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The Atlanta Braves have spent virtually the entire season in the basement of the National League East but at times have managed to put together a few hot streaks.Atlanta is 30 games under .500 but is on its second hot streak of the season.The Braves can match a season high with a sixth straight victory Sunday afternoon in the finale of a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Ballpark.The Braves won six straight June 15-21 to get its record to 24-46. From June 22 through Aug. 20, Atlanta dropped 33 of 53 games but starting with a 7-6 10-inning win over Washington on Aug. 21, the Braves are 8-4.Atlanta began its winning streak with a three-game sweep of San Diego and has continued it with two late-inning wins over the Phillies. The Braves scored four times in the ninth inning Friday, scored the tying run in the eighth inning Saturday and picked up a 6-4 win when Adonis Garcia scored the winning run on a groundout by Tyler Flowers in the 10th.When its not going good, you line out or hit into a double play, Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. Weve had plenty of those stretches where it wasnt going our way. Like I keep saying, if you handle that and deal with it theres usually something good on the other end of it.Garcia homered twice Saturday and drove in three runs to raise his average to .274. He is 10-for-22 in his last five games.The team is clicking and Im feeding off of that, Garcia said. I honesty do feel good being in the two spot. I feel like Im getting better pitches to see and a lot more fastballs due to the fact of the guys hitting behind me.Garcia is not the only hot hitter for the Braves, who have scored 38 runs and are hitting .328 (57-for-174) during their last five games.Endier Inciarte is batting .426 (26-for-61) during a 14-game hitting streak, Freddie Freeman is batting .316 (12-for-38) during a 10-game hitting streak and Matt Kemp is 8-for-19 over his last four games.While the Braves are trending slightly upwards thanks to a productive offense, the Phillies are faltering. The Phillies have lost five straight and 12 of 16 since sweeping a three-game series at home from Colorado Aug. 12-13.Philadelphia still remains 7 1/2 games ahead of Atlanta fourth but was unable to snap its skid despite four hits from Maikel Franco. While Franco was 4-for-5, the rest of the lineup was 2-for-32 with 13 strikeouts.During its losing streak, Philadelphia has scored 11 runs and batted .154 average (24-for-156), which prompted a brief meeting with manager Pete Mackanin before Saturdays game.I just want them to pay more attention, Mackanin told MLB.com. Its the little things. Take batting practice the same way you were going to hit in the game, instead of taking it nonchalantly to get loose. I want them to bear down.Before getting four this Saturday, Franco had one hit in his last 16 at-bats but others have continued struggling.Leadoff hitter Cesar Hernandez has one hit in his last 17 at-bats as does Aaron Altherr. Cameron Rupp has one hit in his last 19 at-bats and Odubel Herrera is hitless in his last 11 at-bats.Julio Tehran threw a one-hitter during Atlantas first six-game winning streak and began this streak by allowing two runs in seven innings in Tuesdays 7-3 win over San Diego. Tehran is 4-9 with a 3.12 ERA as the Braves have scored three runs or less in 15 of his starts but in his last four, Atlanta has scored 27 times.Tehran is 6-4 with a 2.47 ERA in 13 career starts against the Phillies. He took a loss to them July 30 when he allowed three runs and five hits in five innings of a 9-5 setback July 30 in Atlanta.Philadelphia received seven solid innings from Vince Velasquez Saturday and then announced he was being shut down for the rest of the season. Another one of the Phillies young starters takes the mound Sunday when Jake Thompson makes his sixth career start.Thompson is 1-4 with a 7.86 ERA but comes off his best outing to date. During Tuesdays 4-0 loss to Washington, he allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings. Superstar Canada Online . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. Wholesale Adidas Shoes Canada . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. http://www.superstaroutletcanada.com/ . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. Adidas Superstar Canada . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. Wholesale Superstar Canada . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest daily fantasy sports operators, have agreed to merge, the companies announced Friday.The merger, pending regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second half of 2017. Until then, both sites will continue to operate under their respective brand names.Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but sources close to the negotiations told ESPN that it is basically a 50/50 split between the fantasy giants. Each company will have three seats on the board, with one independent director. At closing, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins will be the CEO of the new company, while FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles will become the chairman of the board.The name of the joint company has not been revealed. It will have headquarters in New York and Boston.We have always been passionate about providing the best possible experience for our customers and this merger will help advance our goal of building a transformational global sports entertainment platform, Robins said in the release announcing the agreement. Joining forces will allow us to truly realize the potential of our vision, and as a combined company we will be able to accelerate the pace of innovation and bring a richer experience to our customers than we ever could have done separately.Being able to combine DraftKings and FanDuel, added Eccles, presents a tremendous opportunity for us to further innovate and disrupt the sports industry. While both companies have accomplished much already, this transaction will create a business that can offer a greater variety of offerings, appealing to new users, including the tens of millions of season-long fantasy players that havent yet tried our products.The merger is expected to draw scrutiny, potentially from the Federal Trade Commission. FanDuel and DraftKings make up more than 80 percent of the daily fantasy marketplace, but they are looking to pool their resources to grow their customer base by tapping into the much larger season-long market, a source privy to the companies strategy told ESPN. An estimated 40 million North Americans play only season-long fantasy sports, eight times more than the number of those who play daily fantasy.The benefit of the merger to the consumer, an important test for regulators, will be increased overall competition in the marketplace, the source said. The source added that DraftKings and FanDuel will work together in a streamlined fashion to conquer regulatory hurdles, which have hampered both businesses. They believe it could further open the fantasy market to entrepreneurship.Some smaller fantasy operators also view the merger as an opportunity.Prior to the tumult of the past year, FanDuel and DraftKings were well on their way to becoming multibillion-dollar pillar business[es] in sports, said Jeremy Levine, founder and CEO of DRAFT, a competing fantasy site. There still will be massive business built in this space, but it wont be FanDuel or DraftKings individually. Due to the merger, the opportunity is now there for the few companies that were able to survive and strengthen in the past year.In the meantime, with legal fees and regulatory costs mounting, the merger between DraftKings and FanDuel was seen as a necessity by some investors. Multiple high-volume players told ESPN they stopped playing because of the increasing rake, the commission fee charged by the sites. Overall play on both sites was described as soft by players.DraftKings and FanDuel each have approximately 320 employees.FanDuel was launched in July 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and rose to the top of the industry with an innovative, condensed version of traditional season-long fantasy sports. DraftKings came along three years later and quickly took aim at FFanDuel, creating, at times, a hostile rivalry between the two leading operators and their CEOs.ddddddddddddBoth companies attracted large investments from media conglomerates and venture capitalists. They formed partnerships with professional sports leagues. The NBA has equity in FanDuel; Major League Baseball and the NHL are partners with DraftKings, along with 28 of the 32 NFL franchises.At their peak, the companies were each valued at more than $1 billion. But things changed in the fall of 2015.Heading into last football season, the sites unleashed massive marketing blitzes, flooding the airwaves with commercials touting million-dollar prizes. The two companies spent an estimated $750 million combined on ads, marketing and related expenses in 2015.The relentless advertising attracted a bevy of new users but also the attention of lawmakers and regulators.The scrutiny intensified after a DraftKings employee won $350,000 playing in an NFL contest on FanDuel. There were accusations the employee used inside information. An investigation by DraftKings found the employee did not use internal information that potentially could have given him an unfair advantage in submitting his winning lineup, but the damage had been done, and a firestorm of controversy ensued.In November 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent cease-and-desist letters to DraftKings and FanDuel, eventually forcing the companies out of one of their most important states for several months. Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Mississippi and Texas joined New York in ruling daily fantasy violated state gambling laws.FanDuel stopped operating paid contests in Texas, but DraftKings filed suit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and continues to offer games in the state. Paxtons office said it would assess the impact of the merger on the pending litigation.Both sites are still involved in litigation against Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and also are contending with a consolidated class-action suit. They recently settled with Schneiderman over false advertising claims, agreeing to each pay $6 million. The settlement with Schneiderman, sources said, was one of the last hurdles before the merger could be completed.Nine states have passed legislation clarifying the legality of fantasy sports in the past two years. With the new laws came increased regulatory costs in the form of licensing fees and taxes. Theyve taken a toll on the companies finances and, along with legal costs, ultimately forced the merger, sources said.The New York Times reported both sites were having trouble meeting their day-to-day financial obligations, and multiple sources told ESPN that DraftKings and FanDuel were months behind on paying vendors and lobbyists. The merger, upon approval, would allow the companies to split legal fees and regulatory costs. Without it, some questioned whether they would survive.Up until recently, it seemed unlikely Eccles and Robins would be able to work together. They were known rivals and had different views on which direction to take the industry. DraftKings, for example, offers contests on golf and NASCAR, while FanDuel avoided those sports over legal concerns.They were the Jets and the Sharks, said Al Zeidenfeld, a high-level daily fantasy player and contributor to ESPN. You think the Jets and the Sharks would form one super neighborhood gang? No.Both platforms will remain separate and operational through the 2017 NFL season, while the deal is completed, the sites said.ESPN senior writers Don Van Natta and Darren Rovell contributed to this story. ' ' '