The first time the Oakland Athletics and the Toronto Blue Jays met this season, each teams situation was a lot different than it is now.The Athletics were on a roll. When they beat the Blue Jays 8-5 on the opener of a three-game series at Rogers Centre on April 22, they increased their winning streak to six games to go to 10-7 and they were 7-0 on the road.The Blue Jays dropped to 8-10 as they were slow out of the gate in defense of their American League East title.Sonny Gray was the winning pitcher that night. He has not won since, and emerges from the All-Star break at 3-8. The losing pitcher was Aaron Sanchez, who has not lost since and his 9-1 record earned him an appearance in the All-Star Game.The Blue Jays won the next two games of the series in April and hold a 2-1 edge on the season series when they visit the As for a three-game series on Friday.Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman (7-4, 4.89 ERA) will oppose Oakland right-hander Daniel Mengden (1-4, 4.54 ERA).The Athletics left Toronto and lost 12 of their next 16 games. They lost seven of their final 10 games before the All-Star break and sit at 38-51 and are 15 games behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West.I feel that the best of this team is yet to come, As third baseman Danny Valencia said. We havent played our best baseball yet.The Blue Jays still stalled around the .500 mark before entering the All-Star break on an 18-7 roll and were 51-40 at the break, third in the AL East and only two games out of first place. They currently occupy a wild-card spot and are 24-20 on the road,Our goal is still to win the division, Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson said. We feel very comfortable. I think we were seven back at the break last year and now we are just two back. We feel like we are just now starting to play our type of baseball and feel very comfortable with the position we are in and moving forward.Donaldson is in his second season with the Blue Jays. The Athletics traded him to Toronto before the 2015 season and watched from afar as he won the American League Most Valuable Player Award.In 36 games since June 1, Donaldson has hit .376/.506/.722 with 10 homers and 34 RBI.This will be his second visit to his former home ballpark.Last year when the Blue Jays visited Oakland, he was 5-for-13 with a home run, two doubles and five RBI.As first baseman Yonder Alonso has batted .307/.367/.439 with three homers and 12 RBI in 36 games since June 1.Im very optimistic and I definitely feel were not that far away, Alonso said. With that being said, weve got a lot of work to do.I think we have a chance to be a lot better in the second half, Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. We have guys back now as far as health goes. If we can stay healthy, we have the potential to have a lot better half than we had in the first half.While the As may be talking a good game of optimism, the Blue Jays have genuine hopes that they will continue their surge because they have accomplished what they have so far while Stroman has often struggled. They also have been without right fielder Jose Bautista, who has been out with turf toe since June 17 and is expected to return in late-July,Stroman has shown signs of regaining the form that made him the Opening Day starter. He is 5-4 with a 5.04 ERA in his past 15 starts but has made some adjustments and the results have been encouraging. He held the Kansas City Royals to three hits, one walk and two runs in eight innings in winning on July 6.That was as good as youre ever going to see him, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. He had everything working, really sharp. A really good breaking ball, you name it. He had starts in which he struggled, but the last two or three have been really good. I know he feels good about that, thats what weve been looking for.Stroman has faced the As once in his career, in 2014 at Oakland when he allowed three hits, three walks and no runs over seven innings. He struck out seven in the no decision and Oakland won 1-0 in 12 innings.Mengden, a 23-year-old who was called up on June 11, will get the start in the opener, replacing Rich Hill who was scratched because of a blister.Mengden will be making his seventh start. He allowed six runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings last Friday in a no-decision at Houston. Nike Schoenen Online Kopen . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. Nike Schoenen Online Goedkoop .Y. -- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo had little trouble picking up his first shutout of the season against a Buffalo Sabres team thats having trouble scoring goals. http://www.nikeschoenenoutletnederland.com/ . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak. Nike Schoenen Kopen Goedkoop . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. Nike Schoenen Sale Outlet .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Without it, Nadia Comaneci is just another gold-medal winning gymnast from Eastern Europe.The Perfect 10 made the Romanian superstar more than a champion. It made her a legend.Yet four decades after her barrier-shattering uneven bars routine in Montreal -- the one that ended with Comaneci and coach Bela Karolyi initially staring at the scoreboard in confusion when it read 1.00 because it wasnt outfitted to put up the first 10.0 in Olympic history -- perfection is harder to achieve.The International Gymnastics Federation abandoned the 10-based system a decade ago in favor of a more complicated formula designed to better separate the best in the world. Yet something seemed to get lost even as gymnasts like American Simone Biles -- heavily favored to win the all-around title on Thursday night -- pushed the sport to unprecedented heights.The scores Biles puts up are astounding. Its just that the 16s that Biles regularly posts on vault -- a level her peers seldom match -- dont translate. Yes, theyre awesome. Theyre just not perfect. And 28 years after the last 10 in Olympic gymnastics, Comaneci wonders if that needs to change.I think it would be nice to see something that everybody can understand, said Comaneci, who posted seven 10s in Montreal. We are gymnastic family and we kind of know whats going on but everybody who loves gym and kids who are new to sport and they are fans, they dont quite understand the changes in the sport.The new system divided scoring into two parts. One -- the `D score -- is based on what you do. The other -- the `E score -- is how well you do it. Gymnasts build their `D score throughout the routine by connecting one element to the other. The more connections, the higher the score. Yet the more you do, the more likely you are to get sideways at some point, dropping your execution score.A little complicated, right? At the elite level, a good `D score starts at 5.0 and can reach 7.0. The `E score is set on a 10.0 format. Technically perfection is attainable. Its just that no routine has been awarded a 10.0 since the new system was introduced.The closest the sport gets these days is Biles on vault, where her Amanar -- a round off onto the block followed by 2 1/2 twists -- is unequaled. During U.S. Championships last spring, she landed it dead center of the mat with an almost imperceptible hop. The judges gave her a 16.3, including a 9.9 for execution.What exactly was the problem? Well, U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has a theory.Guts, Karolyi said with a laugh. Perfection is really very hard but I think on the other hand that the FIG a little bit intimidates the judges and educates them in a style that they are afraid to give higher scores.Biles wont quite go that far. Asked if she remembers where she might have erred and she shrugged her shoulders and laughed.My toes might have been crossed maybe, she said, her tone making it sound more like a guess than a fact.Longtime judge Kittia Carpenter was on the floor that afternoon in Indianapolis while serving as then coach for defending Olympic champion Gabby Douglas. She watched Bilees soar.dddddddddddd Was it worthy of a 10? Carpenter thinks it was as close as shes seen. Seeing it, however, and writing it down on a card is another matter.It is kind of in our minds as a judge that there must be something in there that I didnt quite catch, Carpenter said. And you think that I couldnt possibly give a 10 or the whole world will come yell at the US.Nellie Kim, a five-time gold medalist for the Soviet Union and the president of the FIGs womens artistic gymnastics technical committee, insists there is no mandate to keep judges from giving out a 10. Shes also not about to apologize for making it near impossible. In the end, its a subjective sport. At last falls world championships, Kim likened gymnastics to a piece of art. What one person sees as beautiful, the other might not.Gymnastics is not the only judged Olympic sport where the notion of perfect is rare. Its much the same in diving and figure skating, leaving the athletes to create an inner scoreboard of their own. They know when theyve maxed out, even if the scores dont reflect it.I think you know it when it happens, American diver David Boudia said. You know when you hit a dive because everything feels fluid.The FIG created the new code to help continue to push gymnastics forward.Youre always striving for something more, said four-time Olympic medalist Shawn Johnson. Before, if you hit it (perfect marks), there was nowhere else to go. Now it is endless.Maybe too endless. Germanys Fabian Hambuechen took the code to task after Frances Samir Ait Said broke his left leg while vaulting during Olympic qualifying on Saturday for putting the focus on risk-taking rather than precision.It was like everyone had the chance to get the high score of 10.0 with different ways, said Hambuechen, a four-time Olympian. Now everyone knows if you want to have a high D score you have to do these skills and these skills are sometimes too dangerous for some people.Theres another factor at play too: the 10 is relatable and marketable. A nice, firm round number, one that Comaneci made synonymous with greatness. They are still given out in the U.S. at the NCAA level and send a jolt through the arena and the athletes when they pop up.We took away the most iconic symbol of our sport, said UCLA womens coach Valorie Kondos Field. It would be like taking away the Hail Mary when its caught in the end zone. If youre a gymnastics fan and you see a 10, you talk about it the rest of your life.Biles plans to put on a show Thursday night as she bids to become the fourth straight American to win the Olympic all-around title. She doesnt think too much about creating a historic moment by getting an ever-elusive score. Besides, even if she did, it might only generate more debate.Someone out there will say `Simones vault isnt perfect, Biles said. If Im happy with it, thats what I think matters the most.---AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Rio de Janeiro and Sports Writer Mike Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report. ' ' '