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TORONTO – Minutes after Kevin Pillar played the hero in Monday nights 5-4 Blue Jays walk off win over the Twins, he alluded to a conversation he shared with Jose Bautista earlier in the evening. The two were in the batting cage moments before game time. Bautista was taking final warm up cuts. Pillar was hitting soft toss. The one-time utility player turned All-Star pulled aside the clubs young, fourth outfielder and offered him some advice. Pillar described it as a discussion about hitting. Bautista told him there was nothing wrong with his swing, that he should remain aggressive in the batters box in order that the pitcher doesnt get too comfortable. He reminded Pillar that in Pillars role, he could step to the plate in crucial, late-game situations. Sure enough, Pillar got the game-winning single to snap a 4-4 tie in the ninth inning. Sure enough, he remained aggressive, perhaps too much so early in the at-bat when Pillar swung at the first two pitches down and out of the strike zone. With the count 1-2, Pillar took a pitch on the outer half to right field, Erik Kratz came around to score and the Blue Jays celebrated. Pillar thought enough of the conversation to share it with the assembled media postgame. Bautista seemed surprised to be approached on the topic. "You hope to have an effect on all your teammates, no matter what you talk about or discuss," said Bautista. "Even if its, hey youre opening up a little bit or having a 10-minute talk about being mentally ready, preparation and mindset and all that. You hope that your teammates listen to you. You dont hope that they do exactly what you say and if you say hop on one foot they start doing it, but if you make a comment that you think is going to help you hope they at least listen. Digest it and if it helps and it works then so be it." The type of conversation Bautista had with Pillar is rare this season, according to Bautista, because the Blue Jays are laden with veterans. The need doesnt arise as often. This, too, is the second year the group has been together after being arranged in the flurry of high-profile offseason moves made in November and December, 2012. "I think each person is more knowledgeable of others capabilities, more realistic with the expectations," said Bautista. "I think last year, people didnt know what to expect exactly with other players. Expectations might have been a little unrealistic, sometimes on the higher end and sometimes on the lower end. Sometimes you might have expected more out of somebody and that might have been not right. Sometimes you expected less and the guys surprise you. So now I think everybody is more in tune with each others capabilities." DICKEY THROWING MORE FASTBALLS R.A. Dickey is using his fastball more this season than he did last year. Hes thrown a heater 14.3 per cent of the time in 2014, compared to 11.9 per cent last season. This years number is more reflective of his 2012 Cy Young award season with the Mets, when 14 per cent of his pitches were fastballs. "I think its conscious because Ive had a lot of high-pitch games," said Dickey. "I had a 31-pitch first inning against (the Twins on Monday night), I had like a 30-pitch against the Royals, first inning. I need to get back to trying to induce contact earlier in counts so in that regard it has been something that Ive consciously tried to do. Especially with teams, Minnesota for instance is a team that leads the league in pitches taken so whenever you have a club like that you want to try to get ahead of guys as much as possible." Dickey is also conscious of his walk rate, which has skyrocketed this year. Hes issued a free pass to 10.2 per cent of hitters hes faced, compared to 7.5 per cent last year and 5.8 per cent in 2012. In each of his last two starts, hes allowed home runs off his fastball. On June 4 in Detroit, Miguel Cabrera took him deep on a first pitch fastball in the first inning. On Monday night against the Twins, leadoff hitter Danny Santana hit a home run off a full count fastball. Dickey had been falling behind in that first inning in Detroit and thought he could sneak a heater by Cabrera. "That was just a roll of the dice," said Dickey. "I had gone 2-0 with the first two hitters and felt that he would want to get in a hitters count. I tried to steal a strike the first time through the lineup and his numbers off me, I think hes had like 14 at-bats and two first-pitch swings and so the percentages were in my favour that he was taking and so I tried to play to those and got burned." Half of the home runs Dickeys allowed this season, five of 10, have been off fastballs. Has he become too predictable, throwing fastballs when in need of a strike? "I would hope not because I try to do a good job of throwing a lot of 2-0, 3-1, 3-2 knuckleballs," said Dickey. "Im not in the habit of routinely throwing a fastball in a fastball count but because I dont feature the same velocity as a lot of guys its a lot easier to put the barrel on the ball if theyve seen multiple fastballs in an at-bat; if theyre not well located in particular." JAYS INK TWO MORE PICKS The Blue Jays locked up their second and fifth round picks from last weeks amateur draft. They are highly-touted right-handed pitcher Sean Reid-Foley (49th overall) out of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Florida and centerfielder Lane Thomas (144th overall) out of Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both players are 18 years old. Cheap Authentic Jerseys .com) - Former foes from the Mountain West Conference battle in the 23rd annual Las Vegas Bowl, as the 23rd-ranked Utah Utes clash with the Colorado State Rams at Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday. NFL Jerseys Cheap China . The 12th-ranked Haas served well throughout the match at the Ibirapuera arena, allowing only one break point to the 152nd-ranked Italian. Both players held serve until the first-set tiebreak, when Haas stepped up his game to easily clinch the set. http://www.wholesalejerseysnfl.com/.ca. Hi Mr. Fraser, When I was watching the Heritage Classic in Vancouver there was a play midway through the third where Ottawa crashed the Canucks net and it came off its moorings. Wholesale Cheap Jerseys . 15-23, the Ottawa Senators will by hoping to avoid going five straight games without a victory for the first time since a 0-3-2 drought from Oct. Wholesale NBA Jerseys China . Canada will host the second stop on the circuit, the 2014 Skate Canada International in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 31 - November 2, 2014 at Prospera Place.PITTSBURGH -- Though it wasnt a clean effort, it was a win for the Milwaukee Brewers, and theyll take it. Kyle Lohse pitched effectively into the seventh inning, Carlos Gomez homered and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 Friday night. Lohse (3-1) improved to 11-2 in his career against the Pirates, allowing one earned run in a win against them for the second time in six days. "It wasnt pretty, but they all count the same," said Lohse, who was charged with three runs -- two unearned -- and four hits with three walks with five strikeouts. "Sometimes, you get a win thats ugly, sometimes youve got to catch some breaks and sometimes youve got to grind it out in key situations and find a way to win." Gomez homered deep to centre to lead off the fifth and added an RBI single an inning later as the Brewers rallied from an early two-run deficit. Four Brewers errors came during the first, third and seventh -- and the Pirates scored a run during each of those innings. But Pittsburgh left 11 men on base, including the bases loaded twice. "We just werent able to get that at bat when we needed it tonight," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "Repeatedly." Charlie Morton (0-2) allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings while losing to Lohse for the second time this week. Russell Martin had two hits and two RBIs for the Pirates, who have lost six of eight. Four Milwaukee relievers combined to allow five baserunners in 2 2-3 innings but did not allow any runs while stranding six. Francisco Rodriguez worked the ninth for his fifth save in five opportunities. Lohses fifth pitch of the game was put in play by Starling Marte -- seemingly for a routine pop-up near the pitchers mound. But third baseman Aramis Ramirez and first baseman Mark Reynolds collided. It was originally inexplicably ruled a single until later changed by official scorer Evan Pattak to an error on Reynolds. That wasnt even close to the most memorable wacky play of the game. That came in the sixth inning, when Maldonado literally hit the coverr off the ball in what will be one of the more peculiar plays of the season.dddddddddddd Maldonado grounded to third, where Alvarez fielded a ball thats cover had partially ripped off. Alvarez threw the flapping, awkwardly floating ball toward first, but it fell well short of the bag, giving Maldonado an infield single. "I said to Hurdle, You see something new every day, huh?," Lohse said. "He kind of chuckled." Asked if hed seen it before, Hurdle said flatly, "Never. Never. Ever." "It was just one of those games," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "Goofy stuff happened early -- then goofy stuff happened when Maldy hit the cover off the ball. Ive never seen that before. We got a run because of it. I dont know. Just a strange game. Hard to explain." After not getting a runner past first base in their first three innings against Morton, the Brewers got a two-run double from Scooter Gennett and an RBI single from Maldonado in thr fourth to take a lead they didnt relinquish. A day after scoring nine runs in the seventh and eighth innings, the Pirates pulled to 5-3 in the seventh on Andrew McCutchens RBI double, but Will Smith came on and struck out cleanup hitter Pedro Alvarez with runners on second and third to end the inning. The Pirates loaded the bases in the eighth, but Jim Henderson got Starling Marte to pop out to end the threat. NOTES: Pittsburgh SS Jordy Mercer was removed from the game with what the team called "discomfort" in his right ankle after Maldonado collided with him at second base during the third inning. Mercer stayed in the game the remainder of the inning. ... Less than 15 minutes before first pitch, the Pirates announced they acquired 1B Ike Davis from the New York Mets in exchange for minor-league RHP Zack Thornton and a player to be named. ... Playing each other seven times in a 10-day span, the Pirates and Brewers play the eighth of those meetings Saturday when Pittsburgh LHP Wandy Rodriguez (0-2, 7.31) faces Milwaukee RHP Matt Garza (0-2, 3.43). ' ' '