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Marcus Stroman faces Oakland for the first time as he gets the call for a Toronto team that dropped a 4-1 decision to Sonny Gray and the Athletics in the first game of a 10-game west coast trip. A first-round pick in 2012, Stroman pitched a one-run, eight-inning gem to beat the New York Yankees on June 23 and was then solid in a no-decision versus the Chicago White Sox on Saturday. Stroman allowed two runs on just two hits and a pair of walks over 6 2/3 innings, fanning six. The 23-year-old was pulled in the seventh frame after giving up a double and a walk, but reliever Dustin McGowan served up a three-run homer as the White Sox jumped in front. "If you could do things over, you leave [Stroman] in," Jays manager John Gibbons admitted. "But my thinking was, he pitched his butt off, it was kind of uncharted territory, I dont want him to lose the game right there. Thats the way it goes. But you always look back on things like that. I had a plan and it just didnt work." Stroman, a right-hander, is 4-2 with a 4.01 ERA in 11 total appearances on the year. Oakland hurler Tommy Milone will try to stretch his unbeaten streak to 11 starts in a row on Friday afternoon when the Athletics play the second contest of a four-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays. Milone is 6-0 with a 2.87 earned run average since his last loss on May 3 and the As are 8-2 over his unbeaten streak. The left-hander lost his first three decisions of the campaign, but now sits at 6-3 on the year with a 3.79 earned run average. Milone has won three of his past four starts, giving up three runs -- two earned -- on four hits and two walks over seven frames of a victory over Miami on Sunday. The 27-year-old is 3-0 with a 3.12 ERA in seven outings at home this year, but has lost both of his previous career meetings with the Blue Jays while yielding 11 earned runs over 13 innings. The Blue Jays fell into a tie for first place in the AL East with Baltimore after losing last nights opener 4-1. It marked Torontos fourth setback in six games and came despite R.A. Dickey giving up four runs -- two earned -- over a complete-game setback. He was outdueled by Oaklands Sonny Gray, who yielded a run over seven innings. Gray struck out five and scattered four hits and three walks to help the As snap a three-game slide. "His curveball was disgusting tonight," said catcher Stephen Vogt on Oaklands website. "It was back to the Sonny Gray that Ive known for the last year and a half. Hes got one of the best curveballs in baseball, and he had it tonight." Toronto swept a three-game series at home from May 23-25 and won two of three in Oakland a season ago. Bill Lee Jersey . -- Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton will be sidelined for at least two weeks because of a strained calf muscle, and pitcher C. Brock Holt Jersey . -- Packers cornerback Tramon Williams has been fined $26,250 for contact with an official, per NFL guidelines. http://www.redsoxjerseyauthenticshop.com/authentic-fred-lynn-red-sox-jersey/ . - A mixed martial arts fighter who changed his name to War Machine was ordered Friday to stand trial in Nevada state court on 34 felony charges including attempted murder, sexual assault and kidnapping that could get him life in prison for allegedly attacking his porn star ex-girlfriend and her friend. Craig Kimbrel Jersey . Leave it to Matt Niskanen, the newly proclaimed Eddie Haskell of the Washington Capitals. Wade Boggs Jersey . -- Cam Newton pranced into the end zone, placed his hands over his chest and did his familiar Superman pose.ATLANTA - The Atlanta Falcons wont apologize for somehow being in first place with a losing record.They shouldnt have to.This one is on the NFL.The league should seriously consider realignment — or, at the very least, a revamping of the playoff system — to prevent a repeat of this looming post-season embarrassment: the Falcons or New Orleans Saints or whoever emerges as champion of the woeful NFC South actually getting to host a first-round game when they have no business playing after December.Its set up the way it is, Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan said with a shrug. Were not worried about what people say.The NFL should be.The playoffs are supposed to reward the best teams, and no one would put Atlanta (4-6), New Orleans (4-6), Carolina (3-7-1) or Tampa Bay (2-8) in that group.Yep, even the Buccaneers are still in the post-season mix, a team that trailed the Falcons 56-0 early in the season and just doubled its win output with a victory over Washington.Normally this time of year, when youre talking about that second win, youre not throwing a lot of parties, coach Lovie Smith quipped. But for us, to be two wins out of first place in the win column, that is big.Its not like this is all that unusual, either.In the last six years, three mediocre teams — San Diego in 2008 and Denver in 2011 with 8-8 records, Seattle in 2010 at 7-9 — not only made the playoffs at the expense of more-deserving teams, but won their opening playoff games against superior opponents largely because they were playing at home.The NFL, you see, gives the top four seeds in each conference to the division champions, regardless of whether a wild-card team — or, as was the case in the aforementioned years — both wild-card teams have better records.Thats certainly going to be the case again this season in the NFC.The Falcons, in fact, could actually win the division with a 6-10 record, having beaten no one outside the South.If that happens, they would still open the playoffs at the Georgia Dome.Other than the World Series, where home-field advantage is ridiculously based on which league wins the All-Star Game, every other post-season series in every other sport gives that edge to the team with the best record.The NBA saw the light a few years ago. Its six division champions are still guaranteed playoff berths and slotted into the top three seeds in each conference, but they dont get home court if they team theyre paired against has a better mark.Its past time for the NFL to adopt something similar.dddddddddddd.But that doesnt go far enough.The current eight-division alignment and scheduling format should be scrapped immediately, since it clearly breeds these sort of travesties. With only four teams in each division, and just six of 16 games against division opponents, its really not all that farfetched to have wind up with a wretched group such as the NFC South.The NFL should go back to the six-division alignment that worked just fine for so many years before the league expanded to 32 teams. It might look something like this:— AFC East: Buffalo, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, New England and New York Jets.— AFC Central: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.— AFC West: Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Oakland and San Diego.— NFC East: Carolina, Dallas, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Washington.— NFC Central: Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota and St. Louis.— NFC West: Arizona, Atlanta, New Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle.This alignment would preserve most of the most important rivalries, with only one geographical anomaly — Atlanta and New Orleans in the NFC West — that actually has historical precedence. The Falcons and the Saints were members of that division from 1970 until the current alignment was adopted for the 2002 season.With larger divisions, the odds are much better that at least one worthy team would emerge from each, allowing the NFL to still guarantee automatic berths to each division champion while freeing up two extra wild-card berths for the worthiest teams. Also, this setup would lead to half of the 16-game schedule being made up of division contests; in the five-team divisions, everyone would still play home and home, while six-team divisions would have three home-and-homes on a rotating basis and single games against the other two rivals.The rest of the schedule would be made up of four intra-conference games, and retain the current setup of four games against the opposing conference. It wouldnt be quite as neat as the current arrangement, but it shouldnt be much of a problem coming up with a formula — based largely on playing teams with similar records the previous season — that would result in even more parity.Parity is fine.A losing team in the playoffs is not.___Paul Newberry is a national writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org or at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963___Online: AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '