Thomas Godoj Thread » een had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt

Smokin-hot Casey Haerther kept hitting line drives, while Matt Jackson continued to be a presence on the mound as the Winnipeg Goldeyes won their fourth straight game and swept the Grand Prairie AirHogs right out of Shaw Park on Thursday afternoon. Jackson threw five full innings of two-hit, shutout baseball before a leg injury sent him to the showers. However, Haerther went four-for-four with three singles and a double, three runs scored and two RBI and capped a sensational week as the Fish beat the Hogs 5-2. With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 18-9 on the season, first in the American Associations North Division. They won their fourth straight game and swept Grand Prairie in this three-game set with wins of 7-6, 8-1 and 4-1. The Goldeyes also improved their home record to 6-4 this season. For Haerther, it was an incredible series. He went 11-for-13 (.846) with three homers, six runs scored and nine runs batted in. His average is now a monstrous .391, best in the American Association. "You have to ride these things as long as you can because they dont come around very often," Haerther said. "Im seeing the ball real good right now. Im also getting good pitches to hit. Im swinging at the pitches I choose to hit and Im not swinging at the pitches the pitchers want me to hit. Im getting deeper into counts and Im not afraid to hit with two strikes. It almost feels like youre not trying. Im just gonna keep doing what Im doing." The Goldeyes, who pounded out 14 hits, opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the second. Donnie Webb led off with a single, stole second and scored on a base hit by Haerther. Haerther came around to score when Jake Blackwood was safe on a two-out error to Grand Prairie shortstop Jimmy Mojica. Winnipeg added two more in the sixth, as Webb again singled and stole second, Haerther singled and eventually came around to score on a single by Tyler Kuhn. The AirHogs answered with a run in the eighth as Palmer Karr Jr. singled off Brendan Lafferty to drive home Mitch Abeita and then they added another turn in the ninth off Kyle Bellamy, but it was too little, too late. The Goldeyes put it out of reach in the bottom of the eighth, as Haerther doubled and scored on a single by Kuhn, who had four hits himself and drove in a pair. His batting average is now .388, good for second in the league.Jackson (4-2, 3.09, ERA) got the win for Winnipeg, while Grand Prairie starter Shawn Spainhoward (0-4, 6.67) suffered the loss. There was no save. The Goldeyes will now open a huge intra-divisional series on Friday night at Shaw Park as the St. Paul Saints come to town for a three-game set. Kyle Anderson (2-1, 0.91 ERA) will get the start for Winnipeg, while Nick Barnese (2-1, 4.39 ERA) will take to the bump for St. Paul. Game time Friday night is 7 p.m., Saturday night the action starts at 6 p.m. and on Sunday afternoon, first pitch is at 1:35. Tedy Bruschi Youth Jersey . -- Jerome Verrier scored once and set up two more as the Drummondville Voltigeurs downed the visiting Chicoutimi Sagueneens 5-1 on Friday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League play. Drew Bledsoe Youth Jersey . Now the Minnesota Vikings have set their sights on soccer. http://www.shoptheofficialpatriots.com/E...atriots-Jersey/. It will be their 15th head-to-head meeting and fourth in the post-season (Sunday at 2pm et/11am pt on CTV) and for his part, Brady isnt downplaying just how big the game is for him. "Im excited - Its everything you could ask for as an athlete," the New England Patriots quarterback told WEEI Radio in Boston on Monday. Drew Bledsoe Jersey . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Julian Edelman Patriots Jersey . Just as the meeting was beginning, Major League Baseball unveiled Rule 7.13, an experimental rule for the 2014 season aimed at eliminating what the league calls “egregious” runner/catcher collisions at home plate.PLA DADET, France -- On the last of four Pyrenees ascents, Rafal Majka winked at a French TV camera and tugged playfully at a motorcycles antenna. Even this late in the Tour de France, the Polish rider made winning look easy as he took Stage 17 on Wednesday. For Vincenzo Nibali, the second ride in the mountains on Frances border with Spain was more serious. "The Shark" nibbled yet more seconds away from several of his closest challengers, and the yellow jersey that he has worn for all but two days of the race seemed to fit just a little more tightly ahead of the finish Sunday in Paris. Nibali was even businesslike with his own prime minister, imploring him not to get too ahead of himself in celebration. "Its true that I received a text message from Matteo Renzi, who invited me to Chigi Palace to celebrate my victory," the cautious Sicilian said about the premiers official residence. "I replied that only after winning -- if I do so -- Ill be able to say that Ill be present." The 124.5-kilometre (77-mile) trek Wednesday was the shortest stage in this years Tour. It covered three hard Category 1 ascents from Saint-Gaudens and a final push up to Pla dAdet ski station above the town of Saint-Lary-Soulan. Majka, who also won Stage 14 in the Alps, again showed hes the best climber in this Tour and tightened his grip on the polka dot jersey awarded to the races King of the Mountains. Giovanni Visconti got the action going on the last climb with a solo breakaway with about nine kilometres (5 1/2 miles) left, but could not hold off Majka. Visconti, who also is Sicilian, was second, 29 seconds back, and Nibali was third, 46 seconds behind. With a last Pyrenean day ahead Thursday, Majka could ensure that he takes the red-dot jersey home. His closest rival for it when the stage started was Spains Joaquim Rodriguez, who swatted the air in frustration at Majka when the Pole broke away on the last climb. Majka said he felt "comfort" in the last five kilometres in part because hed been saving up energy a day earlier by riding easier. He finished in a bunch 24 1/2 minutes behind Australian teammate Michael Rogers, who won Stage 16. By Wednesday, "I felt really, really good in the last climb," Majka said, after tapping his chest, thrusting his arms skyward and shouting in joy at the victory. "For me, when there are a lot of climbs, its the best." There was a time when seemingly effortless victories smacked of something more sinister at the Tour: the use of performance-enhancers. Few know the scars of cyclings doping past more than Majkas own manager at the Tinkoff-Saxo Bank team, Bjarne Riis. Once a national hero in Denmarkk after winning the 1996 Tour, he admitted to using blood-booster EPO more than a decade later -- and was vilified for it.dddddddddddd He laid low for a while, but then returned to the pro cycling world. "I promised Bjarne today that I would win the stage," said Majka. The echoes of doping resonated Wednesday on the grassy Pyrenean mountainside: The last times that Saint-Lary-Soulan hosted Tour stage finishes were in 2001 and 2005 -- won by Lance Armstrong and teammate George Hincapie. Those wins were later stripped because of doping. Their names have been crossed out in the official Tour history book. Cycling has made great strides in fighting doping with enhanced blood and urine testing, along with the biological passport program, but few experts would claim that the peloton today is entirely clean. Nibali, who has called himself a "flag-bearer of anti-doping", made his latest case to become the first Italian to win cyclings showcase race in 16 years -- since Marco Pantani, who was once convicted for doping. Nibali gained just under a minute on four of his closest rivals. Second-placed Alejandro Valverde of Spain, who made a valiant recovery on the last ascent to avoid even more damage, now trails by 5 minute, 26 seconds. The exception was Jean-Christophe Peraud of France, who hugged closely on the leaders back wheel and finished fourth. With his performance, the 37-year-old Frenchman made it an even closer race for the podium spots. He is fourth overall, 6:08 behind Nibali, but just eight seconds slower than fellow Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, in third. American Tejay van Garderen, in sixth, also lost about a minute to Nibali and trails by 10:19. It came a day after his hopes for a podium spot were dealt a big blow when he lost several minutes to the other aspirants for a top-three finish in Paris. "Yesterday was a pity, it was an off day," the BMC leader said. A podium spot is still possible, he added, "but it will be hard." Stage 18s finale in the Pyrenees takes the pack on a 145.5-kilometre (90-mile) loop from Pau to Hautacam, featuring two ascents that are so hard that they defy cyclings ranking system -- one of them an uphill finish. Then its a flat stage heading northward Friday before an individual time-trial a day later, and then whats likely to be the largely ceremonial ride for the yellow jersey in Stage 21 on Sunday to the Champs-Elysees in Paris for the finish of the races 101st edition. While well-positioned to be in yellow then, Nibali was still attacking Wednesday. "I preferred to go and gain a few more seconds and to be even more serene, just in case something could happen," he said. ' ' '