ERST LESEN! » s. There is no Armenian judge giving extra p

HOUSTON -- R.A. Dickeys knuckleball was working Tuesday night, and the Blue Jays got just enough offense to pull out a win.Dickey threw seven solid innings, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion homered and Toronto beat the Houston Astros 2-1.Dickey (8-12) allowed a run and six hits with five strikeouts.A lot of swing and miss, Toronto manager John Gibbons said. He had good life on his knuckleball. Its one of those things that it comes and goes with him. He was aggressive with it and he threw a ton of strikes. Thats the key.He had allowed 18 runs -17 earned -- over his last three starts, all losses.Dickey said he was on top of a lot of knuckleballs Tuesday night, with different movement and different speeds.Ive been feeling great, Dickey said. Ive been feeling strong. My knuckleball velocities have been great, and I have been able to change speeds a lot. I think one of the differences tonight was fairly dramatic for me was just my command with it.Bautista hit his 300th career homer in the third to put Toronto up 1-0.Its always a friendly reminder that youve been doing this a long time and enjoyed some success, Bautista said about the milestone. You get happy about that. No doubt, but right now I think we have more important things to worry about. Ill get to enjoy that in the offseason.Encarnacion launched his 29th home run to lead off the fourth -- a monstrous shot that bounced off the railroad tracks at Minute Maid Park before landing in left field.Danny Barnes pitched the eighth before Jason Grilli pitched the ninth for his second save with Toronto and his fourth overall. The win snapped Torontos eight-game losing streak at Houston.Evan Gattis cut the lead to 2-1 with an RBI single in the seventh. Jose Altuve had three hits for Houston, which lost for the fourth time in five games.We have been in an offensive lull for a few games now, Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. Obviously, Dickey had his good knuckleball going tonight, and his ball was moving all over the place. The hitters were coming back and remarking on how much action he had on his pitches.Lance McCullers (6-5) allowed two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings before leaving with discomfort in his right elbow. He will be evaluated Wednesday.We dont really know, McCullers said about the injury. Were just going to follow protocol and take it step by step and see where we are tomorrow. I felt a little discomfort, and out of precaution, I just had to get out of there.McCullers was replaced by Joe Musgrove, who struck out eight in 4 1/3 shutout innings. The eight strikeouts tied a major league record for strikeouts by a reliever making his big league debut set by Barry Jones for the Pirates on April 20, 1986.TRAINERS ROOMBlue Jays: SS Troy Tulowitzki (thumb) swung off a tee Tuesday and was feeling better, Gibbons said.Astros: RHP Luke Gregerson was placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 28 with a left oblique strain. The Astros recalled IF A.J. Reed from Triple-A Fresno. ... OF Carlos Gomez (right hamstring) was back in the lineup Tuesday after missing the last four games. He went 1 for 4.ROSTER MOVESBlue Jays: Toronto recalled RHP Mike Bolsinger, who was acquired Monday from the Dodgers, and Barnes from Triple-A Buffalo. The Blue Jays optioned INF Ryan Goins and RHP Bo Schultz to Buffalo.Astros: Houston will recall RHP James Hoyt from Triple-A Fresno on Wednesday, and RHP Doug Fister will go on the three-day paternity list.UP NEXTBlue Jays: RHP Marco Estrada (6-4) will look for his second straight win Wednesday in the third of four games against the Astros. Estrada allowed four runs in his last outing Friday against Baltimore, the most runs he had allowed since May 14 when he was tagged for five runs.Astros: RHP Collin McHugh (7-7) will look to rebound after being tagged for eight runs on 10 hits in 1 2/3 innings Friday at Detroit.Ryan Getzlaf Ducks Jersey . LUCIE, Fla. Giovanni Fiore Jersey . According to a report from the Vancouver Province, the Lions are expected to replace former DC Rich Stubler with defensive backs coach Mark Washington. http://www.authenticduckspro.com/Rickard-rakell-ducks-jersey/ .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Jakob Silfverberg Ducks Jersey .ca NHL Power Rankings for the second straight week, ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche. Carter Rowney Jersey .Y. -- Injured Buffalo Sabres forward Marcus Foligno did not practice with the team Monday and head coach Ron Rolston said its unlikely hell play in Wednesdays season opener in Detroit.Once upon a time, when Sundays were as cloudless as our clarity of purpose, we would have donned our whites and taken to the field, and there the modern world would be held at bay for a few sweet, sweet hours by its great antidote, village cricket. But the wheel of fate is ever spinning and before long we slid off the teamsheet, distracted by family, work and the myriad other calls upon our time. Sulking in our tents like so many modern-day Achilleses, we could only slowly appreciate when the game might fit back into our lives, or we might fit our lives back into the game. And when, finally, we are tempted back into the fray, we search for our old armour in vain.And theres the rub: what do we do about equipment? Do we kit ourselves up to the eyeballs or just stroll out with the barest of bare necessities? Theres a fine line to be walked here, and its the one between the pavilion and the middle. And back.As we all know, cricket is played largely in the head (certainly my best innings have taken place there), but its not just our attitude or expectations that count: the opposition has a part to play here, too. No one wants to be that player, do they? The one whose journey to the middle (and back again) is accompanied by the fateful words all the gear, no idea.But if we judge a player by the gear they sport, or their journey to the crease, we are fools and may well end up hoist by our own petard.I am told that when I walk out to bat against a new team, they can be somewhat worried. Not because my swagger is akin to that of some legendary Greek warrior, my bat cutting slices in the air like a demiurges scimitar, but because my gait is, well, Im not sure how best to describe it, other than to say it wouldnt strike fear into your average penguin. Teams have been known to ask the umpire if they should bowl nicely, and how the hell Im going to run between the wickets.But my problem with cricket isnt Parkinsons, its lack of talent. Of course, it doesnt help that my bat shakes, my feet wont move and my left-hand grip is fast diminishing, but once Im out of the blocks, Im plenty quick enough to steal singles. My appearance makes expectations dip, however - and my life in the middle somewhat easier (sometimes). And my kit? As Nicholas Hogg pointed out recently, cricket can be an expensive pastime, but then, what hobby isnt? When I was 21 I taught at a contemporary-music school, and my evening classes were full of middle-aged men who, finding that they were suddenly richer in both time and money than they had been in 20 years, decided to revisit their youth in the shape of the electric guitar. You think crickets expensive? Try catching the guitar bug. These men would often show up to class with a different guitar each week, each worth more than my entire rig, while I was still playing the guitar I bought for ￡150 when I was 17. And you know what? These uber-axes didnt make them better guitarists, but they did have two very positive results (apart from keeping guitar makers in business). The high-quality guitar not only allows the player to squeeze that little bit more out of their ability, but, perhaps more importantly, it makes them feel good. And that, for me, is the point of the exercise.If theres a pastime more perfectly tailored forr good-old-days romanticism than cricket, however, Ive yet to discover it.dddddddddddd Hed never have got away with that if he had one of the old bats, Its all the fault of helmets, DRS is ruining everything, hang on, no, T20 is ruining everything, oh, wait, Covered pitches are ruining everything, and so on and on. The image of the old-timer with his fraying, ill-fitting pads and 20-year old bat coming to the middle and showing up the middle-aged arriviste with the hand-shaved wand and moulded thigh pad is as seductive as ever it was. But its not only a daft image, its unfair to both parties.Weve all played that shot before. You know, the one where body, bat and ball become one for a split-second and your spirit is electrified. You enter the realm of the truly sublime as you transcend time and space and the ball, oh, the ball. No one moves in the field, because everyone feels what you feel. Perfection. The nature of a really good bat is such that using it increases the chances of experiencing this harmonic convergence.Now, youre not going to tell me that our mythical old-timer isnt going to get more value from his shots using a good bat.I have a good bat - a very good bat, in fact. Every so often I play a shot that is almost worthy of it, causing one or other of the fielders to ask me what it is. I reckon its worth 20% of my runs over the course of a season, and more to the point, if I time a worthy shot early enough, my confidence soars. If Im out early, no ones any the wiser. (Im, ahem, between sponsors)The same goes for protective gear, except that not only does well-designed, well-made kit help you function better, it protects you better. As a keeper, I want the best gloves I can afford. They feel better, help me take more catches, and protect my hands better. In fact, I want fitted gloves, because my little finger never quite sits right and its vulnerable enough as it is. (If anyone fancies making me a pair, drop me a line.) I often see other, better keepers with greatly inferior gloves, and after getting over my embarrassment wonder why they dont step up a gear... in gear.What matters most in the professional game is results. There is no Armenian judge giving extra points for style, just a scorer marking down the result of each ball. Of course, pretty runs have a different psychological impact on the game than ugly runs do, but no team worth its salt picks a player who makes elegant 20s over one who makes ugly 60s. Do they? But we dont play the professional game. We play real cricket, recreational cricket. We are the giants on whose shoulders the professionals stand. In our game, its all about feeling good. Its a game we play for pleasure, and if it makes you feel good to play with a ￡400 bat, and you can afford it, then you just go for it. After all, youre effectively subsidising the whole cricket industry. And its almost Christmas.Dont forget, however, that while an awesome bat may allow you to get full value from your shots, it might just make a bowler take you more (or less) seriously than they ought, and it will certainly allow the opposition to get full value from your feathered edges. ' ' '