Die Allianz T-D-P » Sooners would not have much problem fin

WASHINGTON -- Right-handed pitcher Tanner Roark burst upon the major league scene in 2014 as he won 15 games as a member of the Washington Nationals starting rotation.Last year he spent most of the year in the bullpen as the team signed Max Scherzer to a free agent contract prior to the 2015 campaign.Roark returned to the rotation this year and on Wednesday afternoon he will have a chance to tie a career high as he goes for his 15th win of the year against the New York Mets. He was drafted in the 25th round out of the University of Illinois by the Texas Rangers in 2008 and traded to Washington two years later.He went from being a 15-game winner to going to the bullpen, said Clint Robinson, who knows the feeling as backup first baseman to Ryan Zimmerman. As a professional you kind of want to be at the highest level. I know it had to be tough for him (in 2015). He has been a rock for us all year.Roark has a 1.88 ERA in his career against the Mets. He has thrown 186 1/3 innings this year; he went 198 2/3 in 2014.We are glad to have him. Tanner is one of those guys that grits his teeth and gets the job done, Robinson said.Fellow right-hander Robert Gsellman of the Mets will start on Wednesday in Washington. He began the season with Double-A Binghamton of the Eastern League. The California native got his first win against the Nationals at home Sept. 3 as he went six innings and gave up one run on six hits.The Mets are now nine games behind the first-place Nationals in the National League East but are very much in the wild card hunt after an exciting 4-3 win in 10 innings on Tuesday to the Nationals.New York will got for its seventh straight series win Wednesday.We have a chance to win tomorrow, Mets manager Terry Collins said after rookie T.J. Rivera hit his first career homer, in the 10th, to win the game Tuesday.The Nationals had won their last five games decided by a run.We are not giving up whatsoever. We are right there. It is all about getting the wild card spot, said Josh Edgin, a reliever for the Mets. Maybe we will catch the Nats. We are definitely pushing for the wild card. Maybe we will meet (the Nationals) in the playoffs.Edgin is back with the Mets after missing out on the 2015 season and the World Series berth. Washington won the East title in 2014.They are the top of our division right now, Edgin said of the Nationals. We have to try and win every game. We are trying to get that wild card. Unless something drastic happens that is what we are shooting for.With a large lead the Nationals will try to fine tune their lineup down the stretch. And that means trying to get first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and catcher Wilson Ramos out of extended hitting slumps.Zimmerman is 4-for-28 on the current homestand and 9-for-57 in his last 16 games.Ramos is 5-for-23 on the homestand and 10-for-57 in his last 16 games.Nobody takes it well. It happens, manager Dusty Baker said of slumps. I have to play him enough to keep his confidence up. We need him. I think the guys are pulling for him harder than anybody on the team.Baker hopes Zimmerman can get hot down the stretch and in the playoffs.A couple of weeks is all we need. Confidence is a big key. He is certainly not old. He is not overweight, Baker said.Roark was the losing pitcher Sept. 3 in New York in a 3-1 setback to the Mets and Gsellman. In his previous start Roark went six innings and allowed one run on six hits and two walks with eight strikeouts against the Philadelphia Phillies while he did not figure in the decision on Friday.Derek Lowe Jersey Red Sox . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. Joe Cronin Jersey Red Sox . The formidable trio of Canadian receivers -- individually known as Chris Getzlaf, Rob Bagg and Andy Fantuz -- will share the field at Mosaic Stadium one more time on Sunday. https://www.discountjerseysonline.com/ . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. Mark Bellhorn Jersey Red Sox . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void. Bill Buckner Jersey Cubs . And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. From Pierre LeBrun While Anaheim GM Bob Murray said earlier this season he was not going to trade Jonas Hiller despite the fact hes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, some sources have told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Murray might be willing to move another goalie.The 10 schools that make up the Big 12 are bound together by a deal committing their television rights to the conference through the 2024-25 school year.That grant of rights ends with the expiration of the conferences $2.6 billion television contract with Fox and ESPN. The question hanging over the Big 12 has always been: When that TV deal runs out, will the conference end, too? Will Texas and Oklahoma, the conferences flagship programs, remain satisfied with being the Big 12s big dogs, or will they seek potentially sweeter deals elsewhere.Expansion wasnt going to change that, so the Big 12 declined on Monday to add two schools from a group of 11 that included BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and Connecticut. The conferences leaders then tried their best to put forth a unified front and positive outlook for the future.No ones looking to walk away from this conference, said Oklahoma President David Boren, the chairman of the Big 12s board of directors. Any feelings to the contrary is just mistaken. They dont understand the strong commitment that we all have to it.Claiming commitment is nice. A legally binding contract is better, but until the Big 12 starts negotiating another television deal or a revision to the current one, locking up the conference beyond 2025 is not a discussion that is taking place, Boren said.When the appropriate proposal is on the table, well be able to go to the open market at the appropriate time and I think negotiate very successfully, Boren said. I think the product of that will be cooperation from all of our schools.The Big 12 still has much to figure out in the near- and long-term.First up, the 10-team conference with a nine-game round-robin schedule must decide how to best implement a football championship game, which returns in 2017. Almost all available solutions are square-peg, round-hole conundrums, but the conference thinks it needs the game to better its chances at the College Football Playoff and raise more revenue.The addition of the conference title game gives the Big 12 an opportunity to open discussions with Fox and ESPN and increase the annual payout from the networks by about $25 million per year.Boren and Commissioner Bob Bowlsby declined to address reports that ESPN and Fox are willing to consider extending the rights contract and buyout a clause that called for a large increase in rights fees if the conference expands.A Big 12 cable network is not on the horizon. As Boren said, the market has spoken and it has said no. But cable is not what it used to be and having a network does not necessarily mean putting games on television.I still wish and hope someday, who knows which form of technology it will take, we will perhaps someday have a branded conference network of some kind, Boren said.The Big 112 paid out $30.dddddddddddd2 million to each of its members this year, a record amount and third most among Power Five conferences. Still, long-term projections have the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference pulling away in the revenue race from the Big 12, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference in the coming years.Bowlsby said figuring new ways to generate more is one of the conferences top priorities.But I dont know that theres anybody thats demonstrated a direct correlation between the amount of money spent and the number of championships that you win, Bowlsby said. I guess it would be fair to say that wed not like to get 10 or 15 years henceforth and find out if there was a delta, there isnt any way we could fix it and it would make a difference in how competitive we were. But we reside in very fertile recruiting grounds. We have great coaches. We have great venues and great traditions. I think were always going to be concerned about revenue.Revenue is not necessarily a problem for Texas or Oklahoma. According to USA Today, Texas brought in more than $183 million last year, second most in FBS among public schools. Oklahoma was eighth at $134 million.Texas and its Longhorn Network have been a source of tension in the Big 12 and helped drive some schools away. Despite the Longhorns recent struggles on the football field, there is not a conference in the country that would not open their doors to Texas. The Pac-12 already tried to lure the Longhorns away unsuccessfully once. Texas is one of the few schools that could probably make football independence work in the way Notre Dame does.I look forward to working with Commissioner Bowlsby, chairman Boren and the other conference members to make the Big 12 even stronger in the years to come, Texas President Greg Fenves said in a statement.Oklahoma doesnt quite have Texas star power, but the Sooners would not have much problem finding a home, either. Sooners fans have made it known they are ready for a change and it was Boren that helped make the Big 12 seem unstable by pushing the need for expansion.On Monday, though, it was Boren touting the Big 12s unity and unanimity when it came to not expanding. ESPN reported Tuesday that those were agreed upon talking points.I think we all left the room feeling a much stronger sense of commitment to the conference, commitment to each other, that all of us are Big 12 people, were proud to be part of this conference, and we want to always be a member of this conference as far as were concerned, Boren said. We want to see it be all it can be.At least for eight more years.---Follow Ralph D. Russo www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP ' ' '