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The red-hot Toronto Blue Jays take aim at their seventh straight win on Monday when they open a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre. Toronto has moved two games up on the New York Yankees in the American League East and is atop the division this late into a season for the first time since July 6, 2000. The Jays enter this matchup on the heels of an impressive three-game sweep of the AL West-leading Oakland Athletics. On Sunday, J.A. Happ tossed seven shutout innings, Jose Bautista knocked in two runs and Toronto rolled, 3-1. Happ (4-1) scattered four hits, walked three and struck out seven, and Edwin Encarnacion homered in the Blue Jays ninth win in 10 tries. "Were playing together as a team, pitching good," Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes said. "Good defense behind the guys, timely hitting, winning teams do that kind of stuff." The Blue Jays lead the majors with 70 home runs and have homered in eight straight contests. They havent homered in nine consecutive contests since April 27-May 5, 2012. One player who wouldnt mind a few longballs on Monday is righty Drew Hutchison, wholl be shooting for his third straight win. Hutchison followed up his first-ever shutout by beating the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday to improve to 3-3 with a 3.45 ERA. Hutchison has split two starts versus the Rays, pitching to a 5.79 ERA in those meetings. Tampa, meanwhile, will counter with veteran lefty Erik Bedard, who is 2-2 with a 2.63 ERA. Bedard has filled in nicely for the Rays in the wake of injuries to Matt Moore and Jeremy Hellickson and is 2-1 with a 0.96 ERA over his last five starts. Bedard, though, absorbed the loss to Oakland on Wednesday, as he surrendered three runs (1 earned) and just one hit - a home run - over 5 1/3 innings. He also walked three batters. Tampa comes into Mondays opener playing its best baseball of the season as well. The Rays swept the Boston Red Sox over the weekend and have won four in a row. Tampa completed the sweep on Sunday, as Sean Rodriguezs three-run, pinch-hit homer helped power a five-run seventh inning, and Tampa Bay sent the Red Sox to their 10th consecutive loss with an 8-5 decision. Evan Longoria went 3-for-5 with a homer and a pair of runs scored, and Yunel Escobar drove in two while setting off a benches-clearing incident late in the contest. The contentious victory was also Joe Maddons 700th as Rays manager. Joel Peralta (2-3), who blew a two-run lead in the seventh but was rescued by the Tampa offense, was credited with the win. Leading by five in the seventh, Escobar stole third and the Red Sox bench started jawing at him from the dugout. He talked back and started walking toward their bench, before Johnny Gomes ran in from left field and both benches cleared. Gomes, Escobar and Rodriguez were all ejected after the incident. "What was the score, 8-3? It was a five-run lead in the seventh inning. So thats not even nearly as egregious as last year in the playoffs," Maddon said of the incident. Tampa has split four games with the Jays this season. San Francisco Giants Store . Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Fiorentina levelled on aggregate in the 14th minute when Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez headed back a long ball from David Pizarro and Pasqual smashed home an angled volley. Fake Giants Jerseys . Salah, who scored against Chelsea in two Champions League group matches this season, is Jose Mourinhos third significant recruit in the January transfer window after Nemanja Matic and Bertrand Traore. https://www.cheapjerseysgiants.us/. The 18-year-old centre was the Senators first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. The six-foot 196-pound native of Salmon Arm, B. Giants Jerseys 2019 . Next up is another showdown with Michigan. Payne scored 18 points, Branden Dawson had 14 and No. 22 Michigan State beat No. 12 Wisconsin 83-75 on Saturday to reach the Big Ten tournament championship. Custom San Francisco Giants Jerseys . -- Fresh off their surprising run in the playoffs, the Portland Trail Blazers have signed head coach Terry Stotts to a multi-year contract extension.ARLINGTON, Va. -- Of all the subjects raised with George McPhee at his on-the-way-out news conference after being told hes done as the Washington Capitals general manager, the two most vital to understanding the teams future and recent past involved captain Alex Ovechkin and fired coach Adam Oates. And those were two topics McPhee did not want to address Monday, two days after the Capitals announced the 17-year GMs contract would not be renewed. "I dont really want to answer questions about individuals. Im going to duck those," McPhee replied when Ovechkins name was first brought up. Pressed to weigh in about the three-time NHL MVP, McPhee replied: "If youre asking me if we can win with him, I believed we could win with him." As to how Ovechkin could lead the league with 51 goals and be among the worst in the NHL with a minus-36 rating, McPhee said: "Of course I have opinions, but those issues are for the next guy." Later, McPhee was asked to describe his working relationship with Oates, who was fired Saturday with a season left on his three-year deal. "Again," McPhee said, "I dont want to talk about individuals." At another point in the half-hour meeting with the media, though, McPhee did say he "loved working with" Oates two immediate predecessors as Washingtons coach, Bruce Boudreau and Dale Hunter. The Capitals finished ninth in the Eastern Conference this season, missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first timme since 2007.dddddddddddd "For five years, we really had an opportunity to win a cup. We were legit," McPhee said. "And then I thought the last couple years, we could make the playoffs, but going deep might be hard, because I didnt think we were quite deep enough." During the six post-season berths in the span from 2008-13, though, Washington never made it past the second round. McPhee thinks hes leaving the team in good shape, ready to reach the Stanley Cup finals "sometime in the next three years." "Im not exaggerating when I try to explain that this organization is in great shape," McPhee said. "We dont have any bad contracts on the books. Lots of cap space to work with. A great (AHL) affiliation in Hershey. A whole group of young players coming into the organization." He said the Capitals simply need a "pretty easy fix." McPhee said his contract wont expire until July 1, so other teams would need to ask the Capitals for permission to speak to him about a job. "If theres another GMs job in the future and someone gives me an opportunity, Id love to do it again," he said. "And Id go to Iceland to do it. Doesnt matter where it is." McPhees mood was light and he made a handful of jokes. Perhaps its because he was not stunned that the Capitals would make changes. "I felt it was coming," McPhee said, "but in this job, youre 24 hours away from being fired almost any time." ' ' '