Giguere couldnt quite corral the puck and Gallagher, | Forum
miaowang123
Jan 5 '18
TORONTO – Minutes after Kevin Pillar played the hero in Monday nights 5-4 Blue Jays walk off win over the Twins, he alluded to a conversation he shared with Jose Bautista earlier in the evening. Jurickson Profar Jersey . The two were in the batting cage moments before game time. Bautista was taking final warm up cuts. Pillar was hitting soft toss. The one-time utility player turned All-Star pulled aside the clubs young, fourth outfielder and offered him some advice. Pillar described it as a discussion about hitting. Bautista told him there was nothing wrong with his swing, that he should remain aggressive in the batters box in order that the pitcher doesnt get too comfortable. He reminded Pillar that in Pillars role, he could step to the plate in crucial, late-game situations. Sure enough, Pillar got the game-winning single to snap a 4-4 tie in the ninth inning. Sure enough, he remained aggressive, perhaps too much so early in the at-bat when Pillar swung at the first two pitches down and out of the strike zone. With the count 1-2, Pillar took a pitch on the outer half to right field, Erik Kratz came around to score and the Blue Jays celebrated. Pillar thought enough of the conversation to share it with the assembled media postgame. Bautista seemed surprised to be approached on the topic. "You hope to have an effect on all your teammates, no matter what you talk about or discuss," said Bautista. "Even if its, hey youre opening up a little bit or having a 10-minute talk about being mentally ready, preparation and mindset and all that. You hope that your teammates listen to you. You dont hope that they do exactly what you say and if you say hop on one foot they start doing it, but if you make a comment that you think is going to help you hope they at least listen. Digest it and if it helps and it works then so be it." The type of conversation Bautista had with Pillar is rare this season, according to Bautista, because the Blue Jays are laden with veterans. The need doesnt arise as often. This, too, is the second year the group has been together after being arranged in the flurry of high-profile offseason moves made in November and December, 2012. "I think each person is more knowledgeable of others capabilities, more realistic with the expectations," said Bautista. "I think last year, people didnt know what to expect exactly with other players. Expectations might have been a little unrealistic, sometimes on the higher end and sometimes on the lower end. Sometimes you might have expected more out of somebody and that might have been not right. Sometimes you expected less and the guys surprise you. So now I think everybody is more in tune with each others capabilities." DICKEY THROWING MORE FASTBALLS R.A. Dickey is using his fastball more this season than he did last year. Hes thrown a heater 14.3 per cent of the time in 2014, compared to 11.9 per cent last season. This years number is more reflective of his 2012 Cy Young award season with the Mets, when 14 per cent of his pitches were fastballs. "I think its conscious because Ive had a lot of high-pitch games," said Dickey. "I had a 31-pitch first inning against (the Twins on Monday night), I had like a 30-pitch against the Royals, first inning. I need to get back to trying to induce contact earlier in counts so in that regard it has been something that Ive consciously tried to do. Especially with teams, Minnesota for instance is a team that leads the league in pitches taken so whenever you have a club like that you want to try to get ahead of guys as much as possible." Dickey is also conscious of his walk rate, which has skyrocketed this year. Hes issued a free pass to 10.2 per cent of hitters hes faced, compared to 7.5 per cent last year and 5.8 per cent in 2012. In each of his last two starts, hes allowed home runs off his fastball. On June 4 in Detroit, Miguel Cabrera took him deep on a first pitch fastball in the first inning. On Monday night against the Twins, leadoff hitter Danny Santana hit a home run off a full count fastball. Dickey had been falling behind in that first inning in Detroit and thought he could sneak a heater by Cabrera. "That was just a roll of the dice," said Dickey. "I had gone 2-0 with the first two hitters and felt that he would want to get in a hitters count. I tried to steal a strike the first time through the lineup and his numbers off me, I think hes had like 14 at-bats and two first-pitch swings and so the percentages were in my favour that he was taking and so I tried to play to those and got burned." Half of the home runs Dickeys allowed this season, five of 10, have been off fastballs. Has he become too predictable, throwing fastballs when in need of a strike? "I would hope not because I try to do a good job of throwing a lot of 2-0, 3-1, 3-2 knuckleballs," said Dickey. "Im not in the habit of routinely throwing a fastball in a fastball count but because I dont feature the same velocity as a lot of guys its a lot easier to put the barrel on the ball if theyve seen multiple fastballs in an at-bat; if theyre not well located in particular." JAYS INK TWO MORE PICKS The Blue Jays locked up their second and fifth round picks from last weeks amateur draft. They are highly-touted right-handed pitcher Sean Reid-Foley (49th overall) out of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Florida and centerfielder Lane Thomas (144th overall) out of Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both players are 18 years old. Derek Holland Jersey . Geovany Soto had an RBI for the Cubs. Carlos Silva gave up one run on three hits over six innings to pick up the win. Josh Willingham drove in the lone run for the Nationals, who had just four hits. Rougned Odor Jersey . Starting from pole, the 26-year-old Vettel turned in a trademark clinical performance to win the Indian Grand Prix on Sunday and join F1 greats Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as just the third driver to win four consecutive championships.DENVER -- Gabriel Landeskog scored a goal and assisted on rookie Nathan Mackinnons go-ahead score, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Saturday night for their second six-game win streak this season. Ryan OReilly also had a goal and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 29 saves for the Avalanche, whose 12-1 start is the best in franchise history. P.A. Parenteau added an empty-net score at 19:22 of the third. Brendan Gallagher scored a power-play goal for the Canadiens. Landeskog, who had the games first goal, fired a shot from the wing that bounced away from goalie Peter Budaj. Mackinnon backhanded the rebound into the net to put the Avalanche on top 2-1 at 8:01 of the third. Little more than three minutes later, OReilly got a wraparound shot through Budaj for another goal. Montreal snapped Colorados season-long streak of 22 consecutive penalty kills on Gallaghers power-play goal at 3:38 of the third period. With Maxime Talbot in the box for slashing, P.K. Subban took a shot from the point. Giguere couldnt quite corral the puck and Gallagher, positioned at the top of the crease, knocked in the rebound to tie it 1-all. Landeskog had just climbed onto the ice to begin a shift when he got a lead pass from Marc-Andre Cliche. He built up a head of stteam as he pushed the puck down the ice before pulling up in the middle of the left circle and slapping a shot up high that rocketed over Budajs stick-side shoulder and into the corner of the net for a 1-0 Colorado lead at 11:14 of the second period. Shin-Soo Choo Jersey. The teams fought through a scoreless first period with both Budaj and Giguere making key saves. Before the game, the Avalanche retired the No. 52 jersey of longtime defenceman Adam Foote in ceremonies that had the crowd roaring before the puck was even dropped. Foote, whose 19-year NHL career included two Stanley Cup titles with Colorado, was praised as the ultimate competitor and warrior by his former teammate, Avalanche executive Joe Sakic. NOTES: Avs left wing Jamie McGinn, who has missed the last three games with a knee injury, has resumed practicing and is expected to return Wednesday against Nashville. ... Cody McLeod was back on the ice for Colorado after serving a five-game suspension for his hit on Niklas Kronwall of Detroit. ... Andrei Markov is one game from his 700th with the Canadiens. ... Colorados Alex Tanguay injured a knee injury in the second period and did not return. ... The Canadiens lost both ends of a back-to-back set on the road. On Friday, Montreal lost 4-3 at Minnesota. 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