With the signing of LHP Brock Burke, the Rays announced | Forum
Mitglied zgr123
Jun 5 '17
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jimmie Johnson is the leader again in the Chase for the Sprint Cup title after a dominating victory Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. Samson Ebukam Youth Jersey . The five-time Cup champion knows all too well that his seven-point lead over Matt Kenseth is far from overwhelming with two races left in the season. Johnson also left the Lone Star State last November with a victory and seven-point lead -- and lost the championship to Brad Keselowski. "I hope history doesnt repeat itself," Johnson said. "That is the perfect example of this thing isnt over until its over. Last year we had eight great races and two bad ones and didnt get the championship. ... There are two very important races left." Kenseth and Johnson were tied in points when they got to Texas, though Kenseth was considered the leader based on his seven wins. Johnson led 255 of 334 laps for his sixth win this season while becoming only the second three-time Cup winner at the high-banked 1 1/2-mile Texas track. The No. 48 Chevrolet finished more than 4 seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. "The 48 was in another class and nobody had anything for them," said Earnhardt, who had his fifth runner-up finish this season and has been top 10 in six of the last seven Chase races. Joey Logano finished third, ahead of Kenseth while Kasey Kahne, another Hendrick driver, was fifth. Johnson got his 66th career victory, including a record 24 wins in Chase races. But he and crew chief Chad Knaus are now in their third season since winning their fifth consecutive championship. "Ive been watching a lot of MMA fighting lately, and youll fall into a rhythm and think that somebodys got a fight won, and it doesnt end that way," Johnson said. "Its how this is going to be. Matt didnt have maybe the best day, but he still finished fourth. This thing is going to the last lap at Homestead. Its going to come down to mistake." Kenseth was running second behind Johnson for much of the first half of the race before getting penalized for speeding. That dropped Kenseth to 16th place and more than 28 seconds back, though the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota recovered for a top-five finish. "We were just being too aggressive. Honestly, the 48 had us ... they were just dominant all weekend," Kenseth said. "That speeding penalty got us behind us. We definitely didnt need that, but really I dont know at the end of the day that it really affected our finish much." At Phoenix, where the Chase goes next Sunday, Johnson is a four-time winner and finished second in March. His average finishing spot of 6.4 there is significantly better than the 17.2 for Kenseth, who has one victory at Phoenix and finished seventh there eight months ago. "Im still confident," Kenseth said. "I felt real good going to Phoenix last year, and I thought we were in good shape and we had a problem. Ive never seen it this tight, so I dont feel any better really this year than I did last year," car owner Rick Hendrick said. "I think Jimmie has been very confident, but nobody has said he was unbeatable this year. Really, Matts been right there the whole year." Kenseth was still running second when Johnson pulled down pit road, a lap before Kenseth came in as the last to pit on a cycle of green-flag stops. But Kenseth was caught speeding on pit road and had to serve a drive-through penalty. By time he got back on the track, he was the last car on the lead lap and about 25 seconds further behind than he had been before the two had pitted. A caution a few laps later got Kenseth up three spots, but more importantly tightened up the field. Within a few laps after the ensuing restart, Kenseth was back in the top 10 and climbing. By then, Kyle Busch had moved back into second, the same spot he was before a right front tire went down and put into in the outside wall on lap 57 to bring out a caution. Busch, who won the spring race in Texas, would up 13th. When Busch went into the wall, he was between Johnson and Kenseth, who went onto pit road 1-2. The top Chase contenders didnt exit that way. While Johnson had a quick stop, he was second out behind polesitter Carl Edwards, who had the stall closest to the scoring line. Kenseth has an issue on his stop that dropped him to sixth. Edwards, who had been the only three-time Cup winner at Texas, led six times for 38 times. But Edwards finished only 187 laps before an engine failure ended his day. Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, the other Hendrick driver, was in contention for another championship after his win a week earlier at Martinsville moved him up to a season-high third in points. But on Lap 74, the front left tire on the No. 24 Chevrolet blew, sending Gordon high and hard into the wall between the first and second turns. His returned to the race after repairs and finished in 38th place, 187 laps off the pace. He dropped to sixth the standings, 67 points back. "I just know that the left front went down as I was going down the front straightaway. I felt it before I got there, and I just couldnt get it slowed down enough," Gordon said. "I dont know; the wind was so strong that the car was doing funky things down the straightaways. I dont know if that was a slow leak, or if it just went all of a sudden. Our car just didnt take off very good, but boy was it strong on the long runs." Josh Reynolds Jersey . Catch the action live on TSN2 at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The Wild lead the Northwest Division and look to get back into the win column after having a season-high seven-game winning streak cut short with Tuesdays 2-1 loss at Winnipeg in the finale of a five-game road trip (4-1-0). Cooper Kupp Youth Jersey . - Bryan Price sat down in the cushy chair. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Jarred Cosart has spent a lot of time studying David Price. In the last year, the young Houston right-hander has spent a lot of time outpitching him, too. Cosart threw eight shutout innings to beat Tampa Bay once again, and rookie George Springers two-run homer helped the Astros defeat the Rays 3-1 Friday night. Cosart (7-5) gave up six hits in winning his third straight start. He walked one and struck out two, retiring 12 straight at one point. The 24-year-old Cosart topped the Rays last Saturday in Houston, the Astros last victory before losing four in a row. The pitching matchup against Price (5-7) was a rematch of Cosarts major league debut at Tampa Bay last July 12 in which he took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and finished with eight shutout innings and a win. "Hes a guy Ive watched for years, and hes one of the best in the league and hes proven that, and thats where were all trying to get," Cosart said. "I was trying to compete with him pitch-for-pitch, and you know hes not going to make too many mistakes. Tonight he made one, really." After striking out in his first five at-bats against Price, including his first try Friday night, Springer hit his 13th home run off the D-ring catwalk at Tropicana Field. It came in the third inning after the first of Jose Altuves three hits. "I was a little bit in front of it and just didnt want to hook it," said Springer. "I was actually saying to myself: Just stay fair!" Price "had some success off me the last game and he still has some success off me. It was one of those things where I was just able to hit it," Springer said. Price gave up six hits while striking out 12 in eight innings. It was his fourth straight gaame with double digits in strikeouts, tying Bostons Jon Lester (in 2010) for the longest such streak since 2008. Samson Ebukam Jersey. . Price is 1-3 in those four starts for the Rays, who have lost 18 of 24. A second-inning strikeout of Chris Carter was the 1,000th of Prices career. "It (the strikeout) is cool, cant deny that," Price said. "But it stinks. You want to win out there and were not doing that right now so its frustrating." Jonathan Villar added a solo homer for the Astros in the ninth off reliever Juan Carlos Oviedo. The Rays scored an unearned run in the ninth off reliever Chad Qualls, who got his ninth save. Yunel Escobar hit an RBI single with two outs before Ryan Hanigan struck out. Altuve leads the majors with 101 hits. Batting second in front of Springer, the Houston second baseman is 11 for 18 in four games since returning from a hand injury. "It really puts the pressure on the opposing pitcher with a guy that leads the league in hits," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "Hes going to be on base a bunch, and then you have a guy in the batters box that can change the game with one swing. Its a pretty good dynamic for our lineup." Brandon Guyer and Jose Molina each had two of Tampa Bays eight hits, all singles. NOTES: The Astros optioned RHP Paul Clemens to Triple-A Oklahoma City and called up RHP Jake Buchanan, who will start Saturdays game against Tampa Bay RHP Jake Odorizzi. ... Price leads AL pitchers in innings (115 2-3) and strikeouts (133), along with hits (116) and home runs (16) allowed. ... With the signing of LHP Brock Burke, the Rays announced they have signed all 11 of their picks in the first 10 rounds of the draft. 00:23ET 21-06-14 Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ChinaNFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
