09-09-2019, 03:19 AM
DENVER -- Ian Kennedy pitched seven sharp innings, Rene Rivera hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the sixth and the San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 6-1 on Monday night in a game that included a 56-minute weather delay. Chase Headley added four hits for San Diego, including a two-run triple in the seventh inning to break open a close game. Kennedy seemed to gain strength the deeper he got into the game, striking out five of the last six batters he faced before wind, rain and lightning forced the delay heading into the eighth inning. Kevin Quackenbush stepped in for Kennedy when play resumed. Kennedy (7-9) finished with nine strikeouts, boosting his team-leading total this season to 125. He allowed four hits in seven innings, including Drew Stubbs leadoff home run in the fourth. The outing by Kennedy extended a strong run by the Padres rotation. San Diegos starting pitchers have allowed only six runs over the last seven games, helping the Padres go 5-2 in that stretch. The Padres improved to 28-4 this season when scoring four or more runs, the second-best mark in baseball behind Washington, which is 39-3 when scoring at least four times. Slumping Colorado lost for the 18th time in the last 21 games. With the score tied at 1-1 in the sixth, Tommy Medica hit a one-out double and Rivera followed with a double to left. One out later, Cameron Maybin sent a drive to the warning track in left centre that seemed to get caught in swirling winds and dropped just beyond the reach of Corey Dickersons glove as the Padres took a 3-1 lead. San Diego added three runs in the seventh. Kennedy drew a leadoff walk and Chris Denorfia singled to chase Tyler Matzek (1-3). Headley greeted Matt Belisle with a triple off the right-field wall, scoring Kennedy and Denorfia. Carlos Quentins sacrifice fly put the Padres in front by five runs. Matzek was charged with five runs and eight hits in six innings. He walked four and struck out four. Brooks Conrad got the Padres on the board with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. NOTES: RHP Tyson Ross, the Padres lone All-Star representative, is scheduled to start Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers and wont pitch in next Tuesdays Midsummer Classic, though hell be in attendance for the festivities, according to manager Bud Black. Ross is slated to start Tuesdays Game 2 against LHP Franklin Morales and the Rockies. ... Kennedys team-leading 19th start also tied him for the most starts in the majors this season. ... Kennedy has worked six or more innings in 15 of his starts this year. ... The Rockies have lost seven of their last 11 meetings with San Diego dating to last September. ... Stubbs is batting .333 (6 for 18) with two home runs midway through the Rockies 10-game homestand. ... Rockies batters struck out 13 times in all. Yannick Carrasco Jersey .com) - No Sidney Crosby, no problem. Dedryck Boyata Belgium Jersey . In a matchup of teams battling head-to-head for the final playoff spot in Major League Soccers Western Conference, the Whitecaps run to the post-season took a hard hit when FC Dallas blew open a tie game with two goals in the final minutes for a 3-1 victory Saturday night. http://www.soccerbelgiumteamonline.com/M...-Jersey/.C. -- Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith has been ruled out for Sundays game against the Atlanta Falcons. Axel Witsel Belgium Jersey .C. - Canadian ice dancing, it seems, is in good hands. Vincent Kompany Belgium Jersey . Last year, Islanders forward Colin Mcdonald released a "Do It For Colin" campaign to promote his teammate and friend John Tavares for the EA sports honour:The most popular sports voting video ever has to go to Chris Bosh who showcased his comedic abilities in his effort to get fans to vote him into the 2008 All Star Game:You can vote for TJ and other star players for the NHL 15 cover vote here.The Edmonton Oilers sit dead last in the league with six wins in 25 games. A 10-game losing streak has decimated any hope of meaningful hockey this season and once again turned the conversation towards the draft lottery. All this before the tarp has been pulled off Santas sleigh. Conventional hockey logic suggests it is time for Craig Mactavish to fire Dallas Eakins. In most other markets, it probably would have happened already. Im here to tell you, its not going to happen. At least not in the near future. MacTavish still believes in Dallas Eakins message and he believes the players do, too. In recent days a number of them, including Taylor Hall, Andrew Ference and David Perron, have gone public with their support of the head coach. Hall went out of his way to make sure MacTavish knew that Eakins wasnt the problem in his eyes. This sense of support from within the room has resonated strongly with the GM. MacTavish must also know he hasnt iced a competitive lineup for a second straight season and making Eakins the fall guy for some of his miscalculations and mis-fires likely doesnt sit well with him. Last year it was a ragtag blue line - Denis Grebeshkov, Anton Belov, and Philip Larsen are now out of the league - and inadequate goaltending that sunk them. Sure, the rookie head coach made his share of mistakes, but so, too, did the rookie GM. This season MacTavishs inability to address a glaring lack of depth at centre and reliance on career backups in net have hamstrung his head coach. Eakins also doesnt have anything close to a true top defence pair and is nightly being asked to make lemonade out of lemons. This head coach is failing, the standings make that indisputable…but not with a quality team. Hes failing with a significantly flawed lineup. MacTavish is less than two years into his tenure as GM, too early to say he is the problem. He needs to be given time to untangle the numerouus knots he inherited, and those he has tightened.dddddddddddd Soon, MacTavish is going to have to clearly demonstrate he has some creative solutions that extend beyond high first round picks. Whether it costs him his job or not, Eakins bares a lot of responsibility for what is taking place. He is at the helm of this titanically sinking ship and regardless of weaknesses in his lineup, he shouldnt be clumsily smashing into every iceberg in his path. Surely a coach should be able to light the right fires at least once in a 10-game stretch of futility. Shouldnt he be able to find the critical buttons to push and snap his team out of its funk? Yet lines have remained mostly the same. Outside of painfully overdue healthy scratches, there have been no dramatic measures taken, no cold buckets of water dumped on anyones head, no slap across the face to shock a dressing room out its slumber. Instead, theres talking... and lots of it. A stale power play, poor starts and lack of accountability for repeat offenders of the mind-numbing mistakes are all failures laying squarely at Eakins feet. So too is the length of this losing streak. In 2013, Ralph Krueger had his Oiler team positioned for a run at the playoffs. The Oilers were ninth in the Western Conference, one point out of a playoff spot at the trade deadline and had just trounced the Calgary Flames 8-2. Kruegers Oilers then went on to lose nine of their next 10 games and were finished. During that skid, lines stayed the same, systems remained in place, there was no cold bucket of water back then either. It revealed a lack of creativity and problem-solving under pressure from the first-year head coach. That stretch cost Ralph Krueger his job. Dallas Eakins has yet to prove that he is any more creative or any more capable of problem solving than Krueger was. But hes going to get more time to figure it out than the last guy did. ' ' '