Sochi Olympics.?Each team played three pr Sochi Olympics.?Each team played three pr | Forum

SEATTLE -- Nelson Cruz reached another home run milestone, this time with a shot that left no doubt where it was going to land. Wholesale Custom Pelicans Shirts .I thought it might be out of the stadium from the angle I was sitting, Seattle manager Scott Servais said.Cruz hit his 20th home run of the season, Robinson Cano had three hits including an RBI single and the Mariners beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 on Tuesday night.Seattle won for the third time in four games thanks to an offense that finished with 12 hits and a key walk in the fifth inning that started the Mariners three-run rally.While Cruzs home run was the big blow of the fifth inning, the biggest at-bat came from Franklin Gutierrez. With two outs, Gutierrez was able to work a 10-pitch walk off Pittsburgh starter Jonathon Niese (6-6). Gutierrez advanced to second on a wild pitch then came around to score on Canos third hit.It really started it all. Two out, nobody on and a walk. Amazing how that works, Servais said. We talk about it, its really what we did a lot earlier in the season and I think this whole homestand has been better.Cruz then followed with a line shot just fair down the line. It was his 11th homer this season off a left-hander, and Cruz became the only current player with at least 20 home runs in every season since 2009. David Ortiz and Brian McCann can also reach that mark this season.Its just being able to play a lot of games, Cruz said. Its how you put the numbers (up). You dont just throw it out there. You have to play games to be able to put up numbers. Youre thinking as a player how to stay healthy and play as many games.Niese didnt make it out of the fifth for his shortest outing of the season.I thought I had some pretty good stuff early, just at the end everything went flat, Niese said.Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma (7-6) took a shutout into the seventh inning before giving up a pair of runs. Iwakuma has pitched into the seventh in six of his past seven starts. Without his normally sharp splitter, the veteran relied heavily on a slow curveball that kept Pittsburgh off-balance.Chris (Iannetta) had a lot of confidence in it in the bullpen. He called it a lot, I didnt shake and it worked out well, Iwakuma said through an interpreter.Iwakuma was nearly perfect through the sixth, facing just one batter over the minimum and allowing two hits. He ran into trouble in the seventh, beginning with Gregory Polancos leadoff double. Polanco scored on Starling Martes triple to deep right-center field, and Marte scored on David Freeses two-out single. Iwakuma was lifted after giving up a base hit to Adam Frazier, the fourth hit of the inning.Edwin Diaz got out of the jam in the seventh and pitched a perfect eighth. Steve Cishek pitched the ninth for his 18th save.SEE YA!Pittsburgh hitting coach Jeff Branson was ejected by home plate umpire Ben May arguing a strike call on the first pitch of the fifth inning. Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle soon followed, getting ejected after a brief argument with May after Branson had been tossed.I didnt think it was warranted, so once he threw (Branson) I went out and let him know that this was a little continuation of what weve been dealing with too much, Hurdle said.TRAINERS ROOMPirates: RHP Gerrit Cole (triceps strain) threw a 35-pitch bullpen on Tuesday and threw fastballs and off-speed pitches. Cole threw just 15 pitches in his last bullpen session, all fastballs.Mariners: RHP Felix Hernandez threw 25 pitches off a mound for the first time since going on the disabled list with a strained calf. Manager Scott Servais said Hernandez didnt feel any discomfort but there is no timeline yet on a possible return. ... LHP Charlie Furbush threw a 35-pitch bullpen session and is scheduled to throw to hitters on Saturday.UP NEXT:Pirates: Jameson Taillon (1-1) makes his fifth career start on Wednesday. Hes allowed eight earned runs in eight innings over his past two starts.Mariners: Wade Miley (6-3) returns after missing two weeks. Mileys last start came on June 12 when he lost against Texas. Miley was placed on the disabled list with an impingement in his left shoulder. Pelicans Jerseys China .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker. Custom Anthony Davis Jersey . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. http://www.custompelicansjersey.com/ . A lawyer for MLB, Matthew Menchel, confirmed Wednesday the league dropped its case against Biogenesis of America, its owner Anthony Bosch and several other individuals. The lawsuit had accused Biogenesis and Bosch of conspiring with players to violate their contracts by providing them with banned performance-enhancing substances. TORONTO -- And so we begin.The first World Cup of Hockey in a dozen years is set to open to all kinds of bells and whistles Saturday in the center of Canadas hockey universe: Toronto.Eight teams, representing six countries and two continents, and the largest collection of NHL talent ever assembled in one tournament are set to try to put the World Cup of Hockey back on the international hockey radar.Consider this: Of the 184 players on the eight rosters, 169 played in the NHL last season. Two others, Team North Americas Auston Matthews and Finlands Patrik Laine, went Nos. 1 and 2 in last Junes draft and are likely to play in the NHL this season.The players in the tournament, jointly organized by the NHL and the National Hockey League Players Association, have combined to play 73,299 NHL regular-season games and have a total of 47 Stanley Cup championships to their credit.The Tampa Bay Lightning leads all NHL teams with 12 players taking part, with representatives on seven of the eight teams. It would have been 13 if Ryan Callahan?hadnt withdrawn from Team USA because of injury. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is also an associate coach with Team North America.Speaking of Team North America, it has quickly become the darling of the tournament. Many believe the collection of highly skilled players from Canada and the United States under the age of 24 has the goods to advance to the elimination portion of the tournament.Team North America features a bevy of players who represent the future of the game, including team captain Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Jack Eichel?of the?Buffalo Sabres.?The duo represents the top two picks in the 2015 draft. McDavid, 19, has been hailed as the greatest young talent to join the NHL since Sidney Crosby arrived more than a decade ago.And though Team North America is young, it does boast a two-time Stanley Cup winner in Brandon Saad of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and goalie?Matt Murray, who backstopped the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Cup win in June.The tournament will start with two four-team pools in round-robin play (Canada, United States, Czech Republic and Europe make up Group A; Sweden, Finland, Russia and North America are in Group B). The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals, with the No. 1 teams playing the second-place teams from the opposite pool. The winners of those one-game semifinals will meet in the best-of-three finals.Pool play begins Saturday with Team USA taking on Team Europe (3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2), another hybrid team featuring players from non-competing European nations. Team Canada?opens against the Czech Republic on Saturday (8 p.m. on ESPNEWS).The preliminary round will follow standard NHL regular-season protocol. IIf a score is tied at the end of regulation, there will be a five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime. Custom Pelicans Jersey China. If nobody scores in OT, the game will be decided by a shootout. Teams will accumulate two points for a win of any kind and one point for an overtime or shootout loss. Regulation wins are favorable because they will factor into the tiebreaking process used to determine which teams advance to the elimination round in the event teams are tied in points after the three preliminary games.NHL playoff rules will come into effect in the semifinals and final, with overtime games played 5-on-5 until a resolution, regardless of how long that might take.Heading into the games, there are plenty of storylines to watch.The host Canadians will be without Jeff Carter, Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Duncan Keith, all of whom withdrew because of injury. Guess what? It doesnt matter. The Canadians are loaded, and they are led by Pittsburghs Crosby, who is coming off his second Stanley Cup run, and Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price, who is attempting to return from a core body injury that cost him most of last season.The biggest decisions facing Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock might be about whom to scratch for each game because one goalie, one defenseman and one forward from each teams 23-man roster will not dress.The Swedes are as complete a team as there is in the tournament, even though they will be without Henrik Zetterberg and Alexander Steen. The Russians, led by Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and Crosbys longtime teammate Evgeni Malkin, are explosive.Team Europe, whose players represent eight European nations not included otherwise, got off to a rocky start before rebounding to win their final pretournament game over Sweden. Europe is noteworthy for, among other things, completing the eighth father-son combination to take part in Canada Cup/World Cup of Hockey competition. Skilled Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl follows his father, Peter, who skated for Germany in the 1996 tournament.As for Team USA, its a hard-nosed, veteran group led by 2015-16 NHL scoring champion and MVP Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks. Two-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings will get the start in goal. Team USA, 20 years after its seminal win over Canada in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, hopes to rebound from a disappointing showing at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.?Each team played three pretournament games. If the results tell us one thing, its that no team can be fully counted out of the running. Each squad won at least one game, and none went undefeated. ' ' '