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Two young starters searching for consistency will try to find it Wednesday night in the rubber game of a three-game series between the San Diego Padres and
St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Padres left-hander Eric Lauer (2-4 Colts Cheap Jerseys , 6.64 ERA) is undergoing on-the-job training with mostly
painful results, while Cardinals right-hander Luke Weaver (3-5, 4.35) has won
once in his last 10 starts, struggling to put hitters away and frequently
running up high pitch counts.
The last start for each summarized their seasons. Lauer suffered a 4-0 loss Friday night in Miami, while Weaver was no-decisioned in a 7-6, 10-inning
victory that same evening in Cincinnati as each failed to command the strike
zone.
Lauer, who is in the majors because Bryan Mitchell (0-3, 7.08) was horribly ineffective, has allowed a whopping 81 baserunners (57 hits, 24 walks) over 39
1/3 innings in nine starts.
Seven of those walks occurred in Miami, where Lauer threw 111 pitches and gave up three runs in a five-inning stint. Lauer at least managed to minimize
damage, escaping a bases-loaded spot in the fifth without ceding extra runs.
“It was a good learning experience for me,” Lauer said to MLB.com. “And a good mental sign for me that (manager Andy Green) was comfortable leaving me in
in those situations and letting me get that chance to grow. Being able to work
through those tough situations is something I need to do.”
Lauer was shelled in a 9-5 loss to St. Louis at Petco Park on May 11, allowing four homers and six runs over 2 1/3 innings before getting hooked.
Weaver, who pitched well over the last two months of the 2017 season, came out of the gate strong in 2018 with two wins in his first three starts. But
Weaver has lasted seven innings just two times in his last 10 outings, taxing a
bullpen that hasn’t exactly been a model of consistency.
The Reds touched Weaver for seven hits, five walks and four runs in five-plus innings on Friday, but only a blown save by Bud Norris in the ninth prevented
Weaver from notching a win.
“Today was a tough one with the weather conditions and the rain, with it getting a little muddy,” Weaver said to MLB.com. “It is one of those where you
have to put your stuff down and grind through it and make some good
pitches.”
Weaver has stumped San Diego (32-37) in both career outings Jaguars Cheap Jerseys ,
winning both and not allowing a run over 12 innings.
The Padres evened this series Tuesday night as their bullpen checked the Cardinals (36-29) on five hits in a 4-2 victory. Matt Strahm and submarining
right-hander Adam Cimber combined to retire the first 15 St. Louis hitters.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said the difference between Cimber and Strahm, a left-hander who touched 94 mph with his fastball, was difficult for his
hitters.
“That was unique stuff from the right side,” Matheny said of Cimber. “Most of the time, he’s using the (arm) angle to hit the top of the zone. It’s certainly
like an upshoot.”
Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher terrorized opposing offenses from the middle of the field. Randy Moss and Terrell Owens did the same to
defenses on the outside.

The two hard-hitting linebackers and two big-play receivers highlighted an eight-person class voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. Safety
Brian Dawkins also received at least 80 percent support from the 47 Hall of Fame
voters, along with contributor Bobby Beathard and senior nominees Jerry Kramer
and Robert Brazile.
But the biggest stars of the class are the two linebackers that made it on their first tries, and the pair of lightning-rod receiver who sometimes caused
as many problems for their own teams as for the opposition. Moss also made it on
his first try, while Owens needed to wait for his third year on the ballot to
get enough support.
”I’ve been going a long time. And now I can finally rest,” Lewis said. ”I want to go fishing with a cigar now and just sit back. I don’t want to work out
every day now.”
Moss and Owens each played for five teams in their careers as they often wore out their welcome with their inability to get along with teammates and coaches
at times.
But at their best, there were few players ever able to strike fear in defenses as much as Moss and Owens, who were both all-decade selections for the
2000s.
”The door knocked and I started getting excited,” Moss said of Hall of Fame President David Baker alerting him he has been elected. ”All the emotions caught
the best of me because it’s been a long journey and it ends in the Pro Football
Hall of Fame. Tears of joy.”
Moss burst on the scene as a rookie in Minnesota in 1998 when he caught a league-leading 17 TD catches and helped lead the Vikings to the NFC title game.
His combination of speed and athleticism made him the game’s most dangerous
big-play threat and led to the phrase ”You got Mossed” for embarrassed defensive
backs.
He led the NFL in TD catches five times, including his record 23 for New England in 2007, and earned four All-Pro selections. He finished his career with
982 catches for 15,292 yards and ranks second all-time with 156 TD
receptions.
Owens, who didn’t attend the announcement, entered the league as a third-round pick by San Francisco in 1996 but developed into a star known for
some memorable playoff appearances, including his winning 25-yard TD catch to
beat Green Bay in 1999; his 177 yards in a comeback win against the Giants in
2003; and his nine catches for 122 yards in the 2004 Super Bowl against New
England just seven weeks after breaking his leg.
Owens ranks second to Jerry Rice with 15,934 yards receiving and is third on the all-time touchdowns receiving list with 153.
Lewis is widely considered one of the greatest middle linebackers, winning two AP Defensive Player of the Year awards and earning eight All-Pro selections.
He anchored a dominant defense for the 2000 Baltimore Ravens in a season that
ended with him winning Super Bowl MVP, then retired as a champion after
Baltimore closed his last season with a title win over San Francisco in February
2013.
”Growing up as a child Chiefs Cheap Jerseys , I know what that looked like, Mike Singletary, Dick Butkus,”
Lewis said. ”Who dreams of being in that category, sitting with those guys?”
Lewis joined tackle Jonathan Ogden as the only Ravens voted into the Hall of Fame as both of the team’s first-round picks in its initial season of 1996
received the high honor.
Lewis’ career was also marked by legal problems off the field. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice after initially being
charged with murder in connection with two killings following a Super Bowl party
in Atlanta in January 2000. Lewis was also fined $250,000 by the NFL.
Urlacher wasn’t far behind Lewis with his play on the field and is the latest in a line of great Chicago middle linebackers to make the Hall, joining Butkus,
Singletary and Bill George. He was the Defensive Player of the Year of 2005 and
joined Lewis on the 2000s all-decade team.
Dawkins spent most of his 16-year career in Philadelphia, earning five first-team All-Pro selections for his versatility that included 37 career
interceptions and 26 career sacks. He became the first player in NFL history
with a sack, interception, fumble recovery and touchdown catch in the same game
against Houston in 2002.
Kramer got passed over 10 times previously as a finalist before finally getting enough votes as a senior to become the 14th member of the Vince Lombardi
Packers to make the Hall. Kramer helped anchor the Green Bay line for 11
seasons, winning six NFL titles and making the block that cleared the way for
Bart Starr’s TD sneak in the ”Ice Bowl” for the 1967 NFL championship.
Brazile was a finalist for the first time after a 10-year career for the Houston Oilers that included five straight All-Pro selections.
Beathard, also not on hand Saturday, helped build four Super Bowl champions in Miami and Washington and made seven trips to the title game during more than
three decades as a personnel executive with a sharp eye for talent.
Five offensive linemen were among the 15 finalists, with tackle Joe Jacoby getting eliminated in voting that reduced the candidates to 10, and tackle Tony
Boselli, guards Alan Faneca and Steve Hutchinson, and center Kevin Mawae getting
cut in the next round of voting.
Cornerback Ty Law also made it to the final 10 in his second time on the ballot. Defensive backs John Lynch and Everson Walls, receiver Isaac Bruce and
running back Edgerrin James were the other candidates eliminated in the first
cuts.
”I’m glad I didn’t have to