was there to turn back any Habs attempts. In his last five games, Lundqvist has stopped 162 of 168 shpts (.964

TORONTO - The starting pitcher tossed a brilliant game. Sterling Brown Bucks Jersey . The manager made the correct move going to his bullpen. The Blue Jays lost the game. Whats the saying about best laid plans? All it took was one pitch. The scenario: Blue Jays up 2-0 with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Marcus Stroman, to that point, had two-hit the White Sox. Only two White Sox hitters, Adam Dunn (three times) and Jose Abreu had reached base off the Toronto starter. Dayan Viciedo was due up as the go ahead run. Manager John Gibbons made the call to the bullpen for Dustin McGowan, his most trusted right-handed reliever not named Casey Janssen. McGowans first pitch was a slider. It was a cement-mixer, as seamheads like to say, in that the slider didnt break. It caught the entirety of the plate. Viciedo was looking for it, stayed back and launched a go-ahead three-run home run into the leftfield seats. There was no doubt where the ball was headed the moment Viciedo made contact. The White Sox led 3-2 and wouldnt cough it up en route to a 4-3 victory. Gibbons, it says here, made the right move going to McGowan. It gave Viciedo a different look. It allowed Stroman to leave the game feeling good about his performance. The result, clearly, was undesirable. The strategy made sense. Still, Gibbons admitted he second-guessed himself. "Yeah, of course," he said. "I mean, if you could do things over you leave him in but my thinking was (Stroman) pitched his butt off, its unchartered territory, you dont want him to lose the game right there. Thats the way it goes. You always look back on things like that. I had a plan. It just didnt work." The Blue Jays bullpen blew its 10th save of the season, which puts it in the middle of the pack. Pittsburghs 14 blown saves rank as the worst in the majors. Torontos number is made less hideous when you factor in that six of the blown saves came in a span of 15 games from mid-April to early May. Yet, after McGowan was tagged with Chicagos third and fourth runs on Saturday, Torontos bullpen ERA climbed to 4.45. Thats fifth-worst in baseball. The late-game meltdown sullied the second consecutive strong start by Stroman, who was coming off an eight-inning, four-hit performance in a win over the Yankees on Monday. "Its tough to deal with but its part of baseball," said Stroman of the Viciedo home run. "I have 100 per cent faith in Dustin to come in and get that out every time. He makes a pitch like he knows he can and were not even having this conversation. I know McGowans going to be right back to it. Im not worried about it. Hes been great for us all year, coming out of the pen, so Im not stressing about it at all." The Jays were held to two runs, a Darin Mastrioanni two-run homer in the fourth, on four hits over seven innings by White Sox ace Chris Sale. He picked up the win to run his record to 7-1. ABREU IMPRESSES BLUE JAYS Jose Bautista was planning to speak to Jose Abreu about taking part in the home run derby, part of the All-Star Game festivities on July 14 in Minneapolis. Manager John Gibbons is impressed with the 27-year-old Cuban rookie, whose 25 home runs tie him with Edwin Encarnacion and the Orioles Nelson Cruz for the most in baseball this season. "A pretty good looking player," said Gibbons. "The numbers speak for themselves. Those kids that come over from Cuba, theyre all pretty damn good so that really shouldnt surprise anybody. They put a lot of money into him for a reason and theyre reaping the benefits right now. Hes got a nice, short, simple swing and hes producing with it." Abreu leads the majors with a .633 slugging percentage. To go with his 25 home runs, he has 16 doubles and a triple, meaning almost 57-percent of Abreus hits have gone for extra bases. Eric Bledsoe Jersey . The mixed zone is not a place to make friends. Eric Bledsoe Bucks Jersey . Claude Noel will be the man behind the bench when the team hits the ice of the MTS Centre to begin its inaugural season. https://www.bucksrookiesshop.com/Jason-Smith-City-Edition-Jersey/ .com) - Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for 51 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder took down the struggling Bucks 114-101 on Tuesday.The New York Rangers withstood early pressure from the Montreal Canadiens and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was on top of his game as the New York Rangers took Game Two with a 3-1 win. Before the game started, the Canadiens had announced that G Carey Price would be out for the series, with a knee injury suffered in a collision with Rangers LW Chris Kreider, and head coach Michel Therrien made the decision to go with Dustin Tokarski in Prices place. Tokarski, 24, has posted a .921 save percentage in 56 games with Hamilton of the AHL since he was acquired from Tampa Bay last year, and stopped 88 of 93 shots (.946 SV%) in three games with the Canadiens this year, but Tokarski has also started 10 NHL games in his career, so the decision came with a certain amount of risk. Montreal opened the game asserting territorial control, with 24 of the first 34 unblocked shot attempts in the game. Habs LW Max Pacioretty got the Canadiens on the board first, 6:14 into the game, with his third goal in the past four games. At that point, the Canadiens were looking good. Only 17 seconds later, Rangers D Ryan McDonagh scored on a shot that deflected off D Josh Gorges and past Tokarski. McDonagh added an assist later, giving him six points in the first two games of the series. As the first period neared a close, the Rangers looked like they might be able to escape with a tie score despite getting the wrong end of the puck possession game, but then circumstances got even better for the Blueshirts. A quick-break three-on-two, following a defensive zone face-off, resulted in a goal for Rick Nash, the second straight game in which he has scored. Tokarski could have come across the crease quicker, perhaps but, even so, Nashs one-time snap shot was stoppable. It was the kind of goal for which Tokarski shouldnt really be blamed -- he didnt give up the three-on-two break -- but, especially in the playoffs, it was the kind off goal that comes under more scrutiny. Donte DiVincenzo Bucks Jersey. So the Canadiens, who might have been somewhat frustrated to end the first frame tied despite dominating play, werent even tied, they were down by a goal. Then, 8:03 into the second period, Rangers RW Martin St. Louis scored a power goal, with a rocket shot inside the post, and the Canadiens climb got much steeper. Montreal was stifled for much of the rest of the game, with a few surges, particularly on a power play, with Tokarski pulled, in the last four minutes, but Lundqvist was there to turn back any Habs attempts. In his last five games, Lundqvist has stopped 162 of 168 shpts (.964 SV%) and, over the past three seasons, has a .933 save percentage in the playoffs. Not exactly an easy head-to-head matchup for Tokarski to win. The Canadiens got LW Alex Galchenyuk back in the lineup -- his first game since suffering a knee injury April 9 against Chicago -- and the line of Brendan Gallagher, David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty was on for more than 86% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts when they were on the ice. D P.K. Subban had 18 shot attempts (nine on net, six blocked, three missed the net) and Gallagher had 13 attempts. More problematic for the Canadiens is that Thomas Vanek didnt register a shot on goal. In the past seven games, Vanek has registered either one or zero shots in six of them. Its not as if the Canadiens have altogether no hope, but its not an easy task to come back from a two-games-to-none series deficit, and doing so with questions in goal makes that scenario all the less likely. They will need a dramatically different performance in New York if they are going to reverse the path which is currently leading them to the offseason in short order. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '

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