t of your team so its difficult.With a fight for a place in the Premier League in their sights, Rowett is adamant that the top flight is his target for Birmingh

LOS ANGELES -- Bruce Bochy realizes his club is facing an enormous challenge. However, the San Francisco manager remains confident the Giants can reverse their fortunes and play their way into the postseason.These guys have been through it, Bochy said. I dont know whats going to happen, but I know this is a battle-tested group and theyll go out there and play their normal game as hard as they can. Theyre going to handle it. Theres no worry there.Giants All-Star right-hander Johnny Cueto (16-5, 2.86 ERA) will try to help his team recover from a Monday night debacle when he faces off against Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Rich Hill (12-4, 2.06 ERA) in the second game of a three-game series Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.The Dodgers (85-65) increased their lead in the National League West to six games Monday by rallying for two runs in the ninth inning off the San Francisco bullpen, producing a 2-1 victory. Adrian Gonzalezs double gave Los Angeles the walk-off win.The Giants (79-71) blew a franchise single-season-record ninth game when leading after eight innings. San Francisco slipped into a tie for the second NL wild card with the St. Louis Cardinals (79-71). Both teams are a game behind the team holding the top wild-card spot, the New York Mets (80-70).San Francisco desperately needs Cueto to remain their stopper. The right-hander has five complete games in 30 starts this season, including one in his last outing on Thursday against the Cardinals. Cueto allowed two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk in a 6-2 win at AT&T Park.Cueto is 3-2 with a 2.43 ERA in his past six starts. Against the Dodgers, he is 4-6 with a 2.93 ERA in 12 career starts.Hill is 3-1 with a 1.48 ERA since the Dodgers acquired him from the Oakland Athletics in a trade-deadline deal. His only defeat occurred during his last outing on Thursday, when he gave up four runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hill struck out eight and walked one in a 7-3 defeat.Hill is 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA in six career starts against the Giants, limiting them to a .219 batting average. He last faced them on Aug. 24 in his first start as a member of the Dodgers, allowing five hits in six scoreless innings and picking up the victory in the Dodgers 1-0 win. Hill struck out three and did not issue a walk in an 81-pitch outing.Manager Dave Roberts believes Hill will deliver a quality performance and help the Dodgers continue their march to a fourth straight division title.Obviously, we understand whats at stake, and we just want to play good baseball, Roberts said.The teams meet four more times after Tuesdays contest. They play one more game at Dodger Stadium and conclude a three-game set on the final weekend of the regular season in San Francisco.In addition to its bullpen struggles, San Francisco must shake its second-half funk at the plate.The Giants are hitting .225 with runners in scoring position in the second half, the fourth-lowest average in the majors. San Francisco has produced three hits or fewer with runners in scoring position in 47 of 59 games since the break. Wenyen Gabriel Jersey . The Oilers come in having lost five in a row (0-4-1) and 16 of their last 20 games, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Zach Randolph Jersey . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. https://www.kingslockerroom.com/Deaaron-Fox-City-Edition-Jersey/ . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. Bogdan Bogdanovic Jersey . Oyama had six birdies and two bogeys at Kintetsu Kashikojima in the event also sanctioned by the Japan LPGA Tour. "I have been having this neck ache thats been affecting my golf recently," Oyama said. Tyler Lydon Kings Jersey . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta.Birmingham boss Gary Rowett says there is still more to come from his side as they push for a Championship play-off spot. The Blues are currently in ninth place and are just two points behind sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday - with Cardiff and Ipswich sandwiched in the middle - but they have a crucial game in hand over their rivals.Speaking to the FL72 Podcast, Rowett believes the positivity and ambition of the team means there is still more to come from his side after their incredible turnaround over the last 18 months. I still think theres potential, he said. We havent hit the ceiling on what we can achieve, but what the team are doing is giving us everything they can at the moment in terms of their energy, effort and commitment. Were really pleased with what weve done so far but were still very positive and ambitious. Theres more to come and were thoroughly trying to search for that golden recipe of these last few games that can see us move into one of those play-off spots.We have a string of three home games about six games from the finish so our aim really is to still be in the mix by then. Birmingham City are two points from the play-off places with 11 games to play We have to keep working incredibly hard and hope that those three home games could be an amazing week for the club and the fans. But weve got a lot of work to do in the meantime to make sure were in contact with those places.Rowett arrived at St Andrews in October 2014 with Birmingham having just suffered an 8-0 defeat to Bournemouth and languishing near the foot of the table in 21st place. But a remarkable improvement saw the Blues finish the season in 10th position and the momentum has continued in the current campaign with the manager putting it down to commitment and unity with his players. FL72 Podcast - Rowett, Whitney, Way Rowett said: Its always about that collective hard work and team dynamic and were very big on that. The players have bought in to what were doing with good results and I think the better your results get, the more the players buy into it because they want success. Certainly as a group, weve always tried to maintain that we stand side-by-side and well all try and help each other so thats how I will work as a manager.If Ive got honest players who work hard and they make a mistake, then the only time Ill ever lambaste them iss if they dont try and get on the ball again or they dont try to do the right thing.ddddddddddddYou have to have a relationship with your players these days, but the key is to make sure those relationships dont cloud the tough decisions you have to make to make the club successful because ultimately, thats all Im interested in - seeing how successful we can make Birmingham City. Birmingham travel Wolves in Sundays derby game - live on Sky Sports The Blues make the short trip across the city to play Wolves on Sunday afternoon - live on Sky Sports - and Rowett is hoping the derby incentive will play into their favour. He said: Weve got to go there and use the fact that its a local derby and make sure Wolves dont use the fact its a local derby to inspire them to want to beat us more than we want to beat them. I think its been a difficult job for Kenny Jackett this season. Wolves have had a lot of transition in terms of the club still being up for sale and that little bit of uncertainty at that end and theyve lost some of their best players.I think any manager in that position knows what its like. We lost Demarai Gray so we know how it feels for a club to suddenly have your best attacking weapons taken out of your team so its difficult.With a fight for a place in the Premier League in their sights, Rowett is adamant that the top flight is his target for Birmingham in the future. Rowett sympathies with the Wolves situation after selling key attacking players - just as the Blues did with Demarai Gray Ultimately in the short term, our aim is to certainly challenge very hard to get back into the Premier League, as difficult as that is with the resources we have at the moment, he said.Of course, long term were going to have to be in a different position to challenge to go up and then challenge to stay in the Premier League.But I believe Birmingham City - among many other teams in this division - have the ability to get into the Premier League one day again and stay there. Also See: Birmingham video Birmingham fixtures Birmingham stats Bet ￡5 Get ￡20 Free ' ' '