Although the White Sox head into the All-Star break with nearly twice as many losses as wins Mitchell Trubisky Jersey , the players remain optimistic.
Sunday certainly provided a reason for hope.
Daniel Palka and Yoan Moncada homered, and Lucas Giolito tossed two-hit ball into the seventh inning, lifting Chicago to a 10-1 victory over the struggling Kansas City Royals.
Moncada was 3 for 3 with a walk and three runs scored a day after leaving a game with a bruised right knee. Palka also had three hits and two RBIs while Tim Anderson and Kevan Smith each hit a two-run double as Chicago pounded out 13 hits.
The rebuilding White Sox had dropped seven of nine before Sunday and are 33-62 overall.
”It wasn’t a very good first half in wins and losses, but I think that’s part of the process,” Moncada said. ”We’re all trying to do our best. We improved during the first half, and I think in the second half we’ll be much better.”
Adalberto Mondesi homered leading off the eighth for the Royals, who are 2-11 in July.
”Losing (stinks), and we’ve lost a lot,” second baseman Whit Merrifield said. ”It hasn’t been fun as far as all that goes. We got four days off. Hopefully, we can regroup and everyone can kind of step back and reset.”
Kansas City decided to go with a bullpen day instead of a regular starting pitcher. The relievers were no match for Giolito (6-8). The right-hander allowed just two hits in 6 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking three.
”Today was one of those days where we put it all together,” Giolito said. ”I’m looking forward to more of those.”
After Giolito worked out of his only jam in the top of the first with an assist from the defense – Jorge Bonifacio was thrown out trying to score from second on a single to left with one out – Palka’s two-run blast off starter Burch Smith (0-1) gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead.
”I’m not really feeling my best in the first and then an unreal play,” Giolito said of the play at the plate. ”It gets me fired up. It’s like, `Alright Nate Orchard Jersey , no one’s crossing the plate this inning.”’
The lead grew to 4-0 in the third as Jose Abreu scored on a wild pitch and Leury Garcia followed with an RBI single against left-hander Brian Flynn. Chicago then broke the game open with a five-run fifth against left-hander Enny Romero. Moncada, who was hit in the knee by a pick-off throw on Saturday, started things with a lead-off homer. It was his 12th of the season and first right-handed. Anderson and Smith each had a two-run double to make it 9-0.
Moncada doubled and scored in the sixth to make 10-0 before Mondesi’s homer off Jeanmar Gomez broke the shutout.
”It was one of those days,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. ”We didn’t pitch good.”
TAKING A DIVE
When Moncada was hit in the knee on Saturday, he appeared to be in great pain and significantly injured. After discovering he was fine on Sunday, his teammates taped the name ”NEYMAR” above his locker.
”He’s known to be a player who likes to act when people touch him or he gets kicked,” Moncada said of the Brazilian soccer star through a translator. ”They were messing with me.”
START ME UP
Salvador Perez, the Royals’ lone All-Star, will replace injured Wilson Ramos as the AL’s starting catcher in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: RHP Nate Jones (strained forearm muscle) will travel to Triple-A Charlotte during the All-Star break and throw live batting practice on Tuesday.
UP NEXT
Royals: LHP Danny Duffy (4-8, 4.59 ERA) will pitch the opener of a three-game series with Minnesota on Friday night.
White Sox: RHP James Shields (4-10, 4.43 ERA) takes the mound Friday night for the start of a three-game series at Seattle.
—
Curtis Martin took and dished out plenty of helmet hits as he rushed for more than 14,000 yards in his Hall of Fame career.
He just wishes he didn’t have to endure that.
The retired running back sees the NFL’s enhanced rule penalizing players for leading with their helmets as a positive step for the sport. As a member of the player safety advisory panel, he’s part of a leaguewide effort to educate the current generation on how to stay on the right side of the rule and reduce injuries.
“Hopefully we can extend careers and just have less contact to the head, which I just think is beneficial over a long period of time Ramik Wilson Jersey ,” Martin said by phone this week. “We’re really focusing on getting the head (contact) out of the game. I wish it was like that when I was playing. I think it’s something that’s very positive, and I think it’s important as we go forward and the future of the game.”
Martin and former linebackers Willie Lanier , also a Hall of Famer, and Willie McGinest taped minute-long “NFL Way to Play” instructional videos for players stressing stance, posture and technique. For specific examples of head-contact hits that are now 15-yard penalties or possibly ejections, there are situation-specific videos narrated by coaches Anthony Lynn of the Chargers (ball carriers ), Doug Marrone of the Jaguars (offensive linemen ), Dan Quinn of the Falcons (defensive linemen ), Mike Vrabel of the Titans (linebackers ), and Todd Bowles of the Jets (defensive backs ).
“I just had some things I wanted to try to share being a former player and having played that technique and coached that technique,” Vrabel said. “It’s what’s best for the game, the fundamentals. We always try to teach the fundamentals that are good: playing with your knees bent, leading with your hands and playing with your face up.”
After watching those videos, Redskins coach Jay Gruden said making sure players don’t use their helmets as weapons is “a big thing we’re trying to get over.” That’s the NFL’s emphasis: a helmet is for protection and not to be used as a projectile.
“You don’t necessarily want to hurt anyone Tom Jackson Jersey ,” Martin said. “As an offensive player, a lot of times, especially when you see those times when a player or whoever’s carrying the ball they’re very close to the sidelines, but before they go out, they decide they just want to punish that (defensive back). That’s where you see the helmet used as a weapon, and you want to cut things like that out of the game because it’s unnecessary, No. 1, and it just protects the players better.”
Bowles, who played defensive back for eight NFL seasons, illustrated in his video many of the shoulder-to-shoulder hits that are legal and expected. He contrasted them with some players who made helmet-to-helmet contact. Because the enhanced rule now makes helmet-to-anywhere contact a penalty, he knows it’s on coaches to give players a refresher on the proper way to tackle.
“It’s really teaching football to be played the right way,” Bowles said. “There are going to be hard collisions, but if the helmet’s up, and you have to keep the helmet out of the way and hit with the shoulder Eric Dickerson Jersey , which most of the teams do all the time. There’s an occasional head-to-head when someone’s putting their head down, but we don’t teach it any differently.”
Martin fully understands the football mentality of pushing for the extra yard and going for the big hit, so he figures it’ll take time for players to adjust. It’s his hope the culture change toward understanding head injuries helps players accept the updated rule for their own good.
“As former players, we can sit back and see how this rule would’ve been very effective for us when we were playing,” Martin said. “But when you’re in the midst of something, it’s like anything — when you’re in the midst of a problem, it’s hard to see the benefits of (fixing) that problem or the outcome or the potential positive things that can come out of that problem. Now that we’re on the other side, we can see that maybe a little clearer than current players can and as we’re able to inform them and teach, I think that they’ll come around.”
New York Giants Customized Jerseys ,
« rmott and Bills generas a few days after desi »
Weitere Artikel der Kategorie Allgemein
RSS-Feed abonnieren
Besucher
Forum Statistiken
