Die Nacktbar » Taillon took the loss last Tuesday, when he allowed

LAKE FOREST Devin Bush Jersey , Ill. (AP) — Roquan Smith wore a smile on his face, and a Chicago Bears uniform for the first time since training camp started.The Bears on Tuesday got a first look at their first-round round draft pick 30 days after he was supposed to report with rookies for camp. Both sides quickly sought to put the stalemate in the past.“It’s a great feeling just to be back out here with my teammates, getting back into rhythm,” Smith said. “So it’s an awesome feeling.”Drafted by general manager Ryan Pace No. 8 overall, the Georgia linebacker had been the last unsigned pick of the 2018 NFL draft.Smith settled on a four-year contract that guarantees $18.5 million and includes an $11.5 million signing bonus, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The person spoke Monday night on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced.The sticking point reportedly had been the agent’s insistence on protection for Smith regarding guaranteed money.“That’s between my agents and Mr. Pace,” Smith said. “So that was something that they had to deal with, and we got it all figured out.”The Bears immediately put Smith to work at Halas Hall. The team worked out at one of their new practice fields before leaving for Denver to practice and play against the Broncos. He practiced with the first and second team during an unpadded workout.Smith missed all of their practices at Bourbonnais. So now it’s a matter of catching up.“We understand that he’s a very driven individual, both on and off the field,” coach Matt Nagy said. “And I know he’s going to do everything he possibly can to catch up. … It’s good for him to get back in shape and take some hits.”Smith will practice in Denver, but Nagy said it’s too soon to say whether he’ll play Saturday.Smith said he’s in shape after working out on his own in Georgia during the holdout.“I was training pretty hard down in Athens, back at school,” he said.Coaches will closely watch Smith during practice the next few days to avoid injuries.“Now it’s going to naturally pick up when you go against another team http://www.steelersfootballauthentics.com/diontae-johnson-jersey-authentic ,” Nagy said. “But I’m not worried about it with Roquan. I know that he’ll be ready for that, as the rest of our guys will.”As an inside linebacker, Smith is responsible for defensive play calls. He has tried to stay familiar with the defense through video and the playbook.“I think you’ve got to look at it more as position-specific and that middle linebacker spotis a spot that has a lot of calls,” Nagy said. “So it’s one thing to be able to be in your books and see it, and see it on video. It’s another thing to be out there on the field and doing it.“So for him, because he plays that position, there might be a little more catching up to do than per se a corner or somewhere else.”Nagy expects defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to throw as much of the defense at the rookie as possible.“If you take too many baby steps and you don’t test him enough, then you don’t know what his limit is,” Nagy said. “So I think you go ahead and you throw stuff at him.“I think right now we have to make sure physically you don’t overdo it. Mentally, he’s fine. We can pull back on that but physically don’t overdo it.”Smith said he remained close with teammates through texts. Neither he nor the team believes the holdout will have a lasting effect.“I think we’re all big boys in this thing and we understand what goes on and the ultimate ending right now is that he’s here,” Nagy said. “We understand that He’s got a lot of work to catch up, he knows that.”
NEW YORK — New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway has been using some variation of the term “sync up” so often lately, he sounds like an early 1990s music critic discussing Milli Vanilli. At least on Monday the Mets will face another out-of-sorts team whose fortunes are sinking faster than those of an exposed one-album wonder.

Two squads enduring a miserable June will meet when the Mets host the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a three-game series at Citi Field. Seth Lugo (2-2 Justin Layne Jersey , 2.85 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for New York against Jameson Taillon (4-6, 4.03 ERA) in a battle of right-handers.

Both teams suffered the final loss of a three-game sweep Sunday, when the Mets gave up seven solo homers in falling to the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-7, in 11 innings and the host Pirates dropped a 3-0 decision to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The losses ensured the Mets (31-44) and Pirates (36-41) will enter Monday with the worst June records in the National League. New York is 4-17 since the calendar flipped while Pittsburgh is 7-14.

The nosedives have all but ended once-robust playoff hopes. The Mets, who opened the season 11-1, are 12 1/2 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East and 10 1/2 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the race for the second wild card.

The Mets opened June in a historic offensive slump in which they scored just 20 runs in 12 games from June 1-15. New York has scored 47 runs in its last eight games but has lost three games in which it scored at least seven runs.

“We just can’t sync up exactly what we’re trying to do every day,” Callaway said Sunday. He also used the sync up expression following Thursday’s 6-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

“If we swing the bats, we give up seven homers,” Callaway said Sunday. “If we pitch and swing the bats good, our defense isn’t quite there. It’s kind of been the whole season — we’re not syncing up all the components that we need to sync up to win some ballgames. We did that early in the season.”

The Pirates are uttering the same laments. Through 43 games, Pittsburgh led the NL Central with a 26-17 record and ranked fifth in the majors in runs scored (216).

Since then, though http://www.steelersfootballauthentics.com/benny-snell-jr.-jersey-authentic , the Pirates have gone an NL-worst 10-24 while scoring just 123 runs, the fewest in the NL and the fourth-fewest in the majors.

“At the beginning of the season, pitching was clicking, hitting was clicking,” Pirates pitcher Trevor Williams told reporters after he took the loss Sunday, when he allowed three runs over six innings. “We’re starting to get apart from each other and we’re hitting a skid at the same time.”

Lugo will be looking to snap a two-start slump Monday. He didn’t factor into the decision last Wednesday, when he gave up six runs (three earned) over three innings as the Mets fell to the Rockies, 10-8.

Lugo has given up 11 runs (eight earned) over eight innings in his last two starts after tossing 13 straight scoreless innings in three games (two starts) from May 31-June 10.

Taillon took the loss last Tuesday, when he allowed three runs over five innings as the Pirates fell to the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-2. He has alternated wins with losses in four June starts.

Lugo has never faced the Pirates. Taillon is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in two career starts against the Mets. He made both starts consecutively to open his big league career in 2016 and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of the second start on June 14.