" That doesnt sound like the door on NHL Olympic participation | Forum

(SportsNetwork. Gareth Bale Real Madrid Jersey .com) - The Oakland Athletics needed to rely on a lot of young pitchers to win an American League West title this season. Theyll turn to one of those young arms on Tuesday, as they try to finish off the Detroit Tigers and advance to the American League Championship Series in Game 4 of the ALDS at Comerica Park. Dan Straily gets the call for the As, who will be trying to secure their first trip to the ALCS since 2006 when they were swept by the Tigers. The 24-year-old righty made 27 starts this season for the As and went 10-8 with a 3.96 ERA. Like Sonny Gray on Saturday, Straily will be making his first postseason start tonight. "We come in here and were a very confident group," Straily said of the As young staff. "Just because everyone hasnt heard of us, doesnt mean that we dont belong here, that we arent good enough to be here. We all know what we can do individually and accomplish as a group as well." Straily has made one career start against the Tigers, coming at Comerica on Aug. 28. He threw six innings of one-run, eight-hit ball and was credited with the victory in a 14-4 win. After splitting the first two games of this series in Oakland, the Athletics seized control of the best-of-five set Monday, as Seth Smith smacked a two-run homer and Brandon Moss added a solo shot as part of a three-run fifth inning in the As 6-3 win. Josh Reddick cracked a solo blast as well for Oakland, which pounded out 10 hits after tallying just 11 with three runs through the first two games. Oakland, of course, was up among league leaders with 186 homers on the season. "Thats the logic with our team," said Josh Reddick, who hit the other homer. "Were going to strike out and were going to hit the long ball, so once we get those going, its going to be a good day. And to do it against a guy like (Anibal) Sanchez, whos been great all year, it does a lot for your confidence coming into tomorrow." Grant Balfour tossed a scoreless ninth for the save. He and Victor Martinez traded barbs during an at-bat, which caused the benches and bullpens to empty. "He was staring me down," said Balfour. "So I said, Why you staring me down? Whats your problem right now? You got a problem, come out here. So he came out. We had a few words. No big deal. I like the fire. Obviously he does, too." Coco Crisp had two doubles among his three hits to go with an RBI and a run scored, while Jarrod Parker (1-0) surrendered three runs on five hits and a walk over five innings to pick up the win. Teams that have gone ahead 2-1 in the Division Series have won it 35 out of 43 times, and nine of the last 10. And the As lost two in a row just once in their final 35 games this season. "Were good. We know what we have," Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera said. "We have to be ready to play tomorrow and try to force Game 5." Sanchez (0-1), the ALs ERA leader (2.57), allowed just 0.45 homers per nine innings during the season, but gave up all three of the Oakland homers in his 4 1/3 frames of work. Sanchez was shelled for six runs -- five earned -- on eight hits and two walks for the Tigers, who have scored in just two innings so far in this series. "Hes my guy, and he did lead the league in earned-run average," said Detroit manager Jim Leyland. "You figure hes going to get out of it at any time, because hes good at making pitches." Hoping for a little more support on Tuesday will be righty Doug Fister, who won 14 games and pitched to a 3.67 ERA this season. "Hes one of our four," Leyland said. "Hes a competitor. He keeps the infielders and outfielders on their toes because he works fast. Hes a terrific fielder. He has movement and his forte is to make them miss-hit the ball. He makes them miss-hit the ball, put it in play and makes the defense work." Fister, who was rocked to the tune of seven runs in five innings in that Aug. 28 tilt with the As, has pitched well in the postseason, going 2-3 with a 2.97 ERA in six games (5 starts). "Its not going to change anything. Its the same as any other start that we have made all year," Fister said of being tasked with extending his teams season. "Its one of those things that Im honored to be able to pitch, period. When your name is called, youre ready to go. And thats kind of the way things have been and thats my mindset. Weve just got to out there and play like we always would." Detroit, which lost four of seven games against the As during the season, has beaten Oakland the last two times these teams have met in the postseason. The As only win against the Tigers in the playoffs came in the 1972 ALCS, which started a run of three consecutive world titles for Oakland. Keylor Navas Jersey . Burris threw two TD passes, including a key 15-yard fourth-quarter strike to Bakari Grant that effectively countered a Toronto comeback bid and led Hamilton to a 33-19 victory. Kiko Casilla Real Madrid Jersey . Galatasaray said in a statement on its website Monday that Mancini signed a three-year contract and will be paid 3.5 million euros for the upcoming season, with his salary upped to 4. http://www.realmadridfcprohop.com/Authentic-Raphael-Varane-Jersey/ . -- Jakob Silfverberg is making himself right at home with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring four goals in his first four games.Scott Cullen has some post-Olympic notes on Martin St. Louis trade rumours, Team Canada in 2018 as well as NHL Olympic participation in Pyeongchang, South Korea (and beyond). 1. The Internet was abuzz, following the Olympics, about the possibility of the Tampa Bay Lightning dealing leading scorer Martin St. Louis to New York for Rangers captain Ryan Callahan. This was my initital reaction. That isnt to say that the Lightning might not deal St. Louis because, if hes really unhappy after the whole Olympic team selection fiasco, then that might be the impetus for movement. However, the Lightning are in third place in the Eastern Conference, which means they arent just going to give him away, and there are several issues at play with regards to St. Louis future with the team. First, since St. Louis has a no-movement clause, the Lightning are at his mercy should they decide to trade him. If St. Louis says that his preferred destination is the Rangers, because he lives in nearby Connecticut, then you can expect the Rangers to avoid paying fair market value, instead paying closer to monopolistic value, not unlike the Pittsburgh Penguins offered to the Calgary Flames for Jarome Iginla last season. Additionally, if the Lightning are going to shop St. Louis, wouldnt it make much more sense to do it in the offseason, when they might be able to get a better quality return, or perhaps open the trade talks to more than one team (its not like Manhattan is the only NHL location relatively close to Connecticut)? Whatever the deal ends up being, there is little reason for the Lightning to deal St. Louis, straight-up, for an inferior winger with an expiring contract. Maybe Callahan plus works, but it would definitely depend on the plus. The reigning scoring champion cant just be peddled out of town at a cut-rate price if a franchise is going to be seen as legitimate. Considering how torn Lightning GM Steve Yzerman must have been throughout this process, its no wonder that hes had enough as Team Canada GM after back-to-back Olympic gold medals. 2. The 2014 Olympics were barely finished before Mike Johnson was tasked with projecting Team Canada for 2018. Obviously, this requires a lot of projection, going four years ahead of time, but here are some 2014 players that are likely due to be replaced because of age: Roberto Luongo, Mike Smith, Chris Kunitz, Patrick Sharp, Martin St. Louis, Jay Bouwmeester, Dan Hamhuis, Patrick Marleau, Rick Nash and Jeff Carter, all of whom are 29 or older this season. There could easily be more turnover, but filling those 8-10 spots seems a reasonable starting point. In net, I would add Jonathan Bernier (who I would have taken in 2014) to Carey Price. As the number three goaltender, I lean to a younger player like Braden Holtby, even if hes going through some tough times this season. On the blueline, with the right side staying the same -- Drew Doughty, Shea Weber, Alex Pietrangelo, P.K. Subban, along with Duncan Keith and Marc-Edouard Vlasic onn the left -- that leaves room for a couple of new faces. Dani Carvajal Jersey. Today, Ill go with Ryan Murray and Travis Hamonic ahead of Morgan Rielly and Brenden Dillon. Up front, after bringing back Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, John Tavares, Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene and Patrice Bergeron, I add Steven Stamkos, Tyler Seguin, Taylor Hall, Claude Giroux, Logan Couture and Nathan MacKinnon to get to 14 forwards. It pains me to pass over Blue Jackets C Ryan Johansen, but hes one that I find intriguing. The debate will surely rage, but maybe we can put it aside for at least three years before getting caught up in it too much. 3. One other twist, as it pertains to participation in the Olympics, and was mentioned by Gord Miller, is that the NHL could go with the under-23 model that soccer uses in the Summer Olympics. The sticking point, to me, in this plan is that teams arent going to want to continue playing their schedule without some of these top-calibre players. Here are some of the best 22-and-under players in the NHL this season. Can we really expect a team to go forward and play games for a couple of weeks without players of that calibre? Imagine the Colorado Avalanche without Ryan OReilly, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, or the Winnipeg Jets minus Evander Kane, Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba. Those would be devastating to those particular teams. The other tweak to the option is that NHL teams could decide which players can go which, given previous experience with the World Junior tournament, would pretty much eliminate the participation of NHL players, which begs the question: why impose an age limit at all if NHLers wont be participating? By most accounts, the players always seem in favour of the experience. Those that are playing enjoy it and those that dont enjoy getting some time off during the season. As it stands now, NHL owners and executives have taken the position that they arent so interested in participating in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and that could be their legitimate stance, especially after some teams had players suffer injuries while playing in Sochi. At the same time, its also the kind of position that a negotiator would take if they wanted to extract more favourable compensation from the International Olympic Committee. Theres no leverage if you state that youre unequivocally in love with the current relationship. Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who has hardly been regarded as being tight with the players, told the New York Times, "I know the importance of competing in the Olympics to many of our players — they are our partners and if it is important to them it should be important to us." That doesnt sound like the door on NHL Olympic participation has been shut altogether. At least not yet. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Wholesale Jerseys China ' ' '