Kommandozentrale » ard-throwing lefty had a streak of 23 scoreless inning

There was just a bit of uncertainty heading into Tuesdays opening leg of Major League Soccers all-Canadian Eastern Conference championship.The Montreal Impact and Toronto FC are due to meet Tuesday night at historic Olympic Stadium, a 40-year-old Montreal landmark built for the 1976 Olympics.Even though its an indoor venue, a concern going into the match was the weather: The stadium roof is fragile -- and snow was falling in the city Monday. But a stadium heating system appeared to be keeping any accumulation at bay and the Olympic Park announced the game would go on as planned.The Impact normally play at Stade Saputo, which sits next door to the Olympic Stadium but seats just over 20,000. Nearly 60,000 are expected for the match.The Impact has played games at the Big O, so the home-field advantage is still there, but the condition of the artificial turf -- which lies atop concrete -- might be a factor. Saputos surface is natural grass.As far as the surface, of course, we would like to get to this point to such important games and playing the best possible conditions, but thats just one factor among many others in the game, Toronto star Sebastian Giovinco said.Some of those other factors to consider for the two-legged MLS conference finals:TORONTO VERSES MONTREALMontreal finished 11-11-12 in the regular season for the fifth seed in the East. The Impact defeated the New York Red Bulls 3-1 on aggregate in the conference semifinals to advance. Theyre led by Argentinian midfielder Ignacio Piatti, who scored 17 goals in the regular season and three in the playoffs.The Impact appear to have gotten past the controversy involving former Chelsea star Didier Drogba, who lost his role as a starter to Matteo Mancosu. Drogba sat out of Montreals second-to-last regular season match against Toronto, a 2-2 draw, because of the demotion. But he told reporters last week that he was focused on taking the Impact to the MLS Cup championship.Toronto was the No. 3 seed in the East after going 14-9-11 in the regular season. TFC advanced to the conference finals with a 7-0 aggregate victory over New York City FC. The team is led by Giovinco, who has 21 total goals this season, including four in the postseason.The Impact defeated Toronto in the knockout round of the playoffs last year.Last year was just a small taste, Toronto FC coach Greg Vanney said last week in a conference call with reporters. We started extremely poorly in that game and paid for that, but I think it was just a taste of the rivalry continuing to build between these two franchises. Its a Montreal-Toronto rivalry in hockey and other sports that goes way, way back. We have enough guys on the roster from last year who remember that day and were embarrassed on that day, as was myself, but our mentality will be different than it was last year.COLORADO VERSUS SEATTLEThe Sounders went 14-14-6 during the regular season for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. Seattles story is the teams incredible rebound from last place in the conference and the dismissal of longtime coach Sigi Schmid. The interim tag was removed from coach Brian Schmetzers title earlier this month. The Sounders, who defeated FC Dallas 4-2 on aggregate in the semifinals, are led by homegrown rookie Jordan Morris with 12 overall goals.Colorado, which finished 15-6-13 in the regular season and narrowly missed out on the Supporters Shield, got a knockout-round bye as the second seed in the West. Known more for their stout defense, the Rapids are led by Swiss forward Shkelzen Gashi with 10 goals in his first MLS season. The Rapids advanced after a penalty shootout with the Los Angeles Galaxy following a 1-1 semifinal.Colorado won the MLS Cup in 2010.Both teams have been stung by injuries this season. For the Sounders it was the unexpected loss of national team star Clint Dempsey because of a heart issue.For the Rapids it has been the loss of goalkeeper Tim Howard, who had season-ending surgery Thursday after suffering a fracture of the right adductor longus in his groin while on duty with the U.S. national team.Colorado will start Zac McMath, who lost the job when Howard joined the Rapids in July after 10 seasons with Everton in the English Premier League. McMath was one of the best goalkeepers in the league at 9-2-5 when Howard arrived.Credit to Zac for being very strong mentally, and prepared, Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni said. It takes a man to be able to take that information, given his performances, and not sulk and not throw his toy and not run out of the room and slam doors, to look at someone in the face and go, `OK, this is your decision, all right. Im a team player; Ive got to respect that.Nike Sneakers Clearance Sale . Boucher previously coached the Tampa Bay Lightning and had a 97-78-20 record over two-plus seasons. He was dismissed by the team last March after the Lightning struggled in the lockout-shortened season with a 13-18-1 record. Nike Sneakers China Free Shipping . Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks. http://www.wholesalesneakersnike.com/ . The mixed zone is not a place to make friends. Nike Sneakers Cheap China . -- Jakob Silfverberg is making himself right at home with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring four goals in his first four games. Nike Sneakers Discount Wholesale .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner.CHICAGO -- Just when it looked as if Cubs right-hander Edwin Jackson had begun to regain his form Tuesday night against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, his outing was washed out by rain. Jackson was cruising along in the bottom of the third inning, having retired seven of the first eight batters he faced, including three strikeouts, when Game 2 of the four-game crosstown series with the White Sox was postponed because of a downpour. No make-up date has been announced. "Its just one of those things, sometimes when you have the kind of season Im having, thats how it is, you feel good and something happens, and you feel bad and something happens," Jackson said. Even though Jacksons effort ultimately didnt count, Cubs manager Dale Sveum liked what he saw from his struggling pitcher. "He came out throwing the ball really well, obviously with a lot of conviction and velocity from the get-go, 92-93 mph cutters as well as his fastball at 96," Sveum said. "Thats kind of the guy we want to go out there all the time, the 86-87 mph sliders and velocity from the get-go and see what happens from there." Jacksons stellar effort wasnt the only one wasted. So too was Wellington Castillos two-run homer in the top of the second that had staked Jackson to a 2-0 lead. "At the end of the day, all that matters is to keep playing, to have the opportunity to be here and to be in the lineup tomorrow," Castillo said. Jackson (1-8) had come into the game with losses in seven of his eight decisions this season. With the way he started Tuesday, he felt he was on his way to finally breaking out of his slump. "I felt pretty good tonigght, pretty loose from the beginning," Jackson said.dddddddddddd "I felt like I could come out and attacked the strike zone hard and down." Perhaps the only player on either team to benefit from the rainout was White Sox starter Chris Sale (5-2). The hard-throwing lefty had a streak of 23 scoreless innings coming in. Castros homer snapped it but the rainout restored the spurt. Sale, who missed his last start due to tendonitis in his left posterior shoulder, felt good even with the short work and reported no issues. "I pretty much look at this as kind of an extended bullpen," Sale said. "I dont think I threw but 40 (37 to be exact) pitches. I should be able to bounce back pretty quick." Sveum said his team had been looking forward to facing Sale Tuesday. "You hate to waste any time when you get up 2-0 against a pitcher like Sale and hopefully you hang on. If you score two and hopefully a couple more like that, then youve done your share off a guy like that. Its too bad the game had to be cancelled that quick, but we knew that rain was coming." The series shifts to Wrigley Field for a pair of afternoon games (1:20 p.m.) on Wednesday and Thursday. The scheduled pitchers remain the same for Wednesdays game, right-hander Scott Feldman (4-4, 2.80) for the Cubs vs. lefty John Danks (0-0, 4.50). NOTES: The White Sox have won eight of the last 12 meetings with the Cubs, and lead the overall series 49-42. . Coming into Tuesdays game, Cubs pitchers were leading the Major Leagues in a unique category: RBIs, with 15. . The game was cancelled so quickly that an official attendance number was never announced. ' ' '