Gomez, to forearm tightness after he gave up four runs in the first inning. Down early, both teams rallied for dramatic victories; the Jays beating the Padres on the road, 7-4, with veteran utility man Mark DeRosa putting the Jays ahead for keeps with a homer leading off the 11th. The Pirates got a mammoth home run from Garrett Jones that travelled an estimated 463 feet and became just the second ball to land in the Allegheny River on the fly. That blast sent the game into extra innings. Then, ex-Jay Travis Snider singled home the winning run in walk-off style in the 11th. The Blue Jays bullpen and the Pirates pen were both outstanding. Six Blue Jays relievers gave up just two singles in nine scoreless innings in relief of Ortiz. Pittsburghs pen was equally good against the Reds, as five of their relievers combined to pitch 10 scoreless innings after picking up for Gomez. At the end of the day, the Pirates were still tied for second with Cincinnati in the NL Central, with each club sitting at 35-22 and each holding a Wild Card position. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, are still wallowing in last place in the AL East at 24-33, and they are eight games behind Baltimore for the second Wild Card slot with over a third of the season gone. The Blue Jays have out-homered Pittsburgh 72-55 and outscored them by 40 runs - 254 to 214. In fact, the Pirates offensive numbers are just this side of abysmal. They are 22nd in the Majors in runs scored, 25th in batting average, 23rd in on base percentage and 23rd in slugging percentage. The Jays bullpen has been a strength on the team this season, but the Pirates has been even better. Jason Grilli, getting his first real chance to close in his mid-30s, has an incredible 22 saves. The set-up man, Mark Melancon, who came over from Boston in the deal for the Pirates old closer, Joel Hanrahan (whos injured and out for the season), has a 0.93 earned run average. The Pirates pitchers as a whole have a glittering 3.12 ERA and have the second most strikeouts in the Majors. Yet, the Pirates rotation doesnt blow you away with big names. While the Blue Jays added the likes of R.A Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle in the offseason, the Pirates went the bargain basement route and picked up Francisco Liriano, Jeanmar Gomez and Francisco Liriano and were paid dividends with the continued devotement of lefty Jeff Locke, who came over in a June 3rd, 2009 deal with Atlanta, along with Gorkys Hernandez and Charlie Morton for outfielder Nate McLouth, whos now with Baltimore. Locke is 5-1 with a 2.25 ERA. You can point to the Blue Jays starting rotation, where only Dickey and Buehrle have avoided time on the DL this season and says the club has been ravaged by injuries, for the 2nd year running. However the Pirates have problems with their rotation as well. Jonathan Sanchez, was a disaster out of the gate. He went (0-3) and was cut loose. Liriano got a late start after breaking his arm around Christmas time, while pranking his kids in a stunt that went awry. James McDonald is on the DL and rehabbing a shoulder injury and now Jeanmar Gomez has the same sort of forearm issue thats put Brandon Morrow on the disable list for the Blue Jays. There are those who suggest the Pirates are doing it with smoke and mirrors. They point to the clubs record at the mid-point of the last two seasons, 47-43 in 2011 and 48-37 in 2012, and the subsequent collapses in the second halves of both seasons as evidence it will happen again this year. The critics may be right, but the Buccos ERA at this point is about a third of a run better than it was mid-way through last season - 3.12 to 4.47 - and if anything, they should be battle-hardened by whats happened the last two seasons. The Giants, Washington and maybe even Colorado all have the talent to take a run at Pittsburgh, but there just seems to be something special about this team; a team that hasnt finished about .500 or in the postseason since 1992. The Blue Jays, sitting nine games under .500, will have to go 16-10 or 17-9 in June to have any hope of getting back into the Wild Card hunt in the American League. Ortiz is on his way to Florida to get an MRI on his elbow. If this is indeed the end of his Major League career, it ended on an unusual note. In the second inning against the Padres, he gave up a three-run homer to Padres starter Edinson Volquez. It was the first home run of Volquezs career and the first-round tripper ever given up by Ortiz to a pitcher in 3-3 career games. The Blue Jays are 5-4 in inter-league play so far, 3-1 at home and 2-3 on the road under, heading into a two-game set with the Giants starting Tuesday night at San Francisco. Josh Johnson returns from his rehab stint to make the start in the series open. Johnson is still in search of his first victory as a member of the Blue Jays. Discount Asics Shoes . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. Asics Shoes From China . General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch on Friday that he wants to see Gaboriks contributions go beyond the scoresheet before considering a long-term deal for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent. http://www.cheapasics.com/ .Y. -- Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse have another World Cup gold medal after winning the two-women bobsled race on Saturday in Lake Placid, N. Wholesale Asics Shoes Free Shipping .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training. Cheap Asics Shoes Online .2 billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the leagues broadcast and multimedia rights. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Professional racecar driver Scott Tucker and others deceived payday loan consumers and owe the Federal Trade Commission about $1.2 billion, according to a ruling from a federal judge in Nevada.U.S. District Court of Nevada Judge Gloria Navarro issued a judgment Friday that found consumers of Scott Tuckers payday loan businesses were harmed because of misleading loan terms. The commission said those terms caused recipients of a $300 loan to be required to pay $975.Navarro said Tucker did not participate in an isolated, discrete incident of deceptive lending, but engaged in sustained and continuous conduct that perpetuated the deceptive lending since at least 2008. The order also bars Tucker from any future involvement in the consumer lending business.Tucker, of Leawood, Kansas, and his brother Blaine Tucker, started a short-term lending business in 1998 called National Money Service, according to court records. The business grew into several different business entities. In 2012, the FTC brought charges against the Tucker brothers and several business entities, saying the payday loan operations charged usurious interesst rates, The Kansas City Star reported (http://j.ddddddddddddmp/2dhq3jJ ).Blaine Tucker committed suicide in 2014.Tucker also faces criminal charges in New York, where hes accused of running $2 billion payday loan enterprise that exploited 4.5 million consumers. Various states, including New York state and the District of Columbia, ban payday loans or have usury limits that effectively prohibit them, court papers said.He denied wrongdoing in the FTC case and has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him. That trial is scheduled for April 2017.Jeff Morris and Nick Kurt, attorneys for Tucker, didnt immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.Navarros order affects Tucker, his brothers estate and other corporate entities under their control.Tucker argued in court filings that his companies extended loans on terms that reflect the industry standard for short-term credit. He said he didnt know his businesses violated federal law and did not intend to deceive consumers. ' ' '