Pirate Galaxy » un to end the game.When we go back

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Toronto Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey hopes to pick up where he left off before the All-Star break on Saturday against the Oakland As, when he makes his 20th start of the season.As right-hander Sonny Gray hopes to put a nightmarish first half of the season behind him and make a fresh start against the Blue Jays.Dickey went 2-6 with a 4.64 ERA in his first 11 starts of the season but was 5-3 with a 3.02 ERA in his final eight starts before the break. Hes won three of his past four starts, striking out 24 and walking seven during that stretch.The month of Aprils never been real kind to him, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said Friday. He came into spring training focused on trying to (get off to a fast start), but you know, these guys that have been around a while, you can almost bank on it that what they do every year, its almost going to happen. Some of its got to be mental a little bit too, but hes been on a nice little run.Dickey said theres no real rhyme or reason for his slow starts.I think maybe the warmer temperatures probably help a little bit with the pitch that I throw, Dickey said. I feel like Ive gotten it back to where I need it to be. But yeah, Im traditionally a pretty slow starter.Gray, who finished third in the American League Cy Young Award voting last season, has never experienced such a horrible start. Hes 3-8 with 5.16 ERA and hasnt won a game since April 22. Hes lost a career-high seven straight decisions and had a 6.16 ERA during that 12-game stretch.Whats happened in the past has happened in the past, Gray said. You can come out and take tomorrows start and go out and try and win a game. I think just taking that approach and whatever happened in the first half of the season kind of just throw that to the side and start here. I feel really good and feel good about that.Dickey is 5-5 with a 3.12 ERA in 18 career appearances, including 14 starts, against the As. At the Oakland Coliseum, hes 1/3 with a 2.78 ERA in eight games, including six starts.Its a great pitchers park usually, Dickey said, of the Coliseum. Ive always enjoyed the foul territory here in particular.The As hit three home runs in their 8-7 victory Friday night in the series opener, a two-run blast by Khris Davis and solo shots by Josh Reddick and Stephen Vogt, but theyll have to adjust Saturday in a rare test against a knuckleball pitcher.I see it and hit it, Reddick said of his approach. Ive always been told that on a knuckleballer you sit fastball and swing under the knuckleball. I pretty much just guess where its going to be and hopefully it is there.He throws it a little firmer than most of them. Back in the day hed throw his knuckleball like 85 (mph) and then his fastball was like 88 when I faced him in the minors. 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Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. SACRAMENTO --- Two games into the Dave Joerger era, the Sacramento Kings look considerably different in two areas: Defense and effort.Tom Thibodeau would like to see those two things for a bit longer in his second game coaching the Minnesota Timberwolves than he did in the first.Both new coaches have been tasked with the job of leading their teams out of the lonely wilderness of bad basketball. Both face each other tonight at Golden 1 Center, with Joerger seeking his squads first win in its new home, and Thibodeau aiming for his first win with Minnesota.The Timberwolves, who havent reached the playoffs in the past 13 seasons, won all four of their meetings against Sacramento a campaign ago. The Kings, who havent been to the playoffs since 2005-06, have shown in their opening two games that they arent the same team that lost those four.Our aggression, our competitiveness is real high, guard Arron Afflalo said. Our expectation to win is there every night. We know defensively we can stay in games, so we expect to win.The Kings led most of three quarters in a 102-94 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in their home debut Thursday. They lost despite holding San Antonio to 38 percent shooting from the field in the third quarter and 42 percent in the fourth.That effort came after a 113-94 opening night win at Phoenix. The Kings held the Suns to 46 percent shooting in that one. The two efforts resembled how Joergers teams used to play when he coached the Memphis Grizzlies, not the kind the Kings played last season when they allowed a league-worst 109.1 points peer game.ddddddddddddCoach Joergers got them playing defense after one game the way they played defense in Memphis, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Thats because he knows what hes doing obviously, but its a tribute to (the Kings) to pick that up, jump in and buy into that. If they sustain that, theyre going to be a good basketball team.Thibodeau, who won 255 games and led the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs in all five seasons he coached them, is preaching the same things as Joerger. The Timberwolves showed periods of good defense, but his team melted in the end of a 102-98 loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday.The Timberwolves led with 1:45 to go, but allowed an 11-5 run to end the game.When we go back and look into it, were going to see the defense wasnt good enough, he told reporters after the game. The rebounding wasnt good enough. ... Some of the mental mistakes got us down the stretch.They also were sometimes lazy defending the arc; the Grizzlies canned 11 against them including six in the first quarter as an early 20-3 Minnesota lead leaked.The Kings have shown a propensity to do most of their offensive work inside, with center DeMarcus Cousins tallying 61 points in Sacramentos first two contests.Fellow Kentuckian center Karl-Anthony Towns, the top pick in the 2015 draft, scored 65 points and grabbed 37 rebounds in four games against Cousins and the Kings last. He collected 43 points and 21 rebounds in the final two. ' ' '