Dein erstes Forum » Bibens-Dirkx will make his fifth start of the season a

ATLANTA (AP) — Patriots defensive backs and twins Devin and Jason McCourty both have a lot on their minds as they prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup with the Rams.Jason is thinking about the past and the magnets their mother Sione Takitaki Jersey , Phyllis Harrell, collected and used to post various keepsakes on the refrigerator of their childhood home in Nyack, New York.Jason and Devin, the eldest twin by 27 minutes, were about 12 years old and playing in the Valley Cottage Pop Warner league together.Everything went on the fridge, from school report cards to their football schedule. It was a way for Phyllis to celebrate her youngest sons after their father, Calvin McCourty, died following an asthma attack when they were 3 years old and with their older brother, Larry White, in the military fighting in the Gulf War.“After each game we’d write how many touchdowns we had in the game and I remember after that season we finished with the same exact touchdowns,” Jason recalled. “I just remember practicing Pop Warner was fun. … We’d wake up early on game days and we’d go outside before games and we’d go over all the plays and we’d throw the ball to each other.”Nineteen years later, they will again be tossing the ball around before a game. Only this time they’ll be preparing to make history as the first set of twins to play on the same team in a Super Bowl.For Jason it is a moment he calls “surreal” after spending the first nine years of his NFL career never experiencing a playoff game. He nearly got there a few times during his eight-year stint in Tennessee, then went through “a lot of suffering” last season as a member of Cleveland’s 0-16 team.That changed after the 2017 season when he was traded to New England and reunited with his brother, Devin, a winner of two Super Bowl rings with New England.“I look back now and being at this stage on this platform. … You couldn’t have imagined that now you’d be playing together in the biggest game of your career,” Jason said.Devin has been Jason’s biggest fan and supporter throughout a season that saw Jason appear in 16 games for the first time since 2014.They are rarely more than a few feet apart in the Patriots facility. And Devin has helped Jason quickly acclimate to and make an impact on a franchise that has given them their first opportunity to be teammates since they played together at Rutgers University.Jason wound up starting 12 games at left cornerback. He had an interception in the Patriots’ 24-12 regular-season win over Buffalo late in the regular season, which secured New England’s 10th straight AFC East title. He also had five tackles in the Patriots’ divisional-round win over the Chargers.Watching his brother’s success this season is exactly why Devin is also thinking about the clock this week.He turned some heads during Super Bowl Media Night when he said “I don’t know for sure” when asked if he planned to return for his 10th NFL season in 2019. It will be the final year of his current, five-year $47 million contract.But Devin said he looks at this as a rare opportunity to recapture a moment he and his brother haven’t truly had since they were kids.“I do look at it if we can win this game Sheldrick Redwine Jersey , win it with my brother, I don’t know what else I could do that would top that,” Devin said.He said he’ll be playing for Jason on Sunday.“I’m excited. He’s been a great guy just to see as far as excitement and being ready to go, but when it’s time to lock in, he’s locked in,” Devin said. “He’s showing leadership of being ready to go.”Jason, who is in the final year of the two-year, $6 million deal he signed in Cleveland, said he hasn’t thought about retirement.“At this point, no,” he said. “Throughout your career you always talk about the end of it like, I sat out my rookie year and said, ‘Man, it would be cool to hit double digits.’ Now here I am and double digits. … I think there will be a point, mentally, physically that you’re just done with the game. I think at that point you’ll be at peace with it and ready to walk away.”In the meantime, a sport that has always been a family affair for the McCourtys will continue for another week.Their mother used to wear a custom-made half-Patriots, half-Titans jersey on game days. She updated it to a half-blue Austin Seibert Jersey , half-white Patriots jersey this season honoring her sons.Jason said he isn’t sure what she has up for Sunday’s game.“You never know with mom,” he said. “I wish her luck, though. She won’t have me out at the Super Bowl this year to help gather everybody together and get everybody to breakfast, lunch and all of that. So she’s on her own this year to deal with all the family.”Has she already gotten Super Bowl keepsakes for her fridge?“You just gave me a great idea for a gift,” Jason said. “So at some point I have to go to the gift shop and grab a magnet.”
If the Houston Astros are heading into a two-game series against rival Texas with the idea that they’ll be able to push around the rebuilding Rangers and get back on track after three straight losses, maybe it’s time to think again.

The Astros will send struggling left-hander Dallas Keuchel (4-8, 4.22 ERA) to the mound in the first game of the series on Tuesday at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Texas will counter with right-hander Austin Bibens-Dirkx (1-1, 3.57).

Houston lost three straight games in Tampa Bay last weekend, including a 3-2 setback on Sunday, and dropped its first series since May 28-30 at Yankee Stadium.

The Astros were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position on Sunday and 0-for-14 in the series. Houston managed just seven runs in the four-game series — all on homers, including two solo shots Sunday by Evan Gattis.

It was the Astros’ fewest runs in a four-game series on the road since they scored five at Tropicana Field against the Rays in 2014.

“We didn’t do enough to win the game or the series,” Astros manager AJ Hinch told mlb.com. “We made some mental errors, we had some big moments that they executed some pitches. One-run games, a couple of losses this series, are tough to swallow. We’ll take it to the next city, but this one sucks.”

The Rangers, meanwhile, have been as hot as the triple-digit temperatures in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Texas is 12-6 since the Astros swept a four-game series from them in Arlington on June 7-10 and have won a season-best five straight series Trysten Hill Jersey , including taking two of three games last weekend at home against the White Sox.

Texas ended that series with a 10-5 loss on Sunday in which ace starter Cole Hamels struggled, allowing a season-high seven earned runs and nine hits, which matched his high for the year.

Hamels, who has been the constant subject of trade talks for the past month, said afterward that he was blocking out that talk and it had no effect on his performance.

“It’s not a big deal. It’s out of my control,” Hamels said. “I have to go and pitch, and hopefully that’ll be the last time I have to answer that question.”

Keuchel took a no-decision in his last start on June 27 against Toronto, allowing six runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings of the Astros’ 7-6 comeback victory. He surrendered five runs in the first inning before settling in to pitch five scoreless innings.

Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner and a 2-time All-Star (2015, 2017), will make his 18th start of the season and third against the Rangers this year. He is 9-9 with a 4.03 ERA in 25 career games, all starts, against Texas and is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA in 17 1/3 innings versus the Rangers in 2018.

Keuchel has not been as successful this season as over the past four seasons but he’s still inducing a high ground ball rate and soft contact. He leads the AL in groundball to fly-ball ratio (2.64), while ranking third in soft contact percentage (23.1 percent).

Bibens-Dirkx will make his fifth start of the season and his first start against the Astros. He’s coming off a no-decision against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday, when he allowed two hits and struck out six in five scoreless innings in a game that San Diego won 3-2. Bibens-Dirkx is 0-1 with a 3.18 ERA at home this season.

Bibens-Dirkx was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock before his June 20 start against Kansas City for his second stint with Texas in 2018. He will be working on regular four days’ rest; the Rangers are 2-2 in his four starts this season.