Clan-Members » period, give ourselves a chance

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor will be happy not to have to play Evan Longoria again this season after Sundays series finale.Hes had a pretty good season against us, Molitor said after Longoria hit his 24th home run of the season as part of the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 win over the Twins on Saturday night. I dont know what his totals are, but every time we get him out, Im relieved.In six games against the Twins, Longoria has six home runs this year. That matches the most of any major-league player this year against Minnesota. Clevelands Mike Napoli also has six, but in 13 games. Longoria has 14 career home runs against the Twins, his most against any non-division opponent.Hes made us pay, Molitor said. All six games, I think hes been a contributing factor.The Rays hit three more solo home runs in Saturdays win -- theyre on pace for a team-record 211 home runs this season, though manager Kevin Cash was also happy to see some small-ball scoring with multiple stolen bases and aggressive baserunning on wild pitches.Love the home runs, Cash said. But the way we have found some ways to manufacture some runs here of late has been really nice. We struggled with doing that for a lot of the season.The Rays are 6-3 on their homestand, which secures their first winning homestand of the season. The Arizona Diamondbacks are now the only team that has gone all season without at least one series win.The Rays will send Matt Andriese, literally stretching himself back out to be a starter after an extended stint in the Tampa Bay bullpen, to mound Sunday. His first start Tuesday saw him throw 58 pitches in four effective innings, and he should be able to work longer this time around.Andriese (6-2, 2.72) beat the Twins on June 4, despite giving up eight hits and three runs (two earned) in five innings. Last year, he struggled in relief against Minnesota, giving up five runs in three innings. Hell remember Twins leadoff hitter Brian Dozier, whos 3-for-5 against him with a home run and four RBI.Thats still better than Minnesotas Sunday starter, fellow right-hander Kyle Gibson, who is 0-4 for his career against the Rays with an 8.85 ERA, having allowed 20 earned runs in 20 1/3 innings. This season, Gibson is 3-6 with a 4.94 ERA, but hell need to be careful with Tampa Bays 3-4 hitters -- Longoria has a .400 career average against him and Brad Miller is at .455.The two teams, with nearly identical records at the bottom of the American League standings, go in opposite directions after Sundays game. Tampa Bay hits the road for a six-game swing in Toronto and New York, and the Twins return home for seven games against the Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals.Nike Shoes Clearance Outlet . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Custom Air Max 97 Plus . Colin Wilson had two goals and an assist, and Mike Fisher scored a goal and helped set up two others in the Predators 6-4 victory over the Red Wings on Monday night. http://www.wholesalenikeshoesclearance.com/ . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1. Air Max 1 Wholesale .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. Cheap Nike Vapormax China . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Veteran Antoine Vermette is managing to look every bit as fresh as his 21-year-old linemates.Vermette and Corey Perry each had a goal and an assist, and the Anaheim Ducks scored a season-high three power play goals to beat the Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Sunday afternoon.Joseph Cramarossa, Sami Vatanen and Vermettes linemate Nick Ritchie also scored for the Ducks, and John Gibson made 21 saves.Hes a dominant center iceman with the puck and thats a huge advantage, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said of Vermette, his third-line center. And we like to play into that.Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who lost their second straight game in Southern California. Mike Condon made 10 saves before being removed for Andrew Hammond in the second period. Hammond made 16 saves.Trying to get something and give Hammond some ice time, too, Senators coach Guy Boucher said. We had Condon starting the game, we wanted to see what it would look like to get him in on a back-to-back. If our players were in the game and were playing very good, with the same score I probably would have done something different. But I saw right away that our guys just werent in this game.Boucher lamented the teams lack of effort the day after a 4-1 loss in Los Angeles.It was a no-show all around. Not good, Boucher said. We wanted to rebound from yesterday. We played a hard game yesterday and it didnt turn out our way but we didnt give much to the opponent and played a physical game. Today, we didnt play a physical game at all.The 34-year-old Vermette facilitated Ritchies goal with a beautiful backhand pass into the slot at 10:29 in the second period, giving the Ducks a 4-1 lead -- 21-year-old linemate Ondrej Kase also assisted on the tally.Vermette capitalized on the power play with 47 seconds left in the first period to make it 3-1.Nothing too special, Vermette said. We want to create some shooting lanes with good positioning, we havve our setup and good players on the team.dddddddddddd Its a matter of executing and eventually the puck goes in. Tonight was one of those nights.Vatanen closed the scoring with a power-play goal off the crossbar at 7:59 in the third period.Perry scored his first power-play goal of the season at 12:05 in the first to break a 1-1 tie. Perry has scored twice in the last three games after going 18 games without a goal.Dzingel scored at 7:53 in the first when he finished off a feed from the corner boards by Bobby Ryan, momentarily tying the game at 1-1.Cramarossa scored on a rebound 2:58 into play to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead.We wanted to have a strong first period, give ourselves a chance with a good strong start, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. Get our skating game going, get our forechecking game going. Then we can build on it the rest of the game.The Ducks have won three in a row at Honda Center.We had a pretty strong homestand up until this point, and we wanted to win another one before hitting the road, Ritchie said. Thats a big win for us heading out for a six-game road trip.Game notesOttawas Mark Borowiecki served the first game of his two-game suspension for a boarding hit on the Kings Tyler Toffoli. ... The Senators gave up three power-play goals for the third time this season, including Saturday night in a 4-1 loss to the Kings. The other time came on Nov. 29 in 5-4 loss to Buffalo. ... Anaheim D Korbinian Holzer and RW Jared Boll were healthy scratches. ... Ottawa RW Buddy Robinson was a healthy scratch. ... Ottawa G Craig Anderson remained away from the team for the third straight game on personal leave with his wife as she undergoes cancer treatments.UP NEXTSenators: Return home to host the Sharks on Wednesday.Ducks: Open a six-game road trip in Dallas on Tuesday. ' ' '