ays well after the program fired his father,

BOSTON -- J.A. Happ has already won 20 games in his Cy Young-worthy season. But Saturday night, the left-hander makes what may well be the biggest start of his life.Happ, 20-4 with a 3.20 ERA, faces the Boston Red Sox and young lefty Eduardo Rodriguez in the second game of the last-weekend series.The Blue Jays came to Boston for the David Ortiz weekend tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the two American League wild card spots. They lost Friday night, falling one game behind Baltimore and shriking their lead over Detroit to one-half game and Seattle to a full game.The Red Sox remain one-half game ahead of the Cleveland Indians for home-field advantage in their upcoming American League Division Series.We kind of anticipated this might be the way that it shakes out, manager John Farrell said of meeting the Indians and former Red Sox manager Terry Francona, his old friend and boss. Obviously a very good team. Well have time to review them more in depth as is typically the case when we get ready for the postseason, but were loomking forward to these final two games here.Happ, who has won 27 of his last 33 decisions dating back to late last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, is 2-0 against the Red Sox this season, 5-3 with a 3.74 ERA in his career and 2-1 with a 4.34 at Fenway Park.Happ is trying to become the first left-hander in Jays history to win 21 games. He allowed 164 hits in 188 2/3 innings this season.In two starts against Boston this season, Happ, known for his unflappable demeanor and lack of emotion on the mound, has allowed three earned runs in 13 innings.Dont let him fool you, staffmate Marcus Stroman told the Toronto Star this week. Hes very emotional. He just doesnt show it on the field.Therell be times when he gets a big out and hell come in (the dugout) and let out a big yell, or if hes frustrated hell let a little fire out under the tunnel. But hes cool, calm and collected on the mound.Red Sox hitters do not have very good numbers against Happ with Xander Bogaerts coming in at 1-for-15, Mookie Betts 2-for-14, David Ortiz 3-for-16 and Dustin Pedroia 6-for-26.Rodriguez, coming off striking out 13 in 5 1/3 innings in his last start, has a 3.10 ERA in 13 starts since returning from the minors and is the likely Game 4 starter for the Red Sox in the ALDS. He has limited opposing hitters to a .171 batting average over his last eight starts.Eddie going down to Pawtucket, working on some things, the adjustments he made delivery-wise, coming back with three more defined pitches, Boston manager John Farrell said of Rodriguez, who got 13 of 16 outs against the Rays via the strikeout.Rodriguez has lost twice in as many starts against Toronto this season (only two earned runs in six innings at Toronto on Sept. 10) and is 1/3 with a 6.85 ERA lifetime against the Jays.The current Toronto roster has six home runs in 71 at-bats against Rodriguez, including one apiece by Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. But Josh Donaldson is 1-for-10 and Kevin Pillar 1-for-8 against him. Discount Vans Shoes . Tracey comes to the Blue Bombers after spending over a decade with Queens University. Most recently he was the schools assistant football coach. Vans Shoes Clearance . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. http://www.cheapvansfromchina.com/ . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Cheap Vans Shoes From China .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Cheap Vans Shoes China . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer took it upon himself to address the Fighting Irishs 1-3 start Wednesday, shouldering much of the blame as one of the programs leaders.My mentality heading into the week is just to play free, have fun, Kizer said. I get the opportunity to be the quarterback of University of Notre Dame. That is a privilege that people dream about, that I dreamed about, and I took the fun out of that.Thats my biggest regret in the first four games is I had so much love for this position, love for this team, that I took on a lot more than I ever should, which put a lot of pressure on my back, and thats something that Im going to have to remove and go back to just doing what I love and having a good time.When Im doing that, thats when were playing our best ball as a team. And I believe that our whole team is buying into that understanding and buying into that idea. And practice [Tuesday] was a blast. It was a good time to go out there and play football, to play free and have a good time. And todays practice will be the same. Saturday will be the same. And there will be a W on that column when we go out there and we play the way we know how to.Kizer agreed with coach Brian Kellys assessment earlier in the week that the quarterbacks play has been substandard. Kizer, a redshirt sophomore, has completed better than 62 percent of his passes for 1,096 yards with 11 touchdowns and three interceptions, to go with 186 rushing yards and five touchdowns. He said his biggest personal room for improvement is in needing to play looser.At the quarterback position you naturally take on an extra dose of leadership, an extra dose of trying to take on everything that a coach should be taking on, Kizer said. You go and you idolize guys like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and all the best who have ever done it and you see how they approach the media, you see how they approach the game, you see how they approach their team.And theyre professionals. They get paid to do that. Theyre in completely different positions than I am. And therefore, they take on a little more responsibility than I do.dddddddddddd But me being the kid that I am, I wanted to be like them. I wanted to come up here and talk to you guys as if I was the head coach of this team.But Im just the quarterback. All I gotta do is go out and do whatever the guys upstairs are telling me to do and thats it. If Coach Kelly asked me to come do media, I do media. If Coach Kelly asks me to go throw a touchdown, I need to go out there and rip the ball and throw a touchdown. I dont need to do any more than that, and I think that was my biggest flaw in the beginning of the season is taking on too much. I just need to go out and play and have fun, challenge myself each day and just try to get better.Kizer added that fellow quarterback Montgomery VanGorder is his best friend at Notre Dame and that VanGorder has handled the past three days well after the program fired his father, Brian VanGorder, as defensive coordinator on Sunday.Senior linebacker and captain James Onwualu said he spoke with Brian VanGorder after the firing and thanked him for the opportunity to play for him. Onwualu had been a receiver as a freshman before moving to the defensive side of the ball when VanGorder came aboard in 2014.Everybody was talking about it -- even our student section seemed to have a strong stance on that, Onwualu said of the staff shakeup, which saw analyst Greg Hudson get promoted to defensive coordinator. It was shocking to me. Obviously, this is the only defensive experience Ive ever had. Hes really all I knew defensively. So its difficult for some older guys, you know, and me included to put that aside and just take the next step into something new.Ill continue my relationship with Coach VanGorder and possibly still learn things from him, but Im on to the next step and excited for Coach Hudson to get us rolling.Notre Dame plays 2-2 Syracuse on Saturday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. ' ' '