If you look at the Toronto Blue Jays and the Pittsburgh Pirates its as though they are playing in parallel universes, where everything seems to work out for one team no matter what twists and turns fate throws at them, and nothing seems to go right for the team that cant seem to catch a break. I dont think I have to tell you the first team is the Pirates and the second is the Blue Jays. In Sundays games, both teams played 11 inning marathons. The Blue Jays lost their starter in the bottom of the third inning, 40-year-old Ramon Ortiz, to an elbow injury that could be career-ending. The Pirates lost their starter, Jeanmar Gomez, to forearm tightness after he gave up four runs in the first inning. Down early, both teams rallied for dramatic victories; the Jays beating the Padres on the road, 7-4, with veteran utility man Mark DeRosa putting the Jays ahead for keeps with a homer leading off the 11th. The Pirates got a mammoth home run from Garrett Jones that travelled an estimated 463 feet and became just the second ball to land in the Allegheny River on the fly. That blast sent the game into extra innings. Then, ex-Jay Travis Snider singled home the winning run in walk-off style in the 11th. The Blue Jays bullpen and the Pirates pen were both outstanding. Six Blue Jays relievers gave up just two singles in nine scoreless innings in relief of Ortiz. Pittsburghs pen was equally good against the Reds, as five of their relievers combined to pitch 10 scoreless innings after picking up for Gomez. At the end of the day, the Pirates were still tied for second with Cincinnati in the NL Central, with each club sitting at 35-22 and each holding a Wild Card position. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, are still wallowing in last place in the AL East at 24-33, and they are eight games behind Baltimore for the second Wild Card slot with over a third of the season gone. The Blue Jays have out-homered Pittsburgh 72-55 and outscored them by 40 runs - 254 to 214. In fact, the Pirates offensive numbers are just this side of abysmal. They are 22nd in the Majors in runs scored, 25th in batting average, 23rd in on base percentage and 23rd in slugging percentage. The Jays bullpen has been a strength on the team this season, but the Pirates has been even better. Jason Grilli, getting his first real chance to close in his mid-30s, has an incredible 22 saves. The set-up man, Mark Melancon, who came over from Boston in the deal for the Pirates old closer, Joel Hanrahan (whos injured and out for the season), has a 0.93 earned run average. The Pirates pitchers as a whole have a glittering 3.12 ERA and have the second most strikeouts in the Majors. Yet, the Pirates rotation doesnt blow you away with big names. While the Blue Jays added the likes of R.A Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle in the offseason, the Pirates went the bargain basement route and picked up Francisco Liriano, Jeanmar Gomez and Francisco Liriano and were paid dividends with the continued devotement of lefty Jeff Locke, who came over in a June 3rd, 2009 deal with Atlanta, along with Gorkys Hernandez and Charlie Morton for outfielder Nate McLouth, whos now with Baltimore. Locke is 5-1 with a 2.25 ERA. You can point to the Blue Jays starting rotation, where only Dickey and Buehrle have avoided time on the DL this season and says the club has been ravaged by injuries, for the 2nd year running. However the Pirates have problems with their rotation as well. Jonathan Sanchez, was a disaster out of the gate. He went (0-3) and was cut loose. Liriano got a late start after breaking his arm around Christmas time, while pranking his kids in a stunt that went awry. James McDonald is on the DL and rehabbing a shoulder injury and now Jeanmar Gomez has the same sort of forearm issue thats put Brandon Morrow on the disable list for the Blue Jays. There are those who suggest the Pirates are doing it with smoke and mirrors. They point to the clubs record at the mid-point of the last two seasons, 47-43 in 2011 and 48-37 in 2012, and the subsequent collapses in the second halves of both seasons as evidence it will happen again this year. The critics may be right, but the Buccos ERA at this point is about a third of a run better than it was mid-way through last season - 3.12 to 4.47 - and if anything, they should be battle-hardened by whats happened the last two seasons. The Giants, Washington and maybe even Colorado all have the talent to take a run at Pittsburgh, but there just seems to be something special about this team; a team that hasnt finished about .500 or in the postseason since 1992. The Blue Jays, sitting nine games under .500, will have to go 16-10 or 17-9 in June to have any hope of getting back into the Wild Card hunt in the American League. Ortiz is on his way to Florida to get an MRI on his elbow. If this is indeed the end of his Major League career, it ended on an unusual note. In the second inning against the Padres, he gave up a three-run homer to Padres starter Edinson Volquez. It was the first home run of Volquezs career and the first-round tripper ever given up by Ortiz to a pitcher in 3-3 career games. The Blue Jays are 5-4 in inter-league play so far, 3-1 at home and 2-3 on the road under, heading into a two-game set with the Giants starting Tuesday night at San Francisco. Josh Johnson returns from his rehab stint to make the start in the series open. Johnson is still in search of his first victory as a member of the Blue Jays. Vapormax Plus Womens Cheap . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. Air Max Plus Tn Blue . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. http://www.airmaxplusstoresale.com/air-vapormax-plus-cheap/white-discount.html . The 25-year-old Japanese star has officially been posted by his club team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles. Air Max Plus 97 Cheap . Rousey will put her perfect 8-0 record and hardware on the line against another undefeated fighter, 7-0 Sara McMann in the main event of UFC 170, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on February 22nd. Air Max Plus Discount . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. There was just a bit of uncertainty heading into Tuesdays opening leg of Major League Soccers all-Canadian Eastern Conference championship.The Montreal Impact and Toronto FC are due to meet Tuesday night at historic Olympic Stadium, a 40-year-old Montreal landmark built for the 1976 Olympics.Even though its an indoor venue, a concern going into the match was the weather: The stadium roof is fragile -- and snow was falling in the city Monday. But a stadium heating system appeared to be keeping any accumulation at bay and the Olympic Park announced the game would go on as planned.The Impact normally play at Stade Saputo, which sits next door to the Olympic Stadium but seats just over 20,000. Nearly 60,000 are expected for the match.The Impact has played games at the Big O, so the home-field advantage is still there, but the condition of the artificial turf -- which lies atop concrete -- might be a factor. Saputos surface is natural grass.As far as the surface, of course, we would like to get to this point to such important games and playing the best possible conditions, but thats just one factor among many others in the game, Toronto star Sebastian Giovinco said.Some of those other factors to consider for the two-legged MLS conference finals:TORONTO VERSES MONTREALMontreal finished 11-11-12 in the regular season for the fifth seed in the East. The Impact defeated the New York Red Bulls 3-1 on aggregate in the conference semifinals to advance. Theyre led by Argentinian midfielder Ignacio Piatti, who scored 17 goals in the regular season and three in the playoffs.The Impact appear to have gotten past the controversy involving former Chelsea star Didier Drogba, who lost his role as a starter to Matteo Mancosu. Drogba sat out of Montreals second-to-last regular season match against Toronto, a 2-2 draw, because of the demotion. But he told reporters last week that he was focused on taking the Impact to the MLS Cup championship.Toronto was the No. 3 seed in the East after going 14-9-11 in the regular season. TFC advanced to the conference finals with a 7-0 aggregate victory over New York City FC. The team is led by Giovinco, who has 21 total goals this season, including four in the postseason.The Impact defeated Toronto in the knockout round of the playoffs last year.Last year was just a small taste, Toronto FC coach Greg Vanney said last week in a conference call with reporters. We started extremely poorly in that game and paid for that, but I think it was just a taste of the rivalry continuing to build between these two franchises.dddddddddddd Its a Montreal-Toronto rivalry in hockey and other sports that goes way, way back. We have enough guys on the roster from last year who remember that day and were embarrassed on that day, as was myself, but our mentality will be different than it was last year.COLORADO VERSUS SEATTLEThe Sounders went 14-14-6 during the regular season for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. Seattles story is the teams incredible rebound from last place in the conference and the dismissal of longtime coach Sigi Schmid. The interim tag was removed from coach Brian Schmetzers title earlier this month. The Sounders, who defeated FC Dallas 4-2 on aggregate in the semifinals, are led by homegrown rookie Jordan Morris with 12 overall goals.Colorado, which finished 15-6-13 in the regular season and narrowly missed out on the Supporters Shield, got a knockout-round bye as the second seed in the West. Known more for their stout defense, the Rapids are led by Swiss forward Shkelzen Gashi with 10 goals in his first MLS season. The Rapids advanced after a penalty shootout with the Los Angeles Galaxy following a 1-1 semifinal.Colorado won the MLS Cup in 2010.Both teams have been stung by injuries this season. For the Sounders it was the unexpected loss of national team star Clint Dempsey because of a heart issue.For the Rapids it has been the loss of goalkeeper Tim Howard, who had season-ending surgery Thursday after suffering a fracture of the right adductor longus in his groin while on duty with the U.S. national team.Colorado will start Zac McMath, who lost the job when Howard joined the Rapids in July after 10 seasons with Everton in the English Premier League. McMath was one of the best goalkeepers in the league at 9-2-5 when Howard arrived.Credit to Zac for being very strong mentally, and prepared, Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni said. It takes a man to be able to take that information, given his performances, and not sulk and not throw his toy and not run out of the room and slam doors, to look at someone in the face and go, `OK, this is your decision, all right. Im a team player; Ive got to respect that. ' ' '