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WASHINGTON — On what was supposed to be a day off [url=http://www.officialpredators.com/authentic-adidas-craig-smith-jersey]Craig Smith Jersey[/url] , the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals will try on Monday to finish what they started in May.

The Yankees travel to Nationals Park to complete a game halted by rain on May 15 with the score tied 3-3. The teams will then make up a game that was rained out on May 16.

Slumping Bryce Harper gets the game restarted when he leads off the bottom of the sixth inning.

New York’s Sonny Gray (4-4, 4.98 ERA) opposes Erick Fedde (0-1, 5.91) 30 minutes after the completion of the suspended game

Both teams are coming off a loss, though for the Yankees it’s a blip and for the Nationals a trend.

Washington (37-31) completed a five-game trip through American League parks with an 8-6 loss at Toronto. The Nationals went 1-4 on the trip, ending with a sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays.

After failing to score in three of their previous five games, the Nationals produced 13 hits Sunday, only to see rare poor performances from a starter and a late-inning reliever.

Tanner Roark lasted just four innings and reliever Ryan Madson allowed two homers in the eighth inning, the first he has given up since June 4, 2017, when he was a member of the Oakland A’s and Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman homered.

“You never want to get swept, but I’m glad we swung the bats today,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez told MASN.com. “We haven’t been swinging very well. … I’ll take our chances every time we score six runs, I really will. I’m proud of them, they didn’t give up, they fought the whole game.”

Roark’s short outing came at a particularly bad time. The Nationals used four relievers Sunday and the pitching staff is looking at 12 or more innings of work Monday.

“I stunk today,” Roark told MASN.com. “Didn’t really have much working for me.”

Anthony Rendon, Brian Goodwin and Wilmer Difo each collected two hits, but Harper went 0-for-5. He is now batting .163 (7-for-43) in June with four walks and 20 strikeouts.

The Yankees (46-21) dropped a 3-1 decision to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday but have won 13 of their last 17. That includes splitting two games with the Nationals last week.

CC Sabathia was the hard-luck loser Sunday when the Yankees went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

“Always,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters when asked if he expected three runs not to be enough against his team.

“And that’s no disrespect ever to the opponent [url=http://www.officialpredators.com/authentic-adidas-juuse-saros-jersey]Juuse Saros Jersey[/url] , it’s just I always know that we’re some traffic away from popping one,” he added. “We had a little traffic and threw some hits out there, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. They held us down and kept us at bay today.”

The Yankees (.687) remained ahead of the 49-24 Red Sox (.671) in the AL East. New York leads the majors in runs per game, homers, homers per game, slugging percentage and OPS.

That’s despite the continue struggles of Giancarlo Stanton (.243), who went 1-for-3 Sunday with a walk and two strikeouts.

“He’s still working to be ‘on time’ and get started to his rhythm of hitting. … That’s what he’s struggled with: consistently being on time. That’s when you have a tendency to expand or be behind on the fastball or behind on the breaking ball,” Boone told MLB.com.

However, Stanton is hitting .279 (34-for-122) with nine homers and 18 RBIs away from Yankee Stadium. And at Nationals Park, he has a career average of .289 with 20 homers and 41 RBIs in 54 games.

Gray is 0-0 with a 4.74 ERA in three starts against the Nationals. He gave up a three-run homer to rookie Juan Soto last Wednesday in a 5-4 loss to Washington when he allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings.

Fedde gave up four runs and six hits in five innings in a no-decision last week at Yankee Stadium.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots are spending the week leading up to Sunday’s AFC title game doing what they always do in the days leading up to any game.

Not saying anything negative about the opposition.

That’s the Patriots way — don’t give the other guys anything to put up on their bulletin boards.

So, when someone like Jacksonville’s Jalen Ramsey predicts his Jaguars will unseat the defending Super Bowl champs in Sunday’s game, the Patriots take the high road and talk about how tough the other guys are to deal with.

Reacting to Ramsey’s boast, quarterback Tom Brady, on his weekly WEEI appearance, said, “I think what I have learned for a long time is — it’s how you play, it’s not what you say. Everyone has different ways of handling things — players do, coaches do. We do what works for us [url=http://www.officialpredators.com/authentic-adidas-matt-irwin-jersey]Youth Matt Irwin Jersey[/url] , other players do what works for them. The game is going to be decided by who plays the best, not who hypes the best or speaks the best.

“He’s a really good player. I have watched a ton of film on him,” Brady said of Ramsey. “He has a lot of strengths. He’s obviously very confident. That is reflected in how he plays. I am more concerned about how he plays (as) opposed to what he says.”

Brady, headed for his seventh straight AFC title game and 12th overall, also called the upstart Jaguars “the toughest” team the top-seeded Patriots have faced all season — something that didn’t sit too well with Jacksonville.

Jacksonville’s Telvin Smith called Brady out on Twitter, saying, “Bruh this the oldest trick…pump us up in the media but in the buildin I kno what’s really bein said. Respect.”

Brady, who has had his shares of bumps and bruises in this, his 40-year-old season, skipped his Wednesday media session as he met with team medical personnel over a right hand injury. He then was held out of practice on Thursday because of the injury, calling into question how effective he would be if he plays Sunday.

He is still expected to play Sunday.

He captured his 26th postseason victory, recorded his 13th 300-yard postseason passing game — extending his NFL record for both — and also broke a tie with Joe Montana to become the all-time leader with 10 three-TD playoff games.

The Patriots, seeking the sixth Super Bowl crown of the Brady/Bill Belichick Era, hammered the Tennessee Titans 35-14 in the divisional round, while the third-seeded Jaguars stunned the Steelers 45-42 in Pittsburgh and come into this game filled with confidence — and toughness.

Asked Wednesday what it will be like facing the NFL’s No. 1 defense, New England tight end Rob Gronkowski, active this time around after missing last year’s title run, said, “That is a big challenge. They have very talented players on both sides of the ball. Especially on defense [url=http://www.officialpredators.com/authentic-adidas-roman-josi-jersey]Roman Josi Jersey[/url] , they have many, many great players. It is going to be a big challenge.

“It is the best team we are facing all year coming up in the AFC Championship Game this weekend. We have to be ready. We have to be prepared. It is going to be a big, tough challenge, for sure.”

The Jags are trying to become only the third team — and first since the 1985 Chicago Bears — to lead the league in rushing and win the championship.

“It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a great challenge for us,” Jacksonville coach Doug Marrone told the New England media via conference call Wednesday. “We understand how great of a team New England is and how much of a challenge all three phases are going to be faced with. It’s going to be difficult and we understand that.”

These teams practiced together prior to the first preseason game back in August, and Patriots players said they saw back then things would be different with a team that won three games last season.

Now, they meet for the AFC title.

The Patriots have gone 3-3 in the six straight title game appearances, losing twice to the Denver Broncos and once to the Baltimore Ravens. Most people expected a battle with the Pittsburgh Steelers this week but the Jags flipped the script and come into this game as decided underdogs.

A big change beside the coach was the return of Tom Coughlin to the organization he helped build — as the first coach of the expansion team in 1995.

Jacksonville’s vice president of football operations, Coughlin coached the New York Giants to a pair of Super Bowl wins over the Patriots, and one would have to think he can be of some help this week — as he has the entire season.

Asked if Coughlin might be getting too much credit when he, Marrone, is the coach, Marrone said, “He should get a lot of credit. (Jaguars general manager) Dave Caldwell should get a lot of credit. Our coaches should get a hell of a lot of credit and our players deserve the most credit.

“So I think everyone is trying to pull in the same direction. I just think that those people getting the credit, they deserve it. As long as we win I don’t really care who gets the credit. So I have no problem with that at all.”
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