55-pounder spent the past four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, setting

PITTSBURGH -- Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said he sat awake in his hotel bed Saturday night, thinking about his bullpens recent problems. He even addressed his group of relievers Sunday morning. Dustin McGowan made those worries a nonfactor, at least for a day. McGowan pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, Colby Rasmus hit a grand slam and Melky Cabrera added a two-run homer as the Blue Jays beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2. "We had to have that one," Gibbons said. McGowan (2-1) allowed one run, striking out five and throwing 101 pitches. It was the second consecutive quality start for McGowan, a diabetic who started wearing an insulin pump on the mound in his last start. "My blood sugar still gets erratic sometimes," he said. "But thats part of the game for me. With the adrenaline going and everything, it does what it wants to do. I cant control it sometimes." McGowan eclipsed the 100-pitch mark for the first time since June 27, 2008. "Thats two outings wearing that pump," Gibbons said. "Maybe theres something to that." It was just the fourth win in 13 games for Toronto, which prevented the Pirates from completing their first series sweep of the season. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and first base coach Rick Sofield were ejected by plate umpire Greg Gibson at the end of the fourth inning for arguing a called third strike on Jordy Mercer. The strikeout stranded two runners and ended the inning. "I think it was pretty apparent that the low strike wasnt going to come into play," Hurdle said. "But the fact of the matter was it got to a point where I felt a pitch that hadnt been called a strike all day got called a strike in, for me, a very pivotal at-bat for us." Rasmus connected in the second inning for his fourth career slam. He also doubled and singled. The Blue Jays held on to this early lead. Toronto wasted a 5-3, ninth-inning edge in the series opener and a 5-0, fourth-inning advantage on Saturday night. Josh Harrison hit two triples for the Pirates. Edinson Volquez (1-3) gave up six runs and seven hits in five innings. He also allowed six earned runs in his last outing April 21 against St. Louis. Volquez pitched himself into a jam in the second inning before Rasmus stepped to the plate, issuing walks to Edwin Encarnacion and Juan Francisco to start the inning. Brett Lawrie reached on an infield single to load the bases with no outs. Rasmus hit a full-count curveball about 10 rows deep in the right-field seats for his seventh home run of the season, giving the Blue Jays a 4-1 lead. Rasmus said he was not necessarily looking for an offspeed pitch in that situation. "I was just trying to be out over the plate and throw my hands at anything because hes got a good changeup, good curveball and a good two-seamer, and he already tried to thumb me a couple in," he said. "I was just trying to be ready to put something in play." The slam negated an early lead the Pirates built on Neil Walkers groundout, scoring Harrison after his triple. Harrison also tripled in the eighth and scored on Andrew McCutchens sacrifice fly. Torontos Jose Bautista walked in the fifth to reach base in his 31st consecutive game, the longest active streak in the majors. But he went hitless, snapping a career-best 13-game hitting streak. Cabrera had three hits, and extended Torontos lead to 6-1 with a two-run homer off Volquez in the fifth. Rasmus scored another run in the eighth on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro. NOTES: Highly regarded Blue Jays RHP Marcus Stroman made his big league debut, allowing one earned run and one hit while getting two outs. The Blue Jays selected the 23-year-old Stroman Triple-A Buffalo and optioned OF Anthony Gose. ... The Pirates plan to recall LHP Jeff Locke to start against San Francisco on Monday night. An All-Star last year, Locke struggled in the second half of 2013 and did not make the Pirates opening day roster. ... J.A. Happ (0-0, 4.15) is scheduled to pitch for the Blue Jays at Philadelphia on Monday night. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys . - The Detroit Lions have 13 takeaways this season — three less than all of last season — and the defence isnt the only unit pleased with the performance. Cheap NHL Jerseys China . "It was awesome," he said. Coming off an ugly three-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees, Toronto found itself in a deep hole early after the Reds put an eight spot up on starter Liam Hendriks (six runs in 1 2/3 innings pitched) and Todd Redmond in the second. http://www.chinajerseysnhlwholesale.com/ . -- The Denver Broncos are shuffling their offensive line this off-season and Orlando Franklin provided some insight into their plans Monday by tweeting that hes moving from right tackle to left guard. Cheap Jerseys . Omar Rahou made the discriminatory gesture several times while celebrating scoring a goal against Romania at Antwerp in January, UEFA said. The sanction was double the five-match ban Nicolas Anelka received from an English Football Association independent tribunal last week for the same act. Wholesale China Jerseys . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta.SPIELBERG, Austria -- Red Bull doubts coming home will be an advantage, as Formula One returns to Austria this week for the first time in 11 years. Team drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel finally ended Mercedes six-race winning streak by finishing 1-3 in the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago. But just when their F1 fortunes have taken an upturn, they dont believe their home track, the old A1 Ring redubbed the Red Bull Ring, will give them anything more than an emotional boost in the Austrian Grand Prix. Even then, teams that have been eating Red Bulls exhaust for the last four years are keen to pay them in kind on their home track. "It adds a bit of extra motivation," F1 leader Nico Rosberg of Mercedes admits. "It would be really special to win on the A1 Ring." Ricciardo and Vettel believe rival Mercedes will bounce back from its hiccup in Montreal, and go into the Austrian GP as deserved favourites. "The gap is still big," Ricciardo said on Thursday. "Weve got a bit of steam from the last race. Were all really excited - the home one for Red Bull - but (closing the gap) is still going to take a bit of time, its not going to happen overnight." Vettel thinks Mercedes is likely to have sorted out the technical mishaps from Montreal. "Everything else would surprise me," Vettel said, adding his teams goal was to get as close as possible to its dominant rival. "If a chance comes up like in Canada, we want to be right there to take it." Only engine troubles have stymied Mercedes this season. In Montreal, Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had the same problem at about the same time, when their rear brakes overheated. While Hamilton went out, race leader Rosberg managed to limit the damage and lost just one place. "Its work in progress," Rosberg said of his team technicians trying to solve the problem. "We are confident its not happening again. We dont need to go extra conservative." Despite his second DNF of the season, Hamilton took positives out of tthe Canadian GP.dddddddddddd "Weve only gained from that experience," the 2008 world champion said. "The cars been fixed so that wont happen again. ... We have a lot races ahead of us so a couple of DNFs are not concerning me too much now. I have done my optimum but there is still room for improvement." The Austrian GP was last held in 2003, when Michael Schumacher triumphed on his way to the sixth of his seven world titles. Only four drivers have raced on this circuit -- Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Filipe Massa. It will be the first time for Ricciardo and Vettel. Although the track has been modified only slightly, the 11-year-old race data wont be much help as the series has drastically changed with the introduction of the hybrid cars. "To be honest, I dont remember anything ... I have no memories," Alonso said. "(It) is a very short circuit, so there are only five or six corners around here where you can make the time, so I expect all the cars to be very close. One or two tenths (in time), you can make a lot of places, so you just need to make a perfect lap." Teams will rely heavily on their simulations, and need to gather as much data as possible during practice on Friday and Saturday morning, especially on surface characteristics. Those could change between the first and second practices as rain has been forecast for Friday afternoon. At 4.3 kilometres, the track is one of the shortest on the calendar. However, it has fast straights and features only nine turns, with just the first three to be taken in low gear, and it includes two DRS zones -- after the second and the ninth turn. In these zones, drivers are allowed to alter the angle of their cars rear wing flap to reduce drag while attempting to overtake. Until the Canadian GP, Mercedes was racing in a league of its own. Rosberg leads with 140 points, Hamilton has 118, and next-best was Ricciardo, on 79. Vettel was fifth with 60, but he and Ricciardo are hoping coming home will make a difference. ' ' '