Pirate Galaxy » Management, which oversees the flats, sai

HOUSTON -- A veteran of 10 major league seasons, Carlos Gomez insists he didnt panic when he got off to a slow start to begin this year.However, hes certainly feeling a lot better now that hes started to turn things around.Gomez hit a two-run homer and Mike Fiers and three relievers combined for a shutout to help the surging Houston Astros to a 5-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.Gomez has started heating up after a tough start to the season that included a May when he hit just .136. He has hit four homers, five doubles and driven in 15 runs since June 5 to boost his average from .182 to .225.That makes you better, Gomez said of fighting through his struggles. You have to continue to do your job. When you do this for 10 years thats because youre a pro. The only thing you can do is continue to believe in yourself and work hard.It was Houstons fourth straight victory and 11th in the last 12 games.Fiers (6-3) scattered four hits over six innings. Ken Giles and Luke Gregerson didnt allow a hit in an inning each and Chris Devenski threw a scoreless ninth.The Astros didnt have a baserunner until Miguel Gonzalez (1-4) plunked George Springer to start the fourth inning. He then walked Luis Valbuena before Jose Altuve grounded into a double play that left Springer at third.Houstons first hit came next when Carlos Correas strange infield popup dropped in front of shortstop Tim Anderson and allowed Springer to score and make it 1-0.It was a lucky base hit. Ill take it, Correa said. Obviously throughout the season we hit a lot of balls hard right at people so its good to every once and awhile get a hit like that. It wasnt the best at-bat but it worked out.Gonzalez lamented that no one was able to get to it before it dropped.Looking back on it for the future, someones just got to go all out for it, he said. Its just such a tough play and you almost never see it. It was really tough because it cost us a run, but it wont happen again. Well make that play.Gomez padded the lead when he sent one into the seats in left field with one out in the seventh to make it 3-0. Correa reached on an error by third baseman Tyler Saladino before Gomezs shot.Gonzalez yielded three hits and two runs in a season-high seven innings.Houston first baseman A.J. Reed got his first major league hit with a single with two outs in the fifth inning. He was 0 for 16 since being called up on Saturday before the hit.Kind of a weight lifted off your shoulders and now I dont have to come to the ballpark and think `Todays the day, he said. So go out and relax and have fun.Valbuena added an RBI double in the eighth and Colby Rasmus had a run-scoring single in that inning to make it 5-0.ALTUVES STREAK ENDSAltuve went 0 for 4 without a walk to end a streak where he reached safely in a career-high 32 straight games. The streak was the longest by an Astro since Lance Berkman did it in 37 straight games from July 30-Sept. 8, 2004.TRAINERS ROOMWhite Sox: 3B Matt Davidson had surgery on Friday after breaking his right foot rounding first base in his White Sox debut a day before. Davidson had a screw inserted to repair his foot and the White Sox dont know how long hell be out. They recalled INF Carlos Sanchez from Triple-A Charlotte before Fridays game to take his spot on the roster.Astros: RHP Lance McCullers, who was scratched from his last start on Tuesday with a blister on his right index finger, is doing better and is expected to make his next start on Monday.UP NEXTWhite Sox: Chris Sale (13-2, 2.79) is scheduled to pitch for Chicago on Saturday. Sale, who leads the majors with 13 wins, has a four-game winning streak. Sale is 4-1 with a 0.66 ERA and 56 strikeouts in five career starts against Houston.Astros: Doug Fister (8-4, 3.36) will start for Houston on Saturday. Fister allowed eight hits and four runs in 6 2/3 innings of a loss to the Royals on Sunday to snap a seven-game winning streak.Wholesale China Jerseys .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. China Jerseys Online .J. -- Seven games into a disappointing season, New York Giants defensive catalyst Jason Pierre-Paul is getting the feeling hes back. https://www.chinajerseysreview.com/ . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. China Jerseys 2020 . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. China Jerseys Review . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net.BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, Utah -- Blinding white salt stretches across the earth to distant purple mountain ranges, an otherworldly landscape famous for providing a natural track for racers seeking breakneck speeds but fragile enough that rain can easily break it down.Thousands of adrenaline junkies have descended this week on Utahs Bonneville Salt Flats, coming from as far away as New Zealand, Japan and Russia. In this stark place about 100 miles west of Salt Lake City, they have set up a caravan of campers, tents and trailers as they spend a week trying to beat the clock -- some topping speeds of 400 mph.They haul modified motorcycles, vintage hot rods and roadsters, and custom vehicles that look like rockets or spaceships, with names such as Disturbing Da Peace or Loosenuts Special. Theyll wait for hours in line under the brutal sun just to get a chance to zoom across the flats, hoping to see if their latest modifications help them beat their previous records or go fast enough to earn a spot in the 200 mph Club.While the racers are glad to be back at Speed Week, which runs through Friday, its a bittersweet return after a two-year hiatus marked by disappointments and accusations that federal land managers have failed to protect the unique area.U.S. officials partly blame heavy rains and say theyre trying to preserve the salt by requiring a nearby mining company to pump brine onto the flats each year.Wet weather and rough salt scuttled the major races in 2014 and 2015, and organizers say they no longer find enough smooth salt to set up raceways of 10 miles or more to give many vehicles enough room to hit top speeds and safely slow down.This year, organizers with the Southern California Timing Association found enough dry, relatively smooth salt to eke out three racetracks for Speed Week, the largest of several annual races at the flats.Racers say that while theyre grateful weather has been favorable and theyre whipping across the salt again, they pointed out the less-than-pristine conditions.It looks thinner to me, said Ben York, a driver from Roseville, California, who has been coming to the flats since 2009. His team was trying to break a 334 mph record with their vehicle the Adrenaline RRush, an elongated racecar style known as a Lakester.ddddddddddddork said that when the salt is flat, its very good, but this year it feels bumpy and coarse.Compared to past years, its spotty at best, said Dallas Volk of Bountiful, Utah, whose family has been racing at Bonneville for nearly six decades.Volk, 49, who first came to the races as a toddler, was selling T-shirts and other gear out of a trailer to support the Save the Salt organization, one of several racing groups calling for federal land managers to keep the salt from depleting and lobbying members of Congress to step in.You can definitely tell its not the same salt it was five or six years ago, Volk said.His father, Larry Volk, pulled out a pickax and struck it into the salt, revealing a layer of mud about an inch below, creating a speedway thats less hard and fast than it used to be. He said that when he started racing in 1958, they could find 14 miles of speedway where the salt top was 7 or 8 inches thick.Thats what wed like to see it get back to, he said.Monsoon storms are partly to blame for the cancellations, but its unclear exactly why there appears to be a smaller, thinner expanse of smooth salt.The racing community says nearby potash mining is draining a salty aquifer that helps replenish the flats each year.The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the flats, said it requires the mining company to pump several hundred thousand tons of brine onto the flats every winter so that when the area begins to bake under the summer sun, the water evaporates and the salt crust thickens.Racers want to see much more brine pumped on the flats every year and are working with Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart on legislation to restore the area. His office said its still drafting the legislation and would not offer details.Larry Volk said congressional action is a last-ditch effort to try to preserve the area for decades of future racing.Though conditions are poor this year, Volk said the speed demons are still glad to be back.Were racers, OK? he said. Give us anything and well try to race on it. ' ' '