ATLANTA -- Zack Wheeler lived up the hype in his major league debut, pitching six scoreless innings to lead the New York Mets to a 6-1 victory over the first-place Atlanta Braves and a doubleheader sweep on Tuesday. NFL Jerseys China . Wheeler gave up only four hits and struck out seven while consistently reaching the upper 90s on the radar gun. He struggled a bit with his control, walking five, but got out of every jam. It was a long day that gave New Yorks long-suffering NL fans hope for a brighter future, led by two of baseballs most dynamic young pitchers. In Game 1 of the doubleheader, 24-year-old Matt Harvey (6-1) struck out a career-high 13 to lead the Mets past the Braves 4-3. Wheelers performance was especially sweet since it came not far from where he grew up and came to prominence as a high school star at East Paulding High School in Atlantas northwest suburbs before going in the first round of the 2009 amateur draft. He was cheered on by dozens of family and friends, who roared loudly from their seats behind the Mets dugout. Also watching from a second-row seat behind home plate was former Braves star Chipper Jones, who has the same agent as Wheeler and tweeted him a good luck message before his first start. Wheeler was shaky in the first, walking two while throwing 23 pitches -- only eight for strikes. Catcher Anthony Recker strolled to the mound to offer encouragement, and pitching coach Dan Warthen trotted out when Wheeler overthrew a pitch to B.J. Upton, the ball sailing far out of the strike zone. But Upton grounded out to end the threat, and the 23-year-old right-hander -- the first child of the 1990s to play for the Mets -- steadied himself by striking out the side the next inning. Recker, hitting just .158 coming into the game, broke up the scoreless duel between Wheeler and Paul Maholm (7-6) in the seventh, crushing his second homer of the season over the centre-field wall to put the Mets ahead 2-0. The Braves responded with a run of their own in the bottom half on Justin Uptons sacrifice fly against Brandon Lyon. But New York broke it open with a four-run eighth against Anthony Varvaro, taking advantage of some shaky defence. The Braves made two errors on one play when Varvaros pickoff throw to second base was low, skidding into centre field, and B.J. Upton let it slide under his glove while racing into back up the play. Marlon Byrd came all the way around to score by the time Upton retrieved the ball. Juan Lagares added an RBI single and Omar Quintanilla finished off the Braves with a two-run hit. It was a tough day for Upton. In the fifth, he collided with younger brother Justin after catching a fly ball to left-centre. Both were knocked to the ground but werent hurt. B.J. gave his sibling a playful shove on their way back to the dugout. In the opener, Harvey fanned six in a row at one point and didnt allow a hit until Jason Heywards fluke infield single leading off the seventh. The right-hander tired in the eighth as the Braves tried to rally for the second straight game. Trailing 4-0, Atlanta scored three runs and had the bases loaded before Bobby Parnell, the fourth Mets pitcher of the inning, fanned Chris Johnson to end the threat. Parnell earned his 10th save with a scoreless ninth. John Buck homered for the Mets. "Certain days you wake up and you feel good and you can let it go," Harvey said. "Today was one of those days." The Mets had scored only 18 runs in Harveys previous 10 starts while he was in the game. Largely because of that, he had eight no-decisions in a stretch of nine appearances before a hard-luck 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in his last outing, snapping a stretch of 14 consecutive starts without a loss dating to his final appearance of 2012. "He has electric stuff," Atlantas Dan Uggla said. "He was throwing everything for strikes on both sides of the plate." Atlanta opened the five-game series with its 21st comeback win of the season, a rain-delayed 2-1 victory that ended at 1:22 a.m. -- less than 12 hours before the start of the start of the day-night doubleheader. Dillon Gee took a 1-0 lead to the ninth, but Freddie Freeman won it for the Braves with a two-run homer. Only Kansas City has more come-from-behind victories than the Braves. But the Mets erased the memory of that stunning loss behind their two young guns. The Braves didnt come close to a hit off Harvey through six innings, their only baserunners on a pair of walks in the third. Finally, Heyward reached safely on perhaps the weakest ball hit off the New York starter all day -- a slow dribbler up the first-base line. Harvey came off the mound to field it and flipped to first base, but there was no one there to catch it. Lucas Duda, making just his second start of the season at first, charged in and left the bag uncovered. New York padded its lead with two runs in the eighth, just enough to hold off the Braves. In the bottom half, Gerald Laird walked, Uggla reached on a bad-hop single and Andrelton Simmons knocked out Harvey with Atlantas first clean hit, a sharp single between shortstop and third base. Jordan Schafer singled off LaTroy Hawkins to bring in two runs, and Heywards run-scoring double off Scott Rice made it 4-3. After Rice intentionally walked Freeman to load the bases, Parnell came on to strike out Johnson. The Braves fanned 16 times in Game 1. Atlanta rookie Alex Wood (0-1) lost in his first career start, lasting only three innings and struggling with his control. NOTES: Harvey eclipsed his previous career high of 12 strikeouts in a May 7 game against the Chicago White Sox. ... Quintanilla snapped an 0-for-22 slump with a seventh-inning single in Game 1. ... New York RHP Scott Atchison, just off the DL, was supposed to take over for Wheeler in Game 2. But the reliever injured his right groin while warming up and left the game without throwing an actual pitch. ... The Mets swept the Braves in a doubleheader for the first time since Sept. 6, 2006, at Shea Stadium. Wholesale NBA Jerseys .com) - The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks both take aim at their first wins of the season on Saturday, as the Canucks open their home slate at Rogers Arena. Wholesale NCAA Jerseys . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. http://www.uschinasupplyjerseys.com/ . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The young athlete, now competing at the Rio Games, always considered herself to be a girl just like the others, a girl who loved to run. Then the governing body of track and field told her she was different, so different that her track career could be over.Marked confidential and signed best sporting regards, the letter outlined a choice for the athlete: Open herself up to a panel of medical experts who could recommend surgery or chemical treatment to reduce her testosterone levels, or stop competing.She had fallen foul of the International Association of Athletics Federations rules aimed at providing a fair playing field for women by keeping out athletes with high testosterone, a naturally occurring strength-building hormone.Writing to the man who ran track and field in the athletes country, the IAAFs medical director at the time explained that blood and urine tests detected testosterone levels that were abnormally high for a woman. The suspected cause, wrote Dr. Gabriel Dolle, wasnt doping but another hot-button issue in athletics that is likely to flare in this final week of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics: hyperandrogenism.Had the athlete not been a runner, she might never have known of her condition. It was flagged by the IAAFs tests that look for banned drugs. She was stunned and uncomprehending when told that her testosterone pointed to hyperandrogenism, her then-coach told The Associated Press.She couldnt understand. It was shock, the coach said. I said, `Youre not alone. There are others.Thus started a months-long process of medical scrutiny, trips to foreign clinics for batteries of tests, and potentially life-changing choices shrouded in medical secrecy that makes it hard to investigate the IAAFs treatment of hyperandrogenic women.The AP will not name the athlete, the country she is competing for or give details, including racing achievements, that could help identify her. In messages with the AP, she said she is focusing on competition and that her story is personal and private.The unwilling face of this complex and excruciatingly sensitive issue, Caster Semenya, will race in Rio and likely win gold in the 800 meters. Believed to be hyperandrogenic, outed as physiologically different without her consent when she won the world championship 800 in 2009, the South Africans dominance has again pushed to the fore divisive questions about whether allowing women to compete with testosterone levels far above the female norm is fair and whether the hormones attributed performance-enhancing effects are significantly greater than other natural gifts, like height for basketball players or big feet for swimmers.Semenya first races Wednesday. The IAAF letter and the exclusive AP interview with her former coach, who was intimately involved in her eventual decision to agree to testosterone-curbing treatment, shed unprecedented light on the inner workings of the IAAF process that at least 14 women have gone through.It is not publicly known how many hyperandrogenic women are competing in Rio. But a study published in 2014 by Dolle and other medical experts calculated that seven out of 1,000 elite female athletes may be hyperandrogenic, 140 times higher than expected among the general population. Hyperandrogenism is a medical condition which causes a person to produce high levels of hormones and can be caused by differences in sexual development.Having not withstood a legal challenge brought by another female athlete at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the IAAF regulations are now on hold, suspended by the CAS since July 2015. That means hyperandrogenic women can compete in Rio without having to artificially control their testosterone levels.The CAS case was brought by Dutee Chand, an Indian sprinter who challenged the rules after she was suspended, and who, like Semenya, saw intimate medical details become fodder for public debate.God wanted to bring a change (in the rules) through me, Chand told AP before competing in 100-meter qualifying on Friday. Speaking as fast as she runs, her nails painted red and black studs in her ears, the petite sprinter said she has put her ordeal behind her, is relishing the Olympic experience and longs to meet Usain Bolt.By the time I came to know about my problems, the issue already was out in the open, the 20-year-old said. Everyone supported me. I dont worry about what has happened in the past.The coach who spoke to AP praised Chands resistance against the IAAF rules, saying: Thank goodness that there were courageous people who protested.The AP will not identify the coach to avoid identifying the athlete. As her confidant during the process, the coach was involved in her decision-making, including choosing hormone therapy instead of surgery to lower her testosterone. The IAAF letter says the coach was present during a meeting with a federation representative when a follow-up sample waas taken from the athlete to confirm the diagnosis of hyperandrogenism. NHL Jerseys China. he IAAF letter explaining the medical process facing the athlete was provided to AP by a former federation representative who was involved in the implementation of the hyperandrogenism regulations. The governing body introduced them in 2011 after the furor that followed Semenyas world title in Berlin. There was widespread criticism of track officials handling of her case, including leaking without her consent that she had undergone sex testing. I have been subjected to unwarranted and invasive scrutiny of the most intimate and private details of my being, Semenya subsequently complained.The APs source said the IAAF regulations were ensnaring athletes from developing countries with little education or the financial means to contest the rules, and forcing them to either accept medical treatment or stop competing. The AP is not naming the former federation official because he wasnt authorized to release the letter.During the IAAF process, the athlete could not compete. The coach explained her absence by lying that she was injured.The first IAAF-requested tests to determine the exact nature of her condition required a trip to another nations capital, where she was met by Dolle. That was followed by two trips to a clinic in Nice, France, all paid for by the IAAF, the coach said.The first Nice trip was accompanied but the second, lasting over a week, was not because the IAAF did not want to pay for someone to go with her, said the coach.I didnt want her to go alone. She didnt speak French very well. I was afraid she wouldnt understand, the coach said. I said, `Before you take any medicine, call me. Dont take anything. The doctors say, `Its for her good. And I thought to myself, `Shes fine as she is....They said, `Were doing tests to help you. Maybe they gave her details but she didnt understand. She just knew that they were saying she had to have the tests to come back to track and she accepted because that is what they wanted.After the second Nice trip, subsequent correspondence from Dolle offered the athlete two choices: surgery or medicinal treatment, said the coach. The coach urged her not to go under the surgeons knife, fearing the irreversible effects.I said to her, `We cant take this risk; cut things off that God gave you, the coach said. When things are cut off, its forever. You cant get those parts back.Other athletes consented to surgery. Doctors in Nice reported in 2013 that they operated on four hyperandrogenic women, aged 18 to 21 and from rural or mountainous regions of developing countries, cutting out gonads and partially removing their clitoris. The athletes were told that surgery would most likely dent their athletic performances but allow them to continue competing, the doctors reported. They said the women were allowed to resume competition one year later.The coach feels the rules discriminated against women because there arent equivalent rules for men.It punishes women because there is no law that bans some men because they are more manly than others, the coach said.The coach lamented a lack of detailed information from the IAAF about the surgery or medicinal therapy; youre told just that it is bringing your level down to the level of other women.She said, `Since I love this sport, Ill take the medicine, the coach said.The athlete continued to train while suspended.She was desperate to run. She kept saying, `Im taking the medicine. Why cant I run?The treatment caused weight-gain and the unpleasant side-effect of making the athlete smell awful, sweaty and dirty, even though she stayed clean and wore deodorant and perfume, the coach said. The smell vanished when she came off the treatment, the coach added.The treatment was administered by a doctor in her country who reported back to the IAAF. The treatment did not lead to a huge dip in her running performances.When the IAAF eventually gave the athlete the green light to resume competing, she was delighted, the coach said. But the CAS only suspended the regulations, rather than overturned them entirely, giving the IAAF until July 2017 to produce evidence that high testosterone gives hyperandrogenic women a significant performance advantage.She is free but she is scared that from one day to the next they could stop her from running again, the coach said. Shes in limbo, waiting for something bad to happen. She asks, `Are they going to stop me again? Are they going to make me take more medicine?---John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester . See his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/john-leicester---Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed. Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' ' 

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