BOSTON - Pitching. Defence. Culture. Those are the three words which continue to be brought up in various conversations with players, both in formal and informal settings, around this American League Championship Series. Jonny Gomes, a member of the 2008 Rays club that emerged from the abyss to gain a spot in that seasons World Series and whos since played on contending teams in Cincinnati and Oakland before landing in Boston, has seen similar acts play out in different cities. “This is my fourth division title and my fourth team,” said Gomes. “Theyre all very similar. We pitch. We play defence. We play together. We situational hit. We create an identity and win and lose with that identity. “Youve got to have some guys on your team that will nip in the bud in April, in June, in July, when things roll, stop it now. Youve got to get out of the valley, get back up versus letting it play, riding it out.” Spending much of the last 48 hours around Fenway Park, in this atmosphere, around two successful organizations with, for the most part, annual expectations of excellence, its become clearer just how far away the 2013 Blue Jays were from being a playoff-calibre ballclub. It wasnt too long ago, prior to the end of the regular season, that veteran Mark DeRosa shared similar thoughts to Gomes. He would know, having come up in the winning Braves organization, followed by success with the Rangers, Cubs, Cardinals, Giants and Nationals. “I always go back to the first two weeks of the season,” DeRosa told TSN.ca from the visitors dugout, fittingly at Fenway Park, on September 20. “We got off so slow; just put ourselves in such a pessimistic-type attitude where we were expecting things to go wrong. Its just been the tale of many weeks for this team. Its had its moments of playing really great baseball and taking it to some of the best teams and best pitchers in the game and then weve had moments where weve rolled out there and done a lot of things fundamentally wrong and made mental errors that have cost us.” General manager Alex Anthopoulos has identified the need for starting pitching, constantly reminding that no team stands a chance to contend when its rotations ERA ranks second-worst in baseball (4.81,) better only than the dreadful Minnesota Twins and worse than the Houston Astros, essentially a Triple-A-calibre baseball team. Hes right. Nobody could have, or would have, predicted the respective demises of Brandon Morrow and Josh Johnson to injury. But those two were pitching in April. So were R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and J.A. Happ and, as DeRosa alluded to, the Jays got off to a terrible start that set the tone for a terrible season. Nobody cried in Boston when Clay Buchholz missed three months with a neck injury before returning in early September. Remember, too, that John Lackeys bicep locked on him in Toronto in early April. At the time of the injury, the way he clenched his arm, onlookers were speculating hed torn his Tommy John-repaired ulnar elbow ligament. The Yankees finished above .500 with a plethora of injuries, seemingly turning to any available former Blue Jay in the process. This statistics-obsessed culture places zero value on cohesion, preferring to individualize each player and position as if he and it work mutually exclusive to all else. Its strange because when you talk to players whove won, in some cases won often, they preach about the importance of accountability and sacrifice for one another. No, there werent deep divisions in the clubhouse, but neither was there cohesion on the field on a consistent basis. Back in April, it was popular to slough off the mounting losses with the tired “Its early” mantra. There were musings about how the standings didnt matter until the seasons final day, when you hoped to be at least one game ahead of the team in second place. True, if not simplistic, but the public lack of concern over the slow start shouldnt be tolerated to the same degree if it repeats in 2014. Some teams dont recover from a bad first two or three weeks. Theres no place for Twitter drama and unnecessary sparring with the media. The pressure of playoff action, witnessed first hand in this ALCS, is no match for the psychologically fragile. The expectation, of course, should be to contend. Nothing less, although its difficult for fans to want to go there in their heads after the season they just witnessed. “They pitch. They play defense. Team chemistry. Situational hit,” repeated Gomes of championship-calibre teams. The strange firing of hitting coach Chad Mottola wont be the only move this winter and its a good thing because, hanging around Fenway Park in October for a couple of days, seeing the anticipation and the expectation and the camaraderie, the Blue Jays have a way to go to get here. Cheap NCAA Jerseys . Heck, we might just miss the BCS. Maybe? It sort of worked out this season. Top-ranked Florida State (13-0) was the only team to get through the regular season unbeaten, and the Seminoles did it in dominating fashion. Replica NCAA Jerseys . -- Without Carey Price, the run for a first Stanley Cup in 21 years got steeper and longer for the Montreal Canadiens. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/. - Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson sat on the scorers table at Oracle Arena on Wednesday morning. Cheap Basketball College Jerseys . Parnell will be out much longer if it turns out he needs surgery. But first, he will try resting for two weeks before beginning a throwing program that could last up to a month, general manager Sandy Alderson said. NCAA Jerseys Outlet .Dawson also birdied two of the last four holes to reach 12-under 132 on TPC San Antonios AT&T Canyons Course. He won his only title in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in 2002 in the Web.com Tours LaSalle Bank Open.Im not going to lose any sleep, believe me, Dawson said. I used to be a perfectionist, but my attitude now is to play like Im in the pro-am.CARSON, Calif. -- Erick Torres gave Chivas USA an early lead and Gyasi Zardes pulled the Los Angeles Galaxy even before halftime, and the Southern California rivals played to a 1-1 tie Sunday in their final matches before Major League Soccers two-week World Cup break. The Galaxy (4-3-5), who had a 21-6 advantage in shots and held possession for 65 per cent of the game, have lost just once in the past 19 meetings, since dropping two in a row in 2007. Los Angeles leads the all-time series 21-4-8. "Not a good result for us," Los Angeles coach Bruce Arena said. "We squandered a few chances. ... There were chances for us to get a few more goals, and at the end of the day, thats the game. You could see we controlled the game for long periods of time, but youve got to get a goal. The goals were out there for us, and we didnt connect." The Galaxy are seventh in the Western Conference but have games in hand, as many as four, on all of their rivals. Chivas (2-7-5) is last in the West. "The players showed characcter," said Chivas coach Wilmer Cabrera, whose team has won just once in its past 13 games.dddddddddddd "With the ball, we made some possibilities. That was important for us. ... (This result) is going to help us with what we are going to do, but we are not happy unless we get three points." Torres scored his ninth goal of the season in the 20th minute, finishing a defence-splitting pass from Leandro Barrera, as Chivas took its first lead in the SuperClasico series since May 2012, its last victory, a span of six games. The goal was his 16th since he joined Chivas last July, giving him a share of the MLS record for Mexican-born players with former Chicago Fire star Cuauhtemoc Blanco. The Galaxy (4-3-5) nearly tied the score seven minutes later, but Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy pushed Landon Donovans chip off the right post, then leaped across his goalmouth to snag Marcelo Sarvas header on the rebound. Zardes scored in the 35th minute, jumping above two defenders to head home a chip from Sarvas. ' ' '