ork yourself out of it, and its coming back and having a better week of preparation, Payton said Monday. I was encouraged with a lot of things th

PHILADELPHIA -- Jeanmar Gomez and the Phillies bullpen couldnt capitalize on yet another strong starting pitching performance.Sean Rodriguez had a pinch-hit three-run homer in the ninth inning off Gomez, lifting the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Phillies 5-3 on Tuesday night.It overshadowed a quality outing from right-hander Alec Asher, who allowed two runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings.Our starting pitching the last couple of weeks has been as good as anybody in baseball, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said, adding Asher was the bright spot tonight.Asher was acquired in the 2015 trade that sent left-hander Cole Hamels to the Texas Rangers.Asher has now allowed just two earned runs (1.46 ERA) in his two starts for the Phillies this season.I thought it went well, said Asher, who threw 95 pitches. I wasnt tired at all.Pittsburgh remained six games behind the Mets for the second NL wild card.Rodriguez hit for pitcher Felipe Rivero (1-5) with two on and one out and drilled a 2-2 pitch from Gomez (3-4) into the second row of seats in right field.It was a tough day for me, Gomez said. It was a slider that was up. Some of my pitches were flat.Rodriguezs home run was his 13th of the season and first since Aug. 14. It was also his first pinch-hit home run since May 25, 2013.Rodriguez put the Pirates ahead after Francisco Cervelli reached on a walk and Jordy Mercer doubled off Gomez.Tony Watson struck out two in the ninth for his 12th save.Playing in just his third major league game, left fielder Roman Quinn had two hits and scored a go-ahead run in the eighth on Freddy Galvis sacrifice fly. In his first 13 big-league plate appearances, Quinn has reached base safely seven times.Hes an exciting player to watch, Mackanin said.Pirates right-hander Ivan Nova entered 5-0 since being acquired from the New York Yankees on Aug. 1. He allowed two runs and five hits while recording a season-high 11 strikeouts but left the game in the seventh after throwing 92 pitches.Nova missed the chance to become the second Pirates pitcher to go 6-0 in his first eight starts.I was getting ahead in the count and I threw some good sinkers and that was a good thing for me, Nova said. Theyre an aggressive team and they were out there swinging.Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was ejected for the sixth time this season and the 51st time in his managerial career in the sixth inning. Hurdle vehemently argued with first-base umpire Alan Porter over a call that resulted in Ryan Howard beating out a double-play grounder to bring in the go-ahead run for Philadelphia.The night was a mixed bag for Pirates rookie second baseman Adam Frazier, who gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the third inning but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Josh Bell followed with a double that would have scored Frazier.Frazier also botched a fourth-inning grounder by Howard that tied the score at 1, had an errant throw on a potential double-play grounder by Maikel Franco that gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the sixth and grounded out with the bases loaded to end the seventh with the score tied 2-2 after Jung Ho Kang scored on a wild pitch.UP NEXTPirates: LHP Steven Brault (0-2, 3.38 ERA) will make his sixth career start when the series resumes Wednesday night. The 24-year-old has received just five runs of support in his five previous starts.Phillies: RHP Jake Thompson (1-5, 6.05 ERA) will make his eighth start of the season. The 22-year-old is looking for his first win since Aug. 12. Air Max 270 Womens Australia Sale . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. New Balance Sale Australia . With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play. http://www.salenikeshoesaustralia.com/vans-clearance.html .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. Cheap Nike Air Max 95 Australia . On Tuesday, Ottawa placed forward Cory Conacher and defenceman Joe Corvo on waivers as trade rumours swirl around the Senators. Vapormax Sale Australia . -- Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts will likely be a game-time decision whether hell play Sunday in the Jaguars home game against the San Diego Chargers. METAIRIE, La. -- Roman Harpers recent experience tells him it would be short-sighted for the Saints to succumb to pessimism this early in the season.The Saints are 0-2 for a third straight year, and the previous two campaigns didnt turn out well; New Orleans went 7-9 and missed the playoffs each time.But Harper spent his past two NFL seasons with another team -- defending NFC champion Carolina -- which has been among the leagues best since its seven-game winless streak in 2014.Going two straight months in Carolina my first year there without winning a game was very frustrating to me. I didnt understand it. I didnt accept it very well, Harper said, crediting Panthers coach Ron Rivera for doing a great job keeping everybody together.The Panthers won their final four regular season games of 2014 to win the NFC South, then opened last season on a 14-game winning streak, meaning they won 18 straight regular season games immediately after a stint in which theyd tied one and lost six straight.Now Harper, who returned this year to the club with which he began his career, hopes New Orleans can earn a tide-turning victory when its hosts NFC South Division rival Atlanta on Monday night. The Superdome is bound to be infused with energy and emotion for that game, when the Saints and their fans will mark the 10th anniversary of the renovated stadiums re-opening after Hurricane Katrina.If we got some kind of mojo or some kind of magic, its got to be this one, Harper said. So weve got to be desperate, man. Weve got to go out here and get this win. Winning just breeds confidence throughout a locker room and it breeds success.While the Saints margin for error is thinning, they havent been losing by much. The Raiders needed a late 2-point conversion to pull out a 35-34 victory in the Superdome in Week 1 and the New York Giants hit a field goal as time expired to beat visiting New Orleans 16-13 on Sunday.The Saints much-maligned, injury riddled defense looked its best in a while, producing three turnovers in New York while keep quarterback Eli Manning and the Giants offense out of the end zone. But this time, New Orleans normally prolific offense sputtered and the Saints were sunken by a blocked field goal attempt that the Giants returned for a touchdown.You have to learn how to not lose a game before you can ever learn how to win, Harper said. Those are the things andd growing pains that were going through right now, where were doing certain little things, where yesterday the blocked field goal cost us the game.dddddddddddd Other than that, we played pretty good.On defense, that is.Drew Brees and the Saints offense, which led the NFL with 507 yards in Week 1, finished with 288 at New York. Brees passed for one TD, down from four a week earlier. He still has not thrown an interception, making him the only QB since at least as far back as 1960 to be on an 0-2 team despite passing for five TDs without an interception during the first two weeks of the season.Weve gone down to the wire in two straight games and unfortunately come out on the losing end, Saints tight end Coby Fleener said. Hopefully we can not get discouraged by that and realize were one or two plays away.Heading into training camp, Saints coach Sean Payton emphasized the importance of trying to win preseason games to cultivate a competitive edge. He also said it would be important for his relatively young team to get off to a fast start in the regular season. Instead, the Saints havent yet won any preseason or regular season games.There is only one way to work yourself out of it, and its coming back and having a better week of preparation, Payton said Monday. I was encouraged with a lot of things that I saw on tape and yet discouraged in some areas. And in these days after here, we have to be brutally honest with ourselves, not only with the players but the coaches as well. We have to be better.Game notes Payton said after studying video of rookie Wil Lutzs blocked field goal in New York that the problem was the blocking along the right side of the line. He did not fault a play by name, but cited B-gap pressure between the guard Andrus Peat and tackle Terron Armstead. ... Payton said cornerback P.J. Williams, who was carted off the field Sunday and hospitalized to be evaluated for a possible concussion or spinal injury after taking a knee to the helmet, was traveling back to New Orleans on Monday afternoon. Payton said Williams was diagnosed with a concussion, but added that the news was otherwise positive, which is real encouraging.---Online: AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '