ever, has bought Motte some additional time to try and find some chemistry with Toews

PITTSBURGH -- Adam Frazier is an unlikely source of power. The Pittsburgh Pirates 5-foot-10 utilityman had hit just three home runs in his first four years of professional baseball coming into Sundays game against the Philadelphia Phillies.But with the game tied in the seventh inning, Frazier sent an Edubray Ramos fastball into the right-field seats to lead the Pirates to a 5-4 victory.It was up and in and I figured he was coming back with a fastball after just missing with two off-speed pitches, Frazier said, while noting that he got a scouting report from his time playing with Ramos in the Arizona Fall League in 2015. I got my hands to it and got the barrel out front.The 407-foot pinch-hit homer was not only his first bopper in the majors since being called up June 24, it also was his first at any level since Sept. 5, when he was with Double-A Altoona. He hit just three total minor-league home runs in the Pirates organization since being drafted out of Mississippi State in 2013.I was pretty excited to see the ball clear the fence, he said. In a tie game, I was just trying to do whatever I can. It was pretty big.Making his second appearance since a trip to the disabled list for a fatigued shoulder, Pittsburgh starter Jameson Taillon struck out seven batters in six innings but was also hittable at times. He surrendered four extra-base hits, including solo home runs by Odubel Herrera and Andres Blanco, which allowed the Phillies to build a 4-2 lead.Pirates manager Clint Hurdle credited Taillons maturity for him to allow big hits early but remain focused and effective.He made some mistakes and he paid for them, but he kept us in the game and he really didnt fold or go away, Hurdle said. He stayed on the aggression throughout the outing.The Pirates comeback started in the sixth inning, when Starling Marte lead off with a double to center and Matt Joyce sent a first-pitch fastball from Philadelphia starter Vince Velasquez 434 feet off the batters eye beyond the centerfield wall.The home run was the 10th of the season for Joyce, his most since 2013 despite only having a part-time role. He is slugging a career-high .563 on the season, after posting a career-low .291 mark in 2015 with the Anaheim Angels.I felt (when we got him) we got a good, plum ballplayer that could bounce back and have a good season, Hurdle said. I didnt think about numbers. Obviously, these are eye-catching numbers. Hes leading the team in home runs at home. In the role hes playing, thats pretty impressive, as well. Good for him. Hes worked hard and this is part of the game you love as a coach.Joyce also walked and scored as part of the Pirates two-run second inning. Marte led off the inning with a single and Elias Diaz drove him in with a groundout to record his first career RBI. Sean Rodriguez then drove in Joyce with a double to center.The Phillies scored a pair off Taillon in the third when he gave up a leadoff single to Velasquez. Cesar Hernandez drove in Velasquez with a triple off the wall in center field and then came around to score on Herreras groundout.Mark Melancon pitched the ninth inning to record his 30th save, the third most in the National League. He became the first Pirates pitcher to have three consecutive seasons with 30 or more. He led the big leagues with 51 saves in 2015, and his 114 saves since the start of 2014 are the most in the majors.Ramos took his first career loss to fall to 1-1. Fraziers homer made a winner of Pirates reliever Neftali Feliz, who is 4-0.The game was delayed an hour and 32 minutes by a thunderstorm in the bottom of the eighth inning.TRAINING ROOMPhillies: Blanco left the game with a fractured left index finger after applying a tag on Gregory Polanco at third base in the fifth inning. Polanco was attempting to steal third. Blanco took the throw from catcher Carlos Ruiz in plenty of time and tagged Polanco, who contacted Blancos glove with his foot. Blanco was replaced by Maikel Franco. It was Francos first action since being removed from Fridays game after being hit by a pitch in his wrist. He went 1 for 2 at the plate. ... Catcher Cameron Rupp did not play as a precaution after being hit in the head with a pitch Saturday. Concussion tests done Saturday night and before the game Sunday were negative.Pirates: Right-handed pitcher Tyler Glasnow was placed on the 15-day disabled list before the game with right shoulder discomfort.UP NEXTPhillies: Jeremy Hellickson (7-7, 3.84 ERA) will start a three-game set in Miami. In his last seven starts, hes walked just seven batters and has a 0.98 WHIP while lowering his ERA by half a run. The Phillies enter the series 9 1/2 games behind the Marlins for the final NL Wild Card spot.Pirates: Francisco Liriano (6-9, 4.96 ERA) will begin a two-game series against the Seattle Mariners after an off day Monday. The Pirates have rearranged their starting rotation to keep Liriano and Gerrit Cole on as close to five days of rest as possible during a stretch where they have four days off in a three-week span. Discount Jordans Shoes . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. Cheap Real Jordans .C. -- When North Carolina freshman Ryan Switzer reported to training camp in August he was a little miffed to learn he was third on the depth chart at punt returner. http://www.cheapairjordanfastshipping.com/ . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning. Air Jordans Outlet . -- Al Jefferson found a groove just in time for the Charlotte Bobcats. Cheap Air Jordan Retro .Y. -- Marcell Dareus and the Buffalo Bills defence made life miserable for Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco. You followed all the offseason movements, watched the NHL draft, adapted your own customized projections, monitored training camp assignments and then invested in your later-round wingers ... aaaand theyre gone.Uh... what?Theyre gone. Theyre all gone. All your predictions, they didnt do well. Theyre gone.Maybe you really liked the idea of Troy Brouwer coming on board with the Calgary Flames to be the big forechecking body on the top line. After five games, however, Brouwer has only played there sparingly at even strength. In his first game starting on the top line, he was replaced by rookie Matthew Tkachuk in a mid-game switch. Is it good news that Brouwer is with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau on the power play? No, because he wont be there much longer. The Flames are 30th in the NHL at this point, with one power-play goal in 22 chances (4.5 percent).How about the reunion between Adam Henrique and Taylor Hall on the New Jersey Devils top line? The former Windsor Spitfires linemates and Memorial Cup champions would surely be able to draft off the hundreds of goals theyve already scored together to find some chemistry. They skated together all preseason, only to spend one game together before being split up in the regular season. At least for now, this duo isnt even sharing ice time on the power play.P.A. Parenteau is playing top-line minutes, but not for the New York Islanders. We were projecting a return to glory for the winger finding chemistry with John Tavares again, but he didnt even make the Islanders opening night roster. The Devils picked him up after the Isles waived him, and he is currently flanking the aforementioned Hall. Where does that leaves the Islanders? With Josh Bailey back on the top line following a season of exile to the bottom six. Remember, Bailey had some pretty impressive stretches of fantasy relevance on the top line with Tavares as recently as 2014-15.With some talented fresh blood in the Nashville Predators system, we were looking to the end of fantasy relevance for players such as Mike Ribeiro, Mike Fisher and Craig Smith. Those thoughts were especially premature for Fisher, who has secured a role on the Predators first power-play unit and already has three points -- all of them on the man advantage -- in three games.How about the Vancouver Canucks, who were largely expected to be a fantasy wasteland outside of the top line? Well, the team has four wins in four games and is being led by the most unlikely of heroes offensively. Brandon Sutter leads the Canucks with four points and 15 shots on goal. Aside from his second-line role at even strength, hes playing on the power play with the Sedin twins and Loui Eriksson.Unlike many of the projections before the season, your hopes for fantasy success are not gone. You just need to be adaptable and aware of the many fluctuations early in the season. Are Brouwer and Henrique doomed for no value this season? Will Bailey, Fisher and Sutter all be season-long fantasy contributors? The answer to both questions is, quite possibly. Dont continue to lean on all your preseason prognostications, regardless of how much work went into them. But dont abandon them, either.As players settle into their roles on their respective teams, they is a natural warming or cooling period. This part of the season is all about finding the right balance between not giving up on a player too soon and not waiting too long to buy into another. The balance is between trusting the process and adapting to coaching decisions. We know the roles that will facilitate fantasy value, but we cant make the NHL coaches put certain players into them. Follow the roles!Fantasy Forecaster: Oct. 24-30We already have a confirmed sighting of the five-game week schedule and we are only into the second scoring period of the NHL season. The condensed NHL schedule due to the World Cup of Hockey and implementation of bye weeks in January and February appears to, at least in the early going, make checking the weekly schedule even more important. As youll see, we have a situation for this coming week where Matt Read might be a better fantasy hockey asset than Nathan MacKinnon.Access the downloadable forecaster chart PDF hereTeam notesPhiladelphia Flyers: This week is about all Flyers, all the time. The team has the ever-elusive golden fantasy week of five games. They play Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday next week, giving anyone in your weekly lineup almost two extra games above the league average. Travis Konecny and Sean Couturier should be locked into lineups, even though both are available in more than 70 percent of ESPN leagues. But you can go further than that in the depth chart, as Matt Read has a hot start with four goals, and Ivan Provorov is still playing enough minutes to earn a look in your lineup (despite his minus-5 rating).Dallas Stars: Though they have been short two top-six forwards of late with Patrick Sharp and Jiri Hudler out of the lineup, the Stars still look to have a favorable schedule next week, with a home-and-home against the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets have allowed more goals per game this season than all but two other franchises, which should open up the door for a good week for Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.dddddddddddd Keep an eye on who is skating with them through the weekend, as Patrick Eaves left Thursdays game with an injury. The door is wide open for someone to steal some unexpected value for a week.Toronto Maple Leafs: Dont get sucked into going crazy with the Leafs four-game schedule next week, as they will be running into some pretty staunch defenses, headlined by the Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens. Sample sizes are small, but all four of the Leafs opponents next week are top 10 in penalty killing, including the still-perfect Panthers and 94.7 percent effective Canadiens.Goalie notesAs hinted in this space last week, Peter Budaj is starting to look like a pretty good backup plan for both fantasy owners and the Los Angeles Kings. If you missed out on Jeff Zatkoff on waivers last week, it could be a blessing in disguise. Zatkoff was porous in his two chances to succeed Jonathan Quick (until January), allowing Budaj to swoop in and take the reins -- at least for now. Not to continue to belabor the point, but the Kings crease is conducive to solid goaltending statistics. Just be aware the back end of next week gets ugly with the Predators, St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks on the docket.Both Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth will start two games this week thanks to the Flyers five-game schedule with two back-to-back sets during the week.Al Montoya, he of the .962 save percentage in three starts, should get a mid-week nod in a back-to-back set for the Canadiens. If you need a slight boost and can stash him until then, itll likely be worth it.The Coyotes have lost Mike Smith officially on a day-to-day basis, but it sounds worse than that as he has a lower-body injury evaluated. Louis Domingue found exactly none of the magic he had last season while filling in for Smith. In parts of two games, Domingue has managed a pee wee-esque .727 save percentage. Justin Peters looked infinitely better in relieving Domingue on Thursday. Domingue is starting again Friday, but this could be Peters crease by next week if Domingue doesnt shine.Player notesYour sixth and final member of the Boston Bruins top two lines: Danton Heinen. Yes, the correct response is Who? With Patrice Bergeron back in action on Thursday, Ryan Spooner was a surprise healthy scratch. David Backes shifted back to the wing on the second line with David Krejci and Heinen. Out of the University of Denver, Heinen played his way onto the Bruins this preseason, and has the offensive skills to stick on the second line, if the Bruins give him an extended look there.It will be more notable if it continues after Rickard Rakell is back on the ice with the Anaheim Ducks, but its still worth looking at the fact that coach Randy Carlyle has Ryan Kesler back on the top power-play unit with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. Thats not a role Bruce Boudreau used him in last season, and it would add another element to Keslers potential value this season.Short a bevy of injured forwards, the Buffalo Sabres have been using Matt Moulson as the fourth forward on the top power-play unit. Its probably meaningless in fantasy leagues for now, but Evander Kane and Jack Eichel are out for a while, so Moulson has a chance to bring up his stock.Chris Stewart is currently playing on the second line for the Minnesota Wild with Mikko Koivu and Michael Granlund. And hes doing exactly what made him a one-season fantasy superstar back in 2012-13: Scoring points and collecting PIM. Stewart has three points in four games, including one on the power play, to go with 19 penalty minutes. He should be on rosters as long as he holds down a top-six role.At first glance it might appear as though Tyler Motte replaced Marian Hossa as Jonathan Toews winger partway through Tuesdays rout of the Flyers. Not true. Hossa was actually playing in the bottom six to begin the contest, as coach Joel Quenneville continues to tinker with his lines. An injury to Hossa, however, has bought Motte some additional time to try and find some chemistry with Toews.With Kris Letang on the sidelines, the Pittsburgh Penguins turned to Justin Schultz to man the top power-play unit. Given Letangs sordid injury history, this is information to keep ready if we ever learn that Letang will be out for an extended period. If youll recall, the Penguins power play can be pretty dangerous.The top two lines for the Blues remain in flux. Jaden Schwartz has returned, but Jori Lehtera has hit the injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Nail Yakupov got a one-game chance against the Canucks to play on a scoring line, but was back in the bottom six on Thursday when Schwartz returned. David Perron managed to hang on to a top-six role, shifting to the second line with Paul Stastny and Robby Fabbri.Its interesting note that from the opening period of the season, Joe Colborne has been on the Colorado Avalanches top power-play unit and is fourth on the team in power-play ice time per game. If he continues to skate on the man advantage with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, his opening night hat trick may not have been a one-hit wonder. ' ' '