wed one run over seven innings against the As in his final outing b

When the Sacramento Kings take the court inside Golden 1 Center for their home opener Thursday against the San Antonio Spurs, each player will be able to literally ring in the start of another NBA season.Thats because the Kings new arena features a 3-foot-tall cowbell hanging from a wall in the corridor between the locker room and the hardwood.Cowbells have been a proud tradition of Kings basketball since the turn of the century, when former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson called Sacramento an old cow town. Fans responded by bringing cowbells to home games during the 2002 Western Conference finals between the two teams, and the idea stuck.Kings season-ticket holders received mini-cowbells that commemorate the inaugural season of the Golden 1 Center, a 17,500-seat arena that opened last month in downtown Sacramento.-- Nick Ostiller Swell Drink Bottle Sale . -- Three close looks at the bucket, three misses. Discount Swell Bottles . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. http://www.swellbottlesclearance.com/ . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Swell Water Bottle Floral .com) - Following a late-game loss to the reigning NBA champs, the Toronto Raptors will look to sustain their recent high-level play as they travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers. Swell Water Bottle Clearance . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. OAKLAND, Calif. -- With three wins in four games since the All-Star break against two of the hottest teams in the majors, the Athletics are building some momentum.Theyve still got quite a ways to go to dig themselves out of the cellar in the AL West. Still, its as good a streak as manager Bob Melvin could have expected after a disappointing first half.Yonder Alonso drove in three runs with a pair of two-out hits to back Kendall Gravemans fifth consecutive win, and Oakland Athletics beat the Houston Astros 7-4 on Monday night.Guys are putting up some numbers now, Graveman said. You could go one to nine no matter whos in there, and I think a lot of guys are starting to feel comfortable at the plate. Us as starters are just trying to keep them in ballgames and we know theyre going to put up runs.Khris Davis hit his fourth home run in three games, Marcus Semien had two hits and scored twice while Ryon Healy added an RBI double for the As.Oakland has won three of four since the All-Star break.Its just timely hitting, Davis said. When we get those crooked numbers, our pitchers are doing a great job of throwing up a zero and getting us back in. That momentum is huge.Alonso doubled in a run in the second inning then added a two-run single as part of five-run fourth when the As sent 12 men to the plate. The Astros walked five batters in the inning, two with the bases loaded.Graveman (6-6) allowed three runs over seven innings to earn his second straight win over Houston. The right-hander, who also beat the Astros in his final start before the break, struck out five and walked one.Dyan Dull retired three batters and Ryan Madson pitched the ninth for his 20th save.Marwin Gonzalez homered for the second time in three games for Houston.The As got plenty of help from the Astros pitching.Starter Mike Fiers allowed six runs over 3 2/3 innings to remain winless in five career starts against Oakland. Fiers (6-4) fanned five and walk three, including two in the fourth.Michael Feliz replaced Fiers and walked threee consecutive batters including Josh Reddick and Danny Valencia with the bases loaded.dddddddddddd Reddick had struck out swinging in his first two at-bats before drawing a four-pitch walk to force in Healy.Davis hit his 23rd home run this season off Scott Feldman in the seventh.We got beat by a big inning, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. Its frustrating because we had four or five walks in that inning.. They kept putting up quality at-bats and we couldnt close the inning out.Houston took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Carlos Correa scored an unearned run on a throwing error by Healy, Oaklands rookie third baseman. As manager Bob Melvin tried to argue that Correa interfered with Healy while running from second to third on the play.FIERS, GOMEZ SQUABBLEFiers was not happy about being pulled from the game in the fourth and exchanged words with Hinch. Fiers later got into it with teammate Carlos Gomez as the two went face to face in the Astros dugout. I cant show that much emotion in the dugout so he was just letting me know that if I had to say something or act, take it inside and do it without anybody watching, which hes right, Fiers said. I think my emotions got the best of me. I need to be more professional about what Im doing out there on the field and in the game.TRAINERS ROOMAthletics: Right-hander Nick Tepesch was claimed off waivers by the Royals. Tepesch had been designated for assignment when Oakland needed to clear room for 3B Ryon Healy last week.UP NEXTAstros: LHP Dallas Keuchel (6-9) makes his second consecutive start against Oakland on Tuesday at the Coliseum. The reigning AL Cy Young winner allowed one run over seven innings against the As in his final outing before the All-Star break.Athletics: Dillon Overton (1-1) will be called up from Triple-A Nashville to start against Houston. This is the rookie left-handers second stint in the majors. ' ' '