Hes figured out how to narrow his f

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BOSTON -- Michael Wacha and his Cardinals bullpen provided the power pitching. Xavi Hernandez Jersey . Carlos Beltran, injected with a painkiller, came through with a huge hit. And this time, it was the Red Sox who were tripped up by fielding failures. Wacha bested John Lackey in a matchup of present and past rookie sensations, and St. Louis beat Boston 4-2 Thursday night to even the World Series at a game apiece. "Somebody would have to kill me in order for me to get out of the lineup," said Beltran, undeterred by bruised ribs that landed him in the hospital a night earlier. Matt Holliday tripled and scored on Yadier Molinas fourth-inning grounder, but David Ortiz put Boston ahead 2-1 in the sixth when he pounced on an 85 mph changeup for a two-run homer just over the Green Monster in left field. That ended Wachas scoreless streak at 18 2-3 innings -- a rookie record for a single post-season -- but it was all he gave up. Selected by St. Louis last year with the first-round draft pick received as compensation when Albert Pujols signed with the Los Angeles Angels, Wacha has been so good lately that a St. Louis restaurant he walked into had named a milkshake after him, the "Wacha Wacha." The 22-year-old right-hander, the NL championship series MVP after beating Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw twice, threw a career-high 114 pitches and allowed two runs, three hits and four walks in six innings with six strikeouts. He improved to 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA in four outings this post-season, matching the amount of regular-season wins he has in his brief career. "They dont swing at bad pitches, really," Wacha said. "They did a good job tonight grinding out at-bats with me and got the pitch count up." Wachas parents and sister made the trip from Texarkana, Texas, and sat bundled in cold-weather clothes in the stands to watch the 19th pick in last years amateur draft. "He pitched outstanding," Molina said. "Just one pitch, to a great hitter like Big Papi." But then Lackey, who in 2002 with the Angels became the first rookie in 93 years to win a World Series seventh game, faltered in a three-run seventh. St. Louis went ahead when Matt Carpenter hit a sacrifice fly that led to a pair of runs, with the second scoring on errors by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and reliever Craig Breslow -- both making their Series debuts. Beltran, an eight-time All-Star making his first Series appearance at age 36, followed with an RBI single. He had been sent to a hospital for scans Wednesday night after bruising ribs while banging into the right-field fence to rob Ortiz of a grand slam. Beltran appeared to be wearing protective padding under his jersey. "When I left the ballpark yesterday, I had very little hope that I was going to be in the lineup with the way I felt," he said. "When I woke up, I woke up feeling a little better. And I came to the ballpark, talked to the trainer. I was able to get treatment and talk to the doctors, and find a way to try anything I could try just to go out there and feel no pain." He said he took an injection of Toradol to block the pain for five or six hours. "The good thing is tomorrow I have the day off," he said. When the Series resumes Saturday night in St. Louis, Jake Peavy starts for the Red Sox and Joe Kelly for the Cardinals. Twenty-nine of the previous 55 teams that won Game 2 to tie the Series went on to take the title. "Excited to get home. I know everybody is," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. St. Louis hard-throwing bullpen combined for one-hit relief. Carlos Martinez got six outs, retiring Mike Napoli on an inning-ending popup with two on in the eighth. Trevor Rosenthal struck out the side on 11 pitches in the ninth for a save, whiffing Daniel Nava with a 99 mph fastball to end it. All three St. Louis pitchers were 23 or younger. "It doesnt surprise me. Those guys got talent," Molina said. "Like I said before many times, theyre not afraid to pitch." Seeking its second championship in three seasons, St. Louis improved to 7-0 this post-season when scoring first and stopped Bostons World Series winning streak at nine. That run began with a sweep of the Cardinals in 2004, when St. Louis never led the entire Series. This years opener was more of the same, when the Cardinals made three errors and the Red Sox romped 8-1. Lackey, pitching a day after his 35th birthday, returned this year after missing all of 2012 due to elbow surgery and beat Cy Young Award winners David Price and Justin Verlander in the AL playoffs. In his first Series appearance since his Game 7 win 11 years earlier, he couldnt hold the lead Ortiz gave him with his 17th post-season homer, his fifth this year. David Freese walked with one out in the seventh and Jon Jay singled. Breslow relieved, and the Cardinals pulled off a double steal as pinch-runner Pete Kozma swiped third -- an uncharacteristically aggressive move for the Cardinals, who ranked last in the NL with 45 stolen bases this year. Daniel Descalso, who started at shortstop after Kozma made two errors in the opener, loaded the bases with a walk. Carpenter followed with a fly to medium left, and Jonny Gomes throw home was slightly to the first-base side of the plate as Kozma scored the tying run. The ball glanced off Saltalamacchias mitt as Jay took off for third. Breslow smartly backed up the plate -- hes likely the first major leaguer holding a degree from Yale with a major in molecular biophysics and biochemistry -- but he was slow to throw to third. And when he did let loose, the ball sailed over shortstop Stephen Drew covering the base and bounced into the stands. "It just kind of sailed on me," Breslow said. "Ive made a throw of that distance before." Jay came home with the go-ahead run, and Descalso raced to third. "Were human. It happens," Saltalamacchia said. "We saw them do the same thing last night. They shook it off and came out tonight and played well. Thats what were going to do." Beltran singled to right for a two-run lead. With a bullpen thats held opponents to a .169 average in the post-season, that was enough. "Weve got to go out there and play better than we did tonight," Ortiz said. "Nobody can dictate that youre going to win four straight games every time you go out there for the World Series." NOTES: The Red Sox had not lost in the Series since Game 7 in 1986 against the New York Mets. ... With no DH allowed in the NL ballpark, Boston manager John Farrell said Ortiz will likely play first base in Game 3. Napoli would sit. ... Victims of the Boston Marathon bombings were honoured during the seventh-inning stretch as singer James Taylor led the crowd in "America the Beautiful." Sergi Samper Jersey . Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots on Saturday in the Oklahoma City Barons 4-1 victory over the Abbotsford Heat. The Oilers signed Bryzgalov to a one-year $2 million contract last Friday after shedding payroll by dealing defenceman Ladislav Smid to the Flames. Barcelona Jersey . Miller reached right to deflect Mikhail Grabovskis attempt with just over 2 minutes remaining in regulation, and then made two more saves in the shootout Sunday to give the Sabres a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals. http://www.barcelonajerseyteamshop.com/Jeremy-Mathieu-FC-Barcelona-Jersey.html . A forerunning sled crashed into the worker Thursday at the Sanki Sliding Center. The unidentified worker broke both legs and was airlifted to a nearby hospital.TORONTO - When Patrick Chan was feeling the pressure before making his Olympic debut, he reached out to a Canadian athlete who was shouldering perhaps the greatest pressure of all. Chans drive to the rink four years ago in Vancouver included a phone call to Sidney Crosby. The two share a common trainer in Andy OBrien, who was in the car with Chan that day. "I told Andy I was nervous, who wouldnt be, I was really nervous about the event. Andy was like Oh Ill call Sid," said Chan, who opens his season next week at Skate Canada International. "We talked about expectations and at the end of the day, he told me Yeah, the Canadian hockey team has the most pressure out of all the events. The way he put it in perspective was that we train every day and we train every day to kind of build an automatic pilot, and in order to initiate that automatic pilot when youre playing, you have to put it in perspective. "For example, my mentality is that this isnt the end of the world, people will support me because they want me to win, and they want the best for me and they want a medal for Canada, and I accept that. But then I have to be selfish in a way and realize Im doing it for myself and that was the mistake I made in Vancouver. I wanted to win the medal for Canada, and I looked at it as a big picture instead of narrowing it down to me wanting to be there, and me wanting to compete and excited to compete, and eager to win a medal." Chan, who was 19 in Vancouver, went on to finish fifth in his first Olympics, while Crosby, of course, scored the winning goal in Canadas thrilling victory over the U.S. for gold. Four years later, the pressures have changed for Chan, who talked about his preparations for Sochi in a wide-ranging conference call Tuesday that touched on everything from the gay rights controversy in Russia to his move to Detroit. Chan, who spoken about Russias controversial gay laws before saying he plans to focus on skating, said Tuesday he believes that "everyone deserves a fair chance." "I always believed, it doesnt matter what colour, what race, what gender, or whats your opinion on gays, it doesnt matter as long as you have the talent and you work hard and you have something to show and something to prove, anyone deserves to be on the field, and especially in the Olympic Games," Chan said. "Thats my opinion. Figure skating, were full of gays, and I train with a lot of gay skaters, and some of them are my best friends, and honestly it doesnt bother me. I just honestly believe everyone deserves to be on the ice to compete." The Toronto skater said hell be fending off a different kind of pressure in Sochi, where hell come in as a three-time defending world champion. "Vancouver was a pressure because it was a thought of winning a gold medal at home, I put that pressure on myself, like Oh my god the dream of all dreams would be to win and Olympic gold medal in your home country and hearing your anthem in Canada. Barcelona Douglas Jersey. "Sochi is different. . . coming in as three-time world champion, you put expectations on yourself, theres a lot of talk. Is this the year that hes not going to put it together, and hes going to be dethroned? I think I have many more tools going into Sochi to overcome those pressures." Chan, who will be 23 in Sochi — his birthday is New Years Eve — has learned to shift his priorities. Hes figured out how to narrow his focus, which goes back to Crosbys call in the car ride to the rink. "If you look at the Olympics as a mountain, its like Mount Everest, its impossible. You already start beating yourself up, just like my long program. My long program is my nemesis because I look at it as a huge mountain I have to climb thats going to kill me and Im going to be out of breath and exhausted at the end. "But it doesnt seem so bad if I cut it down into portions. For Mount Everest I would focus on reaching the first base camp, then reaching the second base camp, then reaching the third, then you can get to the top. You have to look at it in stages and not try to sprint to the top." Chan said hes a much happier skater than hes been in a while, and credits his move to Detroit. Chan pulled up stakes in Colorado Springs and drove to Detroit a couple of weeks before last springs world championships. He made the move, he said, to reinvigorate his career after his motivation had seeped out of him in Colorado. Detroit has become his "comfort zone" in the months since. "Its funny, the rink in Colorado was full, like 25 people on the ice, which is insane, and that was international skaters mixed with national level skaters. There was 25 skaters yet I still felt alone on the ice," he said. "It was beyond motivation, I was not motivated, I was just more frustrated because there was so many people." In Detroit, there are usually about eight elite skaters on the ice, including U.S. team member Jeremy Abbott, and rising Canadian skater Elladj Balde. "Coming here, I was worried I was not going to be able to make friends and would be alone again. but that was totally not the case," he said. "We all get along, so we all move for each other, we all respect each other, we all push each other, we all motivate each other. And then if I have a bad day, I can get off the ice and sit in the lobby and have my lunch with Elladj and totally forget about the session and just laugh about things outside of skating. "Those little things go a long, long way. We come in every day, and it gets monotonous, it gets boring, its frustrating, so its good to have your friends around and have people who support you and make you laugh and make you forget about skating once in awhile." cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '