The Los Angeles Chargers have retained defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.
The Chargers announced the return of head coach Anthony Lynn’s top two assistants Tuesday.
Continuity on the coaching staff was a major offseason goal for Lynn and general manager Tom Telesco after the Chargers (9-7) barely missed the playoffs
in their relocation season. Los Angeles won nine of its final 12
games
Anthony Miller Color Rush Jersey , including five straight at StubHub Center.
Bradley was a hot commodity in the offseason coaching market after putting together one of the NFL’s top defenses in his first season with the Chargers.
Their 17 points allowed per game was third-best in the league, and they ranked
among the leaders with 43 sacks and 18 interceptions.
The former Jacksonville head coach joined Los Angeles on a one-year contract last winter.
Whisenhunt’s powerful offense ranked fourth in the NFL with 376.6 yards per game, with quarterback Philip Rivers enjoying a resurgent 4,515-yard season
alongside 1,393-yard receiver Keenan Allen and 1,105-yard rusher Melvin
Gordon.
Whisenhunt, the former Arizona and Tennessee head coach, rejoined the Chargers in 2016, one year before Lynn became their head coach.
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With a career batting average under .100, Jon Lester might seem to be a pitcher who doesn’t care what he does at the plate.
Not true.
”It’s important to have good at-bats. I feel like I have done that regardless of the outcome,” he said.
Lester hit a three-run homer that highlighted an eight-run burst in the second inning and wound up with his NL-leading 11th win as the Chicago Cubs held
off the Minnesota Twins 11-10 on Sunday.
”I’ve had good at-bats and I haven’t been just a one-pitch out guy. So I have worked some counts and I’ve been able to at least make the pitcher work,” he
said. ”That’s all I’m trying to do.”
”If I get hits, I get hits,” he said. ”The home run is awesome, it’s cool, especially at home. It’s always fun to play here with the crowd and to be able
to hit the ball into the bleachers. But at the end of the day I know I’m a
pitcher and I’m not a hitter.”
Ian Happ also homered for the Cubs
Carter Hutton Jersey , who have scored at least 10 runs in four straight games for the first time since 1930. Chicago swept the three-game series and has
won four in a row overall.
Brian Dozier hit a two-run homer and Jake Cave also homered for the Twins.
Minnesota concluded a 1-5 Chicago road trip that began with two losses in three tries to the White Sox, and fell 10 games below .500 for the first time
this season.
Lester hit his second career home run, prompting a curtain call from the cheering fans.
Lester went 10 seasons, mostly in Boston with sporadic at-bats, before getting his first major league hit. Now, in his fourth season with the Cubs,
Lester has put more of an emphasis into hitting.
”I really didn’t care about hitting there” in Boston, he said. ”I’m worried about David (Ortiz) and (Dustin) Pedroia and all of the other guys driving in
runs as opposed to me.”
”Coming over here, it can change the outcome of a game, so it becomes a little more important and you work on it all year. In spring training you’re
doing it from part of the second week on,” he said.
Lester (11-2) allowed four runs, two of them earned, and nine hits in five-plus innings.
Mitch Garver hit a two-run homer off Dillon Maples as the Twins scored five times in the eighth. Maples, called up from Triple-A before the game when
pitcher Brian Duensing went on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder, also
allowed an RBI single to Logan Morrison and a two-run triple to Willians
Astudillo.
”Their offense, we just had trouble with it. Lot of big innings
Colton Parayko Jersey , lot of crooked numbers. I think our guys stayed with it. We got some opportunities there and got some big hits to get back in
the game. When you get as close as we did late, it makes you think about some of
the runs we gave up along the way, so that’s frustrating,” Twins manager Paul
Molitor said.
Javier Baez, who doubled twice, Happ and Willson Contreras each had three hits for the Cubs.
Cubs closer Brandon Morrow got one out in the eighth and pitched a scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 19 chances.
”They got out on us pretty early, but I love the fight of the guys in the dugout. I kind of had glimpses of last year’s team and our fight,” Dozier
said.
In the third consecutive sweltering day at Wrigley Field with a gametime temperature at 93 degrees and a heat index at 101, the Cubs jumped all over
Lance Lynn (5-7) in the second inning.
Baez doubled home two runs and Anthony Rizzo had an RBI double. Kyle Schwarber met reliever Matt Magill with the Cubs’ third straight double.
Cubs shortstop Addison Russell added an RBI single in the fourth inning and made a highlight grab in the sixth inning before leaving the game with an
apparent injury resulting in the catch.
Russell bumped into Baez while making the running catch on Eduardo Escobar’s ball down the left-field line in foul territory. He walked off the field and
into the dugout after talking to a team trainer and manager Joe Maddon. Maddon
said Russell injured his left middle finger and he doesn’t believe it to be
serious.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: LF Eddie Rosario, one of three Twins to leave Saturday’s game due to heat was in the lineup on Sunday. Teammates Bobby Wilson and Max Kepler were
available, as was infielder Ehire Adrianza, who received intravenous fluids
after finishing the game.
”We just encouraged everyone last night to rest and hydrate the best they could again this morning to get themselves in positions to get through the
game,” Molitor said. ”You just try to be aware of it. There’s not much you can
do: You’ve got to play people and you’ve got to get through the game.” … SS
Jorge Polanco’s 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension ends Monday and
Molitor said he expects him to rejoin the club in Milwaukee after a stint with
Triple-A Rochester.
Cubs: OF Albert Almora didn’t start, but he came in the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement after leaving Saturday’s game due to dehydration. Almora
suffered cramps in his legs and was removed in the fifth inning. Almora had a
nice sliding catch in center to rob Kepler in the ninth.
UP NEXT
Twins: Visit Milwaukee on Monday as they continue their interleague schedule. Kyle Gibson (2-6) is the scheduled starter. He had another rough outing against
the White Sox in his last start on June 27. He allowed five runs on a
season-high 11 hits.
Cubs: RHP Kyle Hendricks (5-8) will try to bounce back from his shortest outing of season on Tuesday against the Tigers. Hendricks allowed six
runs
