TORONTO - Jose Bautista entered Wednesdays play at or near the top of most of baseballs important offensive categories. Jaylen Brown Jersey . The 33-year-old is the league leader with 34 walks. His 1.058 OPS and 191 OPS+ are the best in the game. Bautistas hit nine home runs, which ties him for fourth in the majors. Hes reached base safely in each of the Blue Jays 33 games to begin the year. Thats a club record. "I think Ive had a pretty strong first month, as strong as I might have had ever in my career," Bautista told TSN.ca during a conversation in Philadelphia. "But the seasons long and its hard to look at small samples and how thats going to portray into a complete season. I try not to pay attention to those things and just focus on the preparation and the work and my effort and hopefully at the end of the year everythings taken care of itself." As teams around the league rely more heavily on spray charts and advanced offensive data, Bautista, like most sluggers around the league, often hits with three infielders on the left side of second base. The percentages show that if Bautista hits the ball on the ground, most of the time hell pull it. With that in mind, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer has encouraged Bautista to occasionally take pitches the other way. Manager John Gibbons believes the approach helps Bautista stay on breaking pitches down and away. He sees those often as opposing pitchers often work around him or, at least, are particularly careful about keeping the ball out of the middle of the strike zone. "The only difference I see with him is hes taking some hits the other way and I think its making him a tougher out," said manager John Gibbons. "You hear some people who complain about, well, hes a home run hitter, youve got to do it this way. Well, you know what? His home run numbers havent suffered one bit." Bautistas coaches and teammates took notice of his approach in the 10th inning of Tuesday nights 6-5 win over the Phillies. Melky Cabrera led off with a single. Bautista worked a 2-2 count and with the infield pulled around to the third base side he pushed a 93 miles per hour fastball through the gaping hole where the second baseman would usually stand. Cabrera advanced to third on the play and one out later scored the game-winning run on Juan Franciscos sacrifice fly. Manager John Gibbons called it "winning baseball." "Its good to see, thats what winning players and winning teams do, the little stuff," said Jose Reyes. "In that situation he didnt try to hit a two-run home run and pop it up to the infield or something. He just tried to move Melky over, he saw that huge space there at second base and he hit the ball that way, first and third and we win the game right there." Outfield coach Tim Leiper paid Bautista the ultimate praise last week, equating his pregame preparation and in-game adjustments to that of a coach. Bautista doesnt want the label but he is involved in every pitch. From the dugout hes studying the opposing pitcher, watching for tendencies that may indicate which type of pitch will be thrown. Not a base stealer himself, Bautista tries to help his faster teammates get a read on a pitchers move. Defensively, hell involve himself in outfield positioning based on his extensive knowledge of hitters. "I try to pay attention to things like that and I share all kinds of information with my teammates," said Bautista. "I also encourage them to share stuff that they know and information that they have with me. I like to listen to that kind of stuff and put it into my database, I guess." Gibbons recalls a game in Kansas City early last year when injuries to Jose Reyes and Brett Lawrie forced Bautista from his usual spot in right field and in to play third base. Bautista would frequently hover around the mound in between outs, giving the pitcher a scouting report on the next hitter. "Joses not just out there playing," said Gibbons. "He studies this and hes paying attention to whats going on. Hes played against a lot of these guys over the years so hes got a pretty good idea of what they do." The Blue Jays entered Wednesdays action with a record of 16-17 following a 4-4 road trip to Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Like on their previous road trip, they left some games on the table due to poor, late-game pitching. Bautista isnt panicking, however, because the American League East remains tight six weeks into the season. Torontos just a game and a half back of first-place Baltimore. "The only thing that would matter if we were 15 games back," said Bautista. "That would mean wed dug ourselves a big hole to come out of. From that perspective it doesnt really matter. What matters is how we play from here on out and weve got to focus on that." Shaquille ONeal Jersey . Globo TV and other news outlets said early Monday that Scolari will not remain as coach after the national teams failure to win the World Cup at home. Robert Parish Jersey . What they did need, the Devils got from Patrik Elias. Elias scored a power-play goal 40 seconds into overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars. http://www.authenticcelticsproshop.com/Reggie-Lewis-Jersey/ . Canada wasnt in the game from the outset. Head coach Dan Church left Calgary in the morning without addressing the players. He told The Canadian Press he felt the organization lacked confidence in his ability to defend the Olympic gold medal in February.CALGARY - Shawn Evans scored his fourth goal 1:23 into overtime as the Calgary Roughnecks edged the Colorado Mammoth 16-15 in an entertaining, back-and-forth West Division semi-final Saturday. Working against the tight-coverage of defender Joey Cupido, Evans made a couple quick pivots that got him just enough space to be able to fire a clean shot that beat Mammoth goaltender Dillon Ward. As he raced down the floor in jubilation, the Roughnecks poured off the bench and smothered the forward in a dog pile as the raucous crowd of 12,375 at the Scotiabank Saddledome celebrated. Evans also had five assists for nine points. Calgary moves on to face the Edmonton Rush in the West final. Dane Dobbie scored four goals and Curtis Dickson added three more for Calgary. Geoff Snider and Jeff Shattler each scored a pair with Daryl Veltman also scoring. Adam Jones scored five times to lead the way for Colorado. Athan Iannucci and John Grant Jr. had two goals apiece while Sean Pollock, Cameron Holding, Dan Coates, Bob Snider, Joey Cupido and Joel Dalgarno also scored. Colorado (8-10) entered the playoffs having won three straight and four of seven since the club fired head coach Bob Hamley and two assistant coaches on March 4. Calgary (12-6) had also been on a roll of late, finishing the season with six wins in its last seven games. Tied 14-14 after three quarters, Colorado took the lead 41 seconds into the fourth quarter on Jones fifth goal of the night. In the longest stretch of action without a goal, Calgary finally tied the game at 8:58 when Dickson took the ball to the net and put a shot over the shoulder of Ward. It was the seventh time the game was tied. The previous time these two teams met — the first game after the Mammoth coaching change — Colorado won 10-9 in overtime in Calgary. That was the half-time score on this night. Calgary took its first lead of the night on the strength of three unanswered goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter. The Mammoths troubles began when they were late returning to the field to start the second half. Walter Brown Celtics Jersey. Assessed a delay of game penalty, Evans scored on the power play at 1:12 tying it 10-10. Dickson fired a long, low shot past Ward at 3:49. Two minutes later, Shattler made it 12-10. Colorado eventually got it back to 13-13 on Grants goal at 13:42, and after Evans restored the Roughnecks lead at 14:26, Holding tied it up once again 18 seconds after that. After a relatively quiet first quarter in which the Mammoth took a 3-2 lead, the offences for both sides came our firing in a wild second quarter that saw the teams combine for 14 goals on 26 shots, with each scoring seven times. Goals on three consecutive shots to open the second quarter gave the Mammoth a 6-3 lead and prompted Calgary coach Curt Malawsky to pull goalie Mike Poulin. While the veteran returned to the game less than a minute later, the temporary breather seemed to work. Poulin stopped the next shot he faced and the Roughnecks responded by promptly scoring three goals in a 38-second span to tie it 6-6. Calgary then went to the power play only to have momentum swing back the other way thanks to short-handed goals eight seconds apart from Cupido and Snider. With the Mammoth up 10-8 and looking to increase their lead before the second quarter ended, Calgary got a pivotal short-handed goal from Dobbie, the NLLs regular season scoring leader with 51. Dobbies goal was his third of the night, and it came with 19 seconds remaining in the half. The final shots were 60-50 in favour of Calgary. Notes: Roughnecks Geoff Snider left the game late in the third quarter with an injury... Calgary will host Edmonton on Saturday in the first of a two-game West division final. In a new format introduced this season, each team hosts one game. If each team wins once, a 10-minute mini game immediately follows the second game. If still tied, theyll play sudden death overtime... In the East final, Buffalo will play Rochester. ' ' '