TORONTO – This weekend is an opportunity for the Toronto Blue Jays to focus the rest of the regular season on what’s in front of them rather than what’s behind, a chance to help ensure the return engagement Oct. 3-5 against these Baltimore Orioles is a tune up, nothing more.
The way their rotation rolls out from here after another bullpen game – backed by two Matt Chapman homers and a George Springer three-run shot – in Friday’s 6-3 victory, both Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman can be available for that close-out set at Camden Yards.
That’s great, if necessary. Far better for the Blue Jays (82-63), now six games clear of the fourth-placed Orioles (75-68) and 1.5 games up on the third-placed Tampa Bay Rays (80-64) in the wild-card standings, is making sure their dominant front two is rested and available to pitch in the first round of the playoffs beginning Oct. 7.
They created separation from the upstart Orioles by taking three of four in Baltimore Sept. 5-7 and while it’s perilous to look too far forward, if the Blue Jays capitalize on this series, they’ll make their lives much easier for the rest of the campaign and beyond.
“Obviously, every game is crucial – you’re playing against your own division, but not only that, the calendar, too, there’s only so many games left, so it’s hard to make up games,” said Chapman. “Any opportunity we can get to gain a game, whether it’s separating ourselves from Baltimore or putting the pressure on the teams that are right there in the mix with us, is huge. This series is definitely important because if we keep taking care of business, it just gives us more space.”
A third bullpen day in the past two weeks, not including Tuesday’s Mitch White bulk-inning outing in the doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays, couldn’t have gone much better for the Blue Jays. Trevor Richards opened by striking out the side, Julian Merryweather followed with two clean frames and Chapman’s first homer, off Jordan Lyles in the second, opened a 1-0 lead.
Yusei Kikuchi, almost to script, took over in the fourth, immediately allowed a Cedric Mullins triple and Adley Rutschman homer and then settled down to retire his next six batters, the latest Jekyll and Hyde outing that is both infuriating and intriguing.
That carried the Blue Jays through five frames and they took control in the bottom of the fifth when Lyles left a 3-2 curveball middle away and Springer rocked it over the wall in left to make it 4-2.
After Tim Mayza ripped through the top of the Orioles order, Chapman hammered a two-run shot over the wall in left in the sixth and Adam Cimber, Anthony Bass and Yimi Garcia, who allowed a Gunnar Henderson solo shot in the ninth, closed things out from there.
“For us, when the phone rings, it’s you, so when you’re in the game, you compete,” Richards said of the mindset going in. “(Bullpen days) are more on the coaching staff and they do a good job of communicating and planning things out. That’s hard, to cover a whole nine innings and then you’ve got some yesterday, you’ve got some tomorrow. We’re more focused on the game that night and when the phone rings, go at them.”
Blue Jays relievers have allowed only eight runs over 26 innings during the three bullpen games, necessitated by Kikuchi’s struggles as a starter and a lack of viable options to support a very strong front four. There won’t be another gap in the rotation until Sept. 24 at Tampa Bay but White will be eligible to be recalled by then.
“It’s a big ask of them and they’ve answered the bell,” said interim manager John Schneider. “Every time we’ve done it, they’ve all kind of looked forward to it and kind of accepted the challenge and made pitches, gone an extra inning, an extra out, whatever it is. You can’t really say enough about how good they are and we’re doing our best to make sure that the execution is there, but also the proper rest is there, too.”
Richards’ outing was especially important as it wasn’t a lock he’d pitch after throwing 29 pitches in a mop-up outing gone awry in Thursday’s 11-0 loss to the Rays. He allowed five runs on three hits and two walks in the ninth inning of that one, needing David Phelps to bail him out, and then rebounded to shove against the Orioles.
“Baseball’s crazy, right? Yesterday, I couldn’t hit water if I fell out of a boat. Today, it’s just crazy how things change,” said Richards. “I just wanted to focus on going after hitters and set the tone.”
The Orioles lost for the seventh time in 11 games since creeping within 1.5 games of the Blue Jays for the final wild-card spot at the beginning of the month, perhaps a sign their surge from doormat to relevance this season is petering out.
Manager Brandon Hyde, a finalist for the Blue Jays job when Charlie Montoyo was hired in the fall of 2018, spoke before the game about how beneficial this experience will be for his current group and before a rollicking Rogers Centre crowd of 36,573, another lesson was learned.
“These types of series are just different than the series in May or June,” said Hyde, whose team is going to be a problem in the AL East in the coming years. “To be able to play in games like this, for me, it gives you confidence going forward. That’s the huge difference for us this year over last year, we got confidence, guys got confident their ability, guys got confident in each other. I feel like that kind of changed in May a little bit and we just stayed that way throughout. And you add Gunnar, who’s a confident guy and extremely talented, the more games you can play in like this, the better.”
The Blue Jays did their learning last year. They’re intent on doing far more this time around and setting themselves up as best as possible for a wild-card series that will be tough no matter the opponent will be crucial in that regard.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
