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DUNEDIN, Florida – With the eyes of the Blue Jays front office firmly planted on him, starting rotation hopeful Marcus Stroman had an up and down three innings on Friday afternoon. Stroman allowed three runs on four hits, striking out a batter and walking a hitter, too. He threw 46 pitches, of which 31 were strikes. Getting the third out was the problem. "The third guy in each inning kind of hurt me," said Stroman. "The first inning was a walk and then I kind of got lazy on the next guy when I got two quick outs and didnt execute my pitch. Definitely being better with two outs because thats when you want to get back in the dugout." Stroman entered the game in the fourth, with the Jays down 1-0, pitching in relief of Mark Buehrle. Two quick outs later, he battled former Jay Jayson Nix to a full count and lost him on a slider. Catcher Dioner Navarro called for a fastball, but the brash, confident youngster shook off his veteran battery mate. "Which Im perfectly fine with," said Navarro. "We aint kids, man. Were all growing men and we know what weve got to do. He had a pretty good idea of what he was doing. Ive got a pretty good idea of what Im doing. It was just a matter of execution." The next pitch, the first pitch in the at-bat to Kevin Kiermayer, was a change-up left up in the strike zone. "A lot of change-ups up in the zone get hit hard," said Navarro. "I think if he would have thrown it down, we would have gotten a ground ball to the infield." In the fifth, Stroman struck out Sean Rodriguez and erased Desmond Jennings on a ground ball to short, but a double by Matt Joyce and RBI single by Wil Myers soured the taste of the inning. Two quick outs. Manager John Gibbons, though, is impressed with Stromans repertoire. The fastball pops the mitt, the breaking stuff is nasty and the change-up is developing. Stroman is working on the pitch with Brandon Morrow and is throwing a split-change-up, rather than using a circle-change grip. The pitch sinks and, when its working, misses bats. "Its just refining it, getting it in that strike zone," said Gibbons. Earlier this week, general manager Alex Anthopoulos said, tongue-in-cheek, that Fridays outing was "very important" for Stroman. The Jays are stretching him out. Stroman could throw another three innings, maybe four, in his next appearance. They want to see consistently positive results. He insists he isnt paying attention to the chatter that he, along with Drew Hutchison, could be the tandem that backfills a starting rotation led by R.A. Dickey, Brandon Morrow and Mark Buehrle. "It doesnt affect me at all," said Stroman. "It is what it is and I just keep my head down and work. Every time Im out there I try to give it my all and today wasnt my best at all." BUEHRLES CHANGE-UP Mark Buehrle allowed a run on three hits in three innings on Friday. He was on the plate, throwing 31 of his 44 pitches for strikes. "The change-up was probably the best its been in three years that I can remember," said Buehrle. Asked to confirm whether he meant the three previous springs or three previous seasons, he said he meant the latter. "It was moving a lot," said Buehrle. "Guys were swinging and missing at it. There was good movement; dropping, sinking. It was just one of those days I wish you just soak everything in and do the exact same thing you did today and feel today." ROMEROS POSITIVE OUTING Ricky Romero threw two scoreless innings on Thursday. He stranded two, two-out base runners in the eighth. The Rays Mikie Mahtook singled, followed by a would-be inning ending ground ball from Curt Casali. A Maicer Izturis throwing error extended the frame. Romero picked up his teammate, striking out Richie Shaffer.. "I thought he was popping it," said Gibbons. "You know, the first couple he spiked, but after that he settled in. The thing I noticed the most, he looked nice and relaxed out there. He made some good pitches and he looked confident out there. Thats something hes battling. They all battle that, but I thought he looked like he used to look out there.” Romero isnt on the 40-man roster. His name has been uttered only on the periphery when the subject of available starting rotation jobs is discussed. "The best weve seen him in a long time," said Gibbons. "I think hes moving in the right direction." RASMUS IMPROVING Colby Rasmus expects to resume baseball activities on Saturday. Hes missed a week with neck spasms. The centerfielder received a cortisone shot in an attempt to alleviate the problem. "Its definitely helped," said Rasmus. "A couple of things I did, stretching out my back, whatever, and the way I slept that night kind of got my neck going and the treatment, it didnt react well to it and the neck just stayed spasmed up, so I got the shot and the dose pack and it seems to be helping." Rasmus missed time during the first half of spring training last year with a sore muscle in his shoulder. He has experience heading into the regular season with fewer at-bats than first anticipated. "Its just one of them things, I dont know," said Rasmus. "Baseball throws curveballs at you. Youve got to be able to make adjustments and keep working with it, grind through it, find a solution and keep going." Area motorists are thankful Rasmus is feeling better. "I can look in my blind spot now," he joked. JUST CALL HIM "JOHNNY BASEBALL" General manager Alex Anthopoulos is impressed with reliever John Stilson this spring. "Hes been on the radar," said Anthopoulos. "Hes a third round pick, hes one of our better relief prospects, we like him a lot. I think hes had a good camp so far." Stilson, 23, was a third-round pick in 2011 out of Texas A&M. A four-pitch reliever, Stilsons fastball registers 92-93 miles per hour with sink. Hes leaned on pitching coach Pete Walker, new bullpen coach Bob Stanley and consultant Pat Hentgen for advice. Theyre helping Stilson to slow the game down. In the past, when hes gotten into trouble, hes tended to rush his pitches. SEITZER AND SON Blue Jays hitting coach Kevin Seitzer watched as his son, Cameron, a Rays prospect, hit a two-run home run off Todd Redmond in the ninth inning of Tampa Bays 6-3 win on Friday. Hes a proud father. "Spring training is different than regular season," said Seitzer. "He does it against us in the regular season, Im not going to be happy. Its just fun getting to watch your son play." Seitzer appreciated Rays manager Joe Maddos decision to bring Cameron along for the trip to Dunedin. Kevin coached first base in the bottom of the fifth, a gesture by manager John Gibbons, when Cameron entered the game defensively. Cameron is a first baseman. What did they say to each other? "He goes, Whats up pops?," said Seitzer. 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His Brazilian opponents said he produced miracles. There is no doubt that Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa was the one responsible for spoiling Brazils hopes of another World Cup victory at its home tournament. LONDON -- Protecting 2-0 leads from their last-16 first legs, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are huge favourites to advance in the Champions League this week when they play return matches at home. Yet theres enough evidence to suggest Europes two heavyweight teams still have plenty of work to do. Barcelona has lost three of its last six matches in the Spanish league, giving Manchester City renewed hope the two-goal deficit may not be too much to bridge. Arsenal, meanwhile, heads to Bayern having won 2-0 at the Allianz Arena in a round-of-16 second leg last season. In this weeks other second legs, Atletico Madrid leads AC Milan 1-0 and Paris Saint-Germain is 4-0 in front against Bayer Leverkusen. ------ Here is a lookahead to the games in Europes top knockout competition on Tuesday and Wednesday: BAYERN MUNICH vs. ARSENAL Bayern is heeding the lesson learned from losing to Arsenal at home in the last 16 last season, when only away goals ensured progress before it went on to win the title. Another 2-0 loss on Tuesday would level the aggregate score. "If we let Arsenal have the ball, well have big, big problems," said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, who otherwise has little to worry about. Guardiola had a full squad to choose from for Saturdays 6-1 rout at Wolfsburg. Defender Holger Badstuber was among the 20 players to travel after recovering from tearing the cruciate ligament in his right knee. The win was Bayerns 16th in a row, setting a new record in the Bundesliga, where the side is undefeated in 49 games. In inspiring Arsenal to a 4-1 win over Everton in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Saturday, Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil returned to the kind of form that persuaded the Gunners to break their club record to sign him from Real Madrid in the summer. ------ ATLETICO MADRID vs. AC MILAN Atletico Madrid will have two reasons to feel good about its chances to advance past AC Milan on Tuesday. First, leading scorer Diego Costa will be well rested after missing Saturdays Spanish league win at Celta Vigo due to a one-game suspension. Diego Costa scored the winner in Atleticos 1-0 first-leg victory at Milan. And second, David Villa has found his scoring touch after firing home two well-taken goals with Diego Costa unavailable over the weekend in Atleticos 2-0 victory in Vigo that kept it in the Spanish title chase. Coach Diego Simeone may opt to return to aligning both strikers as he did earlier in the season after not playing Villa in the first leg in Italy or in a recent derby against Real Madrid.dddddddddddd Milan has lost its last two Serie A matches but has Mario Balotelli back from a shoulder injury that has sidelined him since the first leg. ------ BARCELONA vs. MANCHESTER CITY Barcelona is playing its worst football since the end of last season, when the team limped to the Spanish league title. After apparently being rejuvenated under first-year coach Gerard Martino, the side has dropped points in five of the last nine rounds to go from pacesetter to chasing Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. With its domestic title defence in question, failing to protect a 2-0 first-leg advantage over City at the Camp Nou and an early exit from Europe would be nothing less than disastrous for the Catalan club. The match comes four days after Barcelona lost 1-0 at relegation-threatened Valladolid, when only Lionel Messi appeared up to the task. Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets said his team needs to rediscover "the desire to win every game." "We have had enough after this loss," Busquets said. City, meanwhile, will be hoping to build on its winning momentum since lifting the League Cup. It will have forward Sergio Aguero back from injury to help. ------ PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN vs. BAYER LEVERKUSEN PSG is all but qualified for the quarterfinals and this gives coach Laurent Blanc the chance to give some of his key players a breather for the return leg against Leverkusen. Only a monumental collapse will see the German side through but with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a hungry mood and PSG scoring freely, it seems another hiding is the more likely scenario for Leverkusen, which has lost five of its past six games. With a tough match to follow on Sunday against in-form Saint-Etienne, it seems Blanc is already preparing ahead. "We have an important game against Saint-Etienne coming up," he said. "Whatever team is selected, theres always the same desire to win. Its important for the big teams to have this." Although Ibrahimovic should start, he could come off in the second half, thus giving Blanc the chance to switch Edinson Cavani from the right wing and play him in his favouredcentre-forward role. NFL Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys 2019 Cheap Jerseys From China Discount NFL Jerseys China NFL Jerseys Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Black Jerseys ' ' '