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ANAHEIM, Calif. Wade Boggs Jersey . -- The Los Angeles Angels and Cincinnati Reds dont know much about each other, playing head-to-head only nine times in their respective histories.And they havent played each other at all since 2013, when the lineups of each team looked very different than their current lineups.But the one thing both teams have in common is not something either team is too happy about: Both are in last place, playing out the season and doing a lot of evaluating for next season and beyond.The Angels, though 18 games under .500 and 20 1/2 games out in the American League West, enter the series playing well, having won four of their past five games, beating playoff contenders Toronto and Detroit during that stretch.Not so much for the Reds, 19 games under .500 and 27 games out in the National League Central, who have lost five of seven.The Reds, though, have Dan Straily starting on the mound coming in on a hot streak. Hes 6-0 in his last seven starts and hasnt lost a decision since July 8. He leads the Reds staff in victories (10), innings pitched (151 1/3) and strikeouts (123).A key pitch for Straily is his changeup, and he has been happy to share his secrets with his teammates. In particular, Straily recently was approached by teammate Brandon Finnegan for some help.It was the exact same problem I went through a couple of years ago back when I was in the minor leagues, Straily told mlb.com. Once he told me he was having problems cutting it, I just showed him what helped me stop cutting it and it worked for him. Its just how we hold it. We have the same grip; he was just holding it the same way I used to hold it in college.College balls, the seams allow it to do something different. The seams are smaller and when you throw it the way we threw it back in college, now its like a cutter, sometimes its down, sometimes it goes arm-side, theres no control with the movement, which is a good thing, except when nobody can catch it.The advice paid off when Finnegan struck out a career-high 12 Arizona Diamondback hitters in just six innings last Friday.Straily may have a few tricks up his sleeve against the Angels, at least, compared to what the Angels are used to seeing when facing him. Straily started seven games against the Angels while pitching for Oakland, but went just 1/3 with a 6.69 ERA.Matt Shoemaker will start for the Angels with a record (8-13) that wont strike fear into the Reds hitters. But Shoemaker has been far better than his record shows.Shoemaker has given up two earned runs or fewer in more than half of his starts (13 of 25), but earned the victory in just six of those 13 games.One of Shoemakers biggest problems this season has been a lack of run support. The Angels have scored at least four runs in only 11 of Shoemakers 25 starts. And early runs are even better.Its always good to have a lead, Shoemaker told MLB.com. Its always nice knowing, thats in the back of your mind, Hey weve got a two-run lead or whatever it is. The game plan is to attack the hitters, but then when you have the lead, same thing, attack the hitters, stay aggressive.With just over a month to play, about the only drama the Angels have is whether or not Mike Trout can win another MVP award. Trouts numbers make him a candidate -- .312 average, 24 homers, 82 RBI, 97 runs scored and a league-leading .432 on-base percentage.Surprisingly, though, Angels manager Mike Scioscia generally doesnt believe players from last-place teams deserve to be an MVP.Yes, Scioscia said when asked if the MVP should come from a contender. Unless somebody just separates themselves so much where you go my gosh, this guys 15 more home runs than the next guy, 30 more RBI than the next guy.But I definitely think there needs to be a value on how youve affected a teams performance. I think to be a contender says a lot about what a player brings to a team. ... When you play on a contender your production has more of an impact on that teams success. Greg Bird Jersey . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. New York Yankees Jerseys . Takahashi, who had a 10-point lead after the short program, received 268.31 points after the free skate to finish 15 points ahead of second-place Nobunari Oda. http://www.yankeesrookiestore.com/Yankee...io-Kids-Jersey/ . Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches, fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance. RIO DE JANEIRO -- In a scouting booth high above the court, his fingers flying across the keyboard a mile a minute, Joe Trinsey punches in every touch of every point in an Olympic womens volleyball match between Argentina and South Korea.Before the nights first serve, the Americans technical coordinator skips down a few stairs and adjusts a tiny camera that gives him the match feed on his laptop. He slaps hands with Chinas technical chief, Lingxi Yuan.Trinsey can rewind the match as needed. Its not.Just on the very slight possibility I miss anything -- very slight, he said with a smile between points.Do not even consider challenging this gum-chomping, knuckle-cracking number genius to a type-off. Hes the smartest guy most everybody with the program has ever met.Its like Moneyball, setter Courtney Thompson said of the baseball book based on the Oakland Athletics analytics-focused approach. When Joe tells us were going to get three, five, seven extra points a match off of this, its so motivating to us because hes so smart. When Joe says something, we all listen.The American women, who were chasing their first Olympic gold before Thursdays heartbreaking five-set semifinal defeat to Serbia, will play for bronze on Saturday against the Netherlands. Coach Karch Kiraly has embraced volleyball analytics the way baseball has turned to sabermetric measurements to evaluate players.Joe is the man -- 10 steps ahead of the rest of the world, assistant coach Tom Black said.Library of Congress, is how U.S. consultant Marv Dunphy, the 1988 gold-medal winning coach, refers to him.After each tournament, Trinsey pulls all-nighters evaluating each play -- there might be upward of 200 plays in a single match -- and turns over that information in 48 hours so Kiraly can begin presenting the data to his players.At the conclusion of last months Grand Prix, Kiraly sent an individual email to each woman breaking down her serve. The basic findings: serving to space, away from an opposing passer, is far more effective than serving right at someone.Its hardly that simple when Trinsey studies the tactic intently, yet thats how he presents such information to avoid making things too complicated.When Kiraly took over as coach for this four-year Olympic cycle, Trinsey offerred to be janitor, a volunteer, to shag balls again -- any possible task needed. Clint Frazier Jersey. He had been retrieving balls during training and helping out as a volunteer assistant for the London Olympics. It took about six months once the rest of the staff was set, and Trinsey had landed a real, paying position from Kiraly.Karch could see I was grinding, Trinsey said, just logging long hours in the gym and doing the grunt work.And learning. Everywhere he possibly could.Once, in 2011, he decided to visit the strong University of Washington womens team during spring practices, paying $50 to sleep on a college students couch for a week.Again much like baseball scouting, the Americans relied on radar guns during the London Olympics to track serve speeds then ultimately figured out that didnt help one bit.Now, its more of a three-pronged philosophy to helping players improve: studying the game as a whole and evaluating trends, while knowing the fine details of every opponent. And then theres the teaching component: The U.S. players must be able to execute the material they are receiving.With everything, you want to look through the lens of `How can we teach our players better? Trinsey said. We dont want the players to be mathematicians. We want to boil it down to one to three things they can work on.Going from volunteer gigs at Pepperdine -- working with Dunphy and U.S. assistant womens coach David Hunt -- and Loyola Marymount with Black, Trinsey ran some camps to keep the lights on. He moved out West from Delaware to chase this volleyball dream that mixes his coaching and playing background with his razor-sharp brain. A Division III All-American as a player, Trinsey received a degree in applied mathematics from New Jerseys Stevens Institute of Technology 2009.It was a risk in one sense, he said of heading to California with no guarantee of a steady job.The U.S. players are thrilled he landed with them.Everything he does is absolutely worthwhile, setter Alisha Glass said. As humans we err. We err in terms of perspective, we maybe dont have the right view. Just looking at the numbers, the numbers speak for themselves. ' ' '