lly got that side of the ball right this season with offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert, the No. 1 rusher in college football (DOnta Foreman) and an e

When it comes to pitching matchups, it simply doesnt get better than this. A lumberjack with a postseason record virtually unmatched in major league history against a guy nicknamed Thor, who throws in the upper 90s with a slider in the low 90s. Its 6-foot-5, 250 pounds against 6-foot-6, 240 pounds. Two huge guys, both as mean as a snake, facing off in a winner-takes-all game for teams that, at least a few weeks ago, werent sure theyd be here. But the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets made it, and each enters the National League wild-card game with momentum.Here are five questions:How good is Madison Bumgarner this time of year?His road ERA in the postseason is 0.60, the lowest of any pitcher in baseball history with at least 25 innings. The next five on the list are Bob Gibson (0.97), Mariano Rivera (1.02), Sandy Koufax (1.04), Lefty Grove (1.11) and Christy Mathewson (1.13). Bumgarner has made seven appearances on the road in his postseason career, and the Giants are 7-0. The last time we saw Bumgarner in the postseason, he pitched five scoreless innings in relief in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series in Kansas City. The last time we saw him this year, he was standing on the field at AT&T Park in San Francisco after the Giants clinched the second wild card, with the look of, We will be back here soon.How good is Noah Syndergaard? In his last seven starts, he has a 2.06 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 43 2/3 innings. As most of the rest of the vaunted Mets rotation (Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz) has gone to the DL, Syndergaard has helped the Mets get to the playoffs. He faced the Giants twice this season and held them to a .159 batting average against. The last time we saw Syndergaard in the postseason was Game 3 of the World Series (the only game the Mets won) when he dusted Kansas Citys Alcides Escobar with the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning, then later basically said, Come get me, Im only 60 feet away.How hot is the Mets offense?They were once 60-62, 5 1/2 games out of the wild card with three teams to jump. They seemingly had no shot to make the playoffs but finished with the best record in baseball over the last 40 games, 27-13, to win the first wild card. They have done this, in part, with surprising pitching from young starters Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman, but mostly they have done this by scoring a lot of runs. The Mets did indeed have the lowest batting average (.225) in the major leagues this year with runners in scoring position, led by Curtis Granderson, whose .152 mark was the lowest among qualifiers. But he got four hits in his last seven at-bats in those situations, and as a team, the Mets got a lot of big hits down the stretch. Asdrubal Cabrera and Yoenis Cespedes were the primary carriers, but the whole team contributed, including new second baseman T.J. Rivera (wherever Ive seen that kid, he has hit, one scout said) and now, Jay Bruce. After a horrendous start to his career in New York, Bruce has 12 hits and four home runs in his last 25 at-bats.Has the Giants offense finally awakened? The Giants were shut out nine times the second half of the season, but in a very small sample, things turned the final week of the season. In their final four games, they outscored their opponents 26-6 to win the second wild card. The Giants dont have a primary player with a .290 average or 20 homers and 85 RBIs, but their core position players are finally healthy, and its not wise to underestimate Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford or any of the Giants this time of year. They always get big hits.What is the momentum, or the mojo, like for each team?The Giants are rolling, even if its only for four games. They have this belief that no one can beat them this time of year, and they are starting to play that way. The perfect example was the crucial game last Saturday when left-hander Ty Blach, making his fourth career appearance and second start, beat the games best pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, 3-0.And then there are the Mets. They were swept by the Braves Sept. 19-21, losing the last game 4-3 when Cespedes had a walk-off homer taken away with two outs in the ninth on a spectacular catch by center fielder Ender Inciarte. But the next day, the Mets, for the first time in club history, won a game (9-8 over the Phillies) in which they trailed by multiple runs in both the ninth inning and in extra innings. They became the only team in history to win a game by erasing multirun deficits in both of those situations, each with a home run. They have played like mad men since, making this matchup with the Giants one for the books.Giants win. Adidas Nmd Schuhe Günstig .25 million option on reliever Jose Veras. Nmd Schuhe Günstig Kaufen . General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch on Friday that he wants to see Gaboriks contributions go beyond the scoresheet before considering a long-term deal for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent. http://www.nmdschuhesale.de/nmd-r2-schuhe-deutschland.html . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Nmd Schuhe Sale Deutschland . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. Nmd r1 Herren Günstig . Tests earlier this week revealed a Grade 2 left hamstring strain for Sabathia, who was hurt in last Fridays start against San Francisco. Its an injury that will require about eight weeks to heal. He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4. AUSTIN, Texas -- The Charlie Strong era at Texas is over, and while brief, is not easily explained. Strong will be remembered as a good man and a great recruiter, one who has Texas well-positioned to compete for Big 12 titles again soon. He just wont get to lead that run.His bosses and players badly wanted Strong to succeed at Texas. He won huge games against Oklahoma, Baylor and Notre Dame that, for a moment, suggested his turning point was coming. He was fired, quite simply, because he didnt win enough games. Too many blowouts early in his tenure. Too many close losses late. Two completely inexplicable losses against Iowa State and Kansas.In the end, the results over three seasons were not there, university president Greg Fenves said in a statement. It was not clear the future was going to be at the levels expected of Longhorn football.He went 6-7, 5-7 and 5-7. You dont get to coach at Texas for long with those results. He will leave with the worst winning percentage of any coach in school history. The patience ran out when a season that started with so much promise ended up being more of the same.Strong left Louisville at the end of 2013 ready for a big challenge after a wildly successful rebuild of the Cardinals. At Texas, he stepped into an objectively messy situation, joining an athletic department in the middle of a major leadership transition.He was hired by Steve Patterson, the unpopular new athletic director whod be forced out 20 months into Strongs stint. Longtime UT president Bill Powers retired during his tenure. And, of course, Strong had to replace a legendary coach in Mack Brown whod let the proud program slip.Texas can be a hard place to coach, with the many cooks in the kitchen and the many factions to appease. Strong wasnt brought in to play the politician role like Brown. His job was to rebuild and win.Its difficult to contend that Strong was set up to fail, considering he put himself in trouble with the hiring decisions he made in his first 10 days on the job. He ended up demoting, firing or losing eight of the nine assistants he hired in 2014. He handed out in-season demotions to two coordinators -- Shawn Watson and Vance Bedford -- whod helped him build a contender at Louisville. His poorly handled hire of offensive line coach Joe Wickline led to an Oklahoma State lawsuit and regrettable depositions. Continuity eluded Strong throughout.Toward the end of his debut season, after clinching a bowl bid at 6-5, Strong promised a five-loss season will never happen in this program. Texas lost its next two games, including a 31-7 blowout against Arkansas in the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl, to finish 6-7.Strong was a year late on figuring out a real offensive direction in the high-scoring Big 12. After the Arkansas loss, he fired two coaches but kept Watson for the entire offseason. He asked Watson to redesign his West Coast-style offense into an up-tempo attack more similar to their conference foes.And when that new offense produced 3 points and 163 yards in a 35-point loss at Notre Dame to open 2015, Strong benched Watson and quarterback Tyrone Swoopes and Texas had to spend an entire season trying to survive offensively.When the Longhorns finally got that side of the ball right this season with offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert, the No. 1 rusher in college football (DOnta Foreman) and an exciting freshman QB (Shane Buechele), it was Texas play on defense that slipped.Strong responded with more change, putting himself in charge of the Longhorns defense four games into the season. The defense did improve. The results didnt change much.Strong operated the program with a steadfast belief that, once he brought in enough talent, a tuurning point would come soon that proved Texas was ready to get back on top of the college football world.ddddddddddddHe and his staff succeeded on the talent acquisition front with two loaded top-10-ranked recruiting classes. From his 2015 and 2016 classes, he added 29 ESPN 300 recruits. Hes an impressive relationship-builder who won over moms and dads with his low-pressure, education-first approach. And he was a confident closer, one who did his best work in January and February.And there were days when his team converted all that young talent into big statement wins. A 1-4 Texas team stepped up and stunned Oklahoma, a top-10 foe that would win the Big 12, in a 24-17 slugfest a year ago. The Longhorns finished that season in unexpected fashion with an upset of a quarterback-less No. 12 Baylor team in Waco.Strong believed the program was one big win away from finally taking off, and Texas got that win in a double-overtime thriller against then-No. 10 Notre Dame to open this season. His team jumped from unranked to No. 11 in the AP poll. The morning after knocking off the Fighting Irish, Strong vowed: This cant be a one-night wonder. It wont be. But it was fools gold, both for Texas and the 4-7 Irish.The difference with Strongs third season in Austin is that it wasnt undone by blowout losses. He endured nine of them by margins of 18 points or worse in his first two seasons. These setbacks occurred in big-time games (48-10 and 50-7 against TCU) and supposedly easier ones (24-0 at Iowa State). Five blowout losses in 2014, four more in 2015.Blowouts werent the problem in 2016. This season, it was close losses. He was 5-5 a week ago with four of those losses coming by margins of 7, 5, 3 and 4 points, respectively. Had Strong finished out 7-5, Texas president Greg Fenves and AD Mike Perrin likely wouldve been inclined to give Strong another year. A 7-5 season wouldve shown some growth.But Texas lost the one game it absolutely couldnt Saturday, blowing a 21-10 fourth-quarter lead and falling 24-21 in double overtime against a Kansas team that was 1-9 and hadnt won a Big 12 game in two years. By losing to Kansas, Strong lost his ability to prove hes making progress.During his first two years on the job, Strongs failures were met with finger-pointing at Brown about what he did or did not leave behind for his successor. Seven players that Brown left Strong are on NFL rosters today, while 10 were kicked off the team in Strongs first year. Strong never took part in that blame game and probably wouldnt indulge it today. He took on a big, hard job. He did things his way, to the best of his ability, and it didnt work out.Strongs lone legacy at Texas will ultimately be his young players. In all, 48 players on Texas roster are underclassmen who signed in the past two years. Twenty of them, led by players like Buechele and freshman All-Americans Malik Jefferson and Connor Williams, have started games this season.These players love Strong and respect him and bought in fully. Theyll take this coaching change hard, especially because theyre sick and tired of the constant tumult at Texas. As sophomore defensive end Breckyn Hager passionately argued midway through this season: We love him as a coach. Getting a new coach is just going to set the program back. Weve got one of the best in the business. Weve got to keep him.The amount of talent Strong brought in shouldve bought him more time and security. It didnt, but whoever replaces him is inheriting a lethal supply of young talent, enough to start winning a lot of games in 2017 and 2018. 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