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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 3:51 am 
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Before tonights Toronto Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre, when the American League East leaders host last years National League pennant winners, the St. Louis Cardinals, the team will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the SkyDome. Jays legends Jimmy Key and Ernie Whitt, members of playoff and World Series-winning teams of the past, will be on hand for the festivities to look back at what was the beginning of the Jays halcyon years. The return of these former stars comes at an apt time. For fans of the Blue Jays, its starting to feel a lot like those glory days again. Heading into Fridays game, the Jays sit at 37-24 with a five-and-a-half-game lead on the second-place Baltimore Orioles. The last team the Blue Jays held such a lead atop the division was in 1985, the year of their first-ever AL East triumph. Its easy to see why theres excitement surrounding this Jays team, but before everybody goes and books their flights to San Francisco for the World Series in October, lets step back and take a good look at these Toronto Blue Jays. Is it time to stop saying "Well, its early" and officially deem them contenders? Is the 2014 version of the Jays just the 2013 one that was expected all along, but a year late on arrival? Or will reality catch up with a team that is currently playing above its station? Friday night marks Game 62, and an even 100 games remain in the regular season. While its not exactly the halfway mark, its as good a time as any to reflect on the interesting dichotomy of the Jays season, thus far. Obviously, there have been plenty of key performances from the top of the roster on down. Mark Buehrle leads the league in wins with 10 and has a paltry 2.10 ERA. Edwin Encarnacion launched 16 jacks in May and made every at-bat a must-see event. Jose Bautista is in the midst of an MVP-calibre season. Melky Cabrera has bounced back from offseason surgery and looks headed to another All-Star Game. Jose Reyes once again looks like the catalyst he was for the New York Mets. Picked up from the Milwaukee Brewers scrap heap, Juan Francisco is one of the five Jays with double-digit home run totals. There is a lot to like right now. But before the Jays were sweeping the likes of the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics and tearing the cover off the baseball with reckless abandon and going 17-4 over its last 21 games, this team was once a very average 20-20. Its bullpen is still second-last in the bigs with a 4.62 ERA, having surrendered a league-worst 97 earned runs. Now second in the AL with 19 home runs, Encarnacion couldnt buy a hit in April and had just two homers. Reyes, Adam Lind and Casey Janssen missed significant time. Brandon Morrow and Colby Rasmus are down again. There were red flags all over this team not that long ago, but those have been seemingly swept aside in a tidal wave of power-hitting and timely pitching. Has this changed your expectations for the rest of the year? With April and early May indicating that the team was headed for another year of mediocrity, the fact that the Jays are division-leaders with the third-best record in baseball in June is quite frankly shocking. But wasnt this the Toronto Blue Jays team that was promised last season after a winter of major trades and free agent acquisitions? Maybe this run that the Jays are on isnt the aberration. Perhaps, last season and the beginning of this year was the outlier. Regardless of why its happening and how long it will last, the Blue Jays are currently playing meaningful baseball and its a welcome change for fans starving for a winner. So with 100 games left in 2014, just who are these Toronto Blue Jays and what happens from here on out? As always, its Your Call! 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The Belgium midfielder volleyed home Miralem Pjanics cross from close range eight minutes from time.Chicago Black Hawks 6 Winnipeg Jets 3 – The Blackhawks now lead the season series three games to none and dropped the Winnipeg Jets back below the .500 mark at 10-11-3 with the win. The Jets home record is now 7-6-2. The Hawks dominated the first period, outshooting the Jets 12-2 and taking a 1-0 lead on a goal by Patrick Kane that extended his point streak to nine. It was a power play goal scored on Chicagos second power play of the period. The Hawks took a 2-0 lead at 3:03 of the second on a great shot from the slot by Brandon Saad, but 19 seconds later Andrew Ladd scored his sixth to make it a one goal game. Both those goals came with the teams playing four on four. 29 seconds later, with the Jets penalty over and the Winnipeg now on a power play, Keaton Ellerby scored his first as a Jet to tie the game. It was three goals in a span of 48 seconds. At 11:03 Jonathan Toews regained the lead for Chicago with his 11th of the year, but 2:27 later the Jets again tied the game with a five on three power play goal by Dustin Byfuglien, his sixth goal of the season. Byfuglien has now scored four of the Jets five power play goals over the past four games. His goal streak is at four as is his point streak (5-2-7). He has now scored six goals in the last six games. The Jets outshot Chicago 14-8 in the second. Winnipeg started the third with a couple of chances before the Hawks scored two 2:11 apart to put the game away. Marian Hossa with his 10th and Ben Smith with his third regained Chicagos two goal lead. Patrick Shaarp ended it with an empty net goal, his eighth while Toews ended with a four-point night, his fourth career four-point game.ddddddddddddnbsp;So for the second straight game the Jets fought back to tie the game but could not get the lead. It was another two-point night for Bryan Little, he had one Monday vs Calgary, who now moves into third place in franchise scoring behind Ilya Kovalchuk and Slava Kozlov. Ladd and Byfuglien also had two-point nights for the Jets. Ladd had six shots on goal as did Byfuglien, his second straight six-shot game. “It became evident we have a ways to go,” said coach Claude Noel. “We didnt have enough good players, enough strong players. We lost a lot of battles.” When asked if he was concerned about players not getting up for one of the top teams, “yes, that would be correct,” was his response. Captain Andrew Ladd said post game, “some guys showed up, some guys didnt.” Byfuglien had 28:20 in ice time to lead the team. Little had a tough first period in the face-off department; he got better as the game went on but still finished at 26%. Devin Setoguchi saw only one shift in the third, while for Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler its now 10 games without a goal. Jets close out the three-game home stand Saturday afternoon against Minnesota (TSN Jets, TSN 1290), and then leave on a six-game road trip, all games against Eastern Conference opponents. Saturday could see the return of Mark Stuart who has missed the past 10 games because of injury. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '


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