her stab at his first win of the season

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SANDY, Utah -- Thrust into an underdog role once again, Real Salt Lake kept its season alive after receiving help from unlikely sources. Sebastian Velasquez scored his first MLS goal in the first half, Chris Schuler added the winning goal in the first overtime and Salt Lake advanced to the Western Conference finals with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Thursday night. RSL won the series 2-1 on aggregate, reaching a conference final for the third time in five years and ending the Galaxys bid for a third consecutive MLS Cup. They will host Portland in the first leg of the conference finals on Sunday. The Timbers advanced with a 5-3 aggregate win over Seattle in Thursday nights late game. "11 players defended," RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "Thats the big key. The way we play in our system, we need everybody to pitch in and defend and give the effort. Tonight, we did that. (Coach) Jason (Kreis) said we needed to do that and challenged a lot of us. The result today shows the challenge was met." Salt Lake allowed just three shots on goal through 120 minutes and kept Los Angeles from mounting a serious scoring challenge for the bulk of the match. "We all knew they were going to focus on Robbie (Keane) and myself, so it was incumbent upon the other guys to make some plays," Galaxy forward Landon Donovan said. "Robbie and I couldnt pull a rabbit out of a hat tonight, so we needed some other guys to step up and make plays. Unfortunately, it didnt happen so it made it difficult for everyone." Salt Lake started out strong on the offensive end in the first half, mixing several nice passes with good ball movement to break down the Los Angeles defence. The Galaxy made it easier for Salt Lake to create some scoring chances by struggling to possess the ball and clear it. RSLs efforts paid off in the 35th minute when Velasquezs goal tied it 1-1 on the aggregate. Chris Wingert sent a cross into Velasquez, who was unmarked just outside the top of the 6-yard box. Velasquez quickly made the Galaxy pay, sending a snap-header past goalkeeper Jaime Penedo for his first goal in an RSL uniform. Velasquez earned the start in place of injured midfielder Ned Grabavoy, who sat out with a left hamstring strain. "Hes an extremely hungry player that has some real gifts," Kreis said. "Sometimes its difficult to get some of those gifts to come out of him. Tonight, he took a major step forward." Los Angeles had no answer on the other end. The Galaxy created eight shots before halftime, but did not put any on the frame. RSL had three shots on goal out of a total of six shots. "The conditions were tough," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. "But both teams have to play under those conditions. They played better than we did. They were very direct. They just played the ball behind us and put our backs under pressure and scrapped a lot." Salt Lake stepped up its pressure after halftime. Schuler sent a header into the crossbar in the 74th minute after Javier Morales crossed it to him off a corner kick. Then Alavro Saborio collected the ball outside the box in the 78th minute and blasted it to the left side, hitting the post. RSL had its most painful near-miss during the 84th minute. Morales scored an apparent go-ahead goal when he sent a through ball on a free kick into the back of the net. A foul in the box away from the ball negated the scoring play. Schuler came through in overtime. Latching onto a cross from Morales on a free kick in the 102nd minute, Schuler corralled the ball on a run to the back post and tapped it home just inside the post for his first MLS goal this season. Salt Lake improved to 2-2-2 in second-leg matches in the MLS playoffs. RSLs previous second leg win came against Columbus in the 2009 Eastern Conference semifinals. James Carpenter Jersey . CHAUNCEY BILLUPS (Pistons): Yes they got Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings in the off-season and Andre Drummond is a beast (teams are kicking themselves for passing on him - he rebounds and block shots every game - thats two more discernable and significant skills than most guys in his draft class), but dont for a second discount the impact of having a savvy veteran like Billups on your team. Darryl Roberts Jersey .Y. - Brooklyn Nets centre Brook Lopez has a strained lower back and will miss at least a week. http://www.thejetsjerseysshoponline.com/Youth-Chandler-Catanzaro-Letes-Jersey/. Their 9-19 record remains identical to the crosstown rivals in Brooklyn and trails both Toronto and Boston in the Atlantic Division. Raymond Felton, their declining point guard, is back on the sideline nursing his third injury of the season. Josh Martin Jersey . Appearing on TSN 690 Monday afternoon, Mike Babcock said he had conversations with both P.K. Subban and Carey Price about those on-ice traits during Hockey Canadas summer orientation camp. Mike Babcock: McGill experience, P. Lac Edwards Jersey .3 million qualifying offer to outfielder Michael Cuddyer on Monday.A doubleheader of divisional battles takes place tonight on TSN2. First, the Philadelphia Phillies play host to the Atlanta Braves in a matchup of NL East rivals followed by the Oakland Athletics visiting Los Angeles to play the Angels in the AL West. All the action gets underway at 7pm et/4pm pt on TSN2. It was a successful slate of games for both Philadelphia and Atlanta this past weekend. The Phillies had lost four in a row before taking all three games of their series with the Miami Marlins, while the Braves bounced back from a series loss to the New York Mets by taking three straight meetings with the Washington Nationals. Atlanta came into the season with depth concerns to its rotation thanks to a rash of injuries, but saw late addition Aaron Harang continue his solid start in Sundays 10-2 victory. Harang yielded one run over six innings and has posted a 0.96 earned run average through his first three starts. It also helped that the hurler was staked to a 6-0 lead after two innings. "When the guys come out and they put up runs on the board early, as a pitcher you can just settle back and just throw your game knowing you have some leeway to play with," Harang said. Justin Upton made sure his pitchers had plenty of wiggle room in the series, going 8-for-10 with a pair of homers. He has 11 hits, four home runs and eight RBI over his last four games, and was one of three Braves sluggers to go deep on Sunday. Freddie Freeman, riding a nine-game hitting streak, and Andrelton Simmons also had home runs. Ervin Santana will make his second start with the Braves tonight and put together a spectacular debut last Wednesday. Santana, signed on March 12 to fill a hole in the rotation, held the Mets scoreless over eight innings of a 4-3 win, yielding three hits and striking out six without a walk. The righty began the game -- and his Braves career -- by throwing 20 straight strikes. "We went out with a game plan of getting ahead," Atlanta catcher Evan Gattis said of what made Santana so effective. Santana has faced the Phillies just once before, doing so while with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim back in 2008. The 31-year-old picked up a win, charged with one unearned run on two hits and a pair of walks in seven innings. He also struck out nine. The Phillies are hoping to put some early-season struggles behind them and are coming off back-to-back one-run wins over the Marlins. Chase Utley keyed Sundays 4-3 victory with a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning. Utleys third homer of the season upped his season average to .500 and he is the first Phillies player to start a season with a 10-game hitting streak since Pat Burrell in 2005. Wil Nieves notched a two-run double among his three hits and Ryan Howard also homered for Philadelphia, which was coming off a 10th-inning victory the previous day on Jimmy Rollins walk-off homer. "The guys are patient at the plate and swinging the bats up and down the lineup," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "We had good at-bats throughout the game." Getting the call toonight for the Phillies will be Roberto Hernandez, who won his debut with the club on April 4 and then did not factor into a 9-4 loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday.dddddddddddd Hernandez matched his second-highest strikeout total in a game with nine, but also allowed four runs (3 earned) on seven hits in five innings of work. The 33-year-old righty will make his second career start versus the Braves and first since June 17, 2007 while with Cleveland. Hernandez got a win on that day, scattering two runs over seven innings. The Braves have gone 23-14 versus the Phillies over the previous two seasons, but lost five of nine in Philadelphia in 2013. Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Angels - 10pm et/7pm pt Jesse Chavez takes another stab at his first win of the season Monday night when the Athletics enter Angel Stadium to open a three-game set with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Chavez has been stellar through two turns (1.38 ERA) in his first full season as a starting pitcher in the majors. After holding Seattle to one run in six innings during his first start, Chavez quieted the Twins bats on Thursday as he allowed only earned one run in seven innings. However, both times he walked away with a no-decision. For Los Angeles, left-hander Hector Santiago is also in search of his first win in 2014. But unlike Chavez, Santiago struggled in both of his first two starts. Most recently, he allowed four runs and three walks in 4 1/3 innings against Seattle last Tuesday. Hell hope for some more offensive production from a lineup that has come alive of late. On Sunday, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Raul Ibanez connected on back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first inning of an eventual 14-2 win over the New York Mets in the rubber match of a three-game interleague series. Hank Conger and Ian Stewart also went deep for the Halos, and all nine hitters in the lineup recorded a hit and scored at least one run. "(The Angels are) always a very dangerous team," As manager Bob Melvin said of Mondays opponent. "You have to play well against them. Offensively, theyre a force. I know theyre down (injured outfielder Josh) Hamilton right now, but they still have a lot of guys who can hurt you, and some different starting pitching we havent seen." However, Oaklands pitching presents a tough challenge, as well. As starters threw 17 scoreless innings and struck out 34 batters in the three-game weekend series at Seattle. In Sundays series-clinching, 3-0 win, Scott Kazmir struck out nine and allowed only two hits in six shutout innings. Four relievers combined to close the door over the final three frames. "Its exciting to have guys follow up a quality start, one after another, one through five. It really is exciting," Kazmir said. "We just want to keep going out there and keep making quality pitches and quality outings, all of us." In terms of the head-to-head series between these two teams, Oakland has won 13 of the last 19 meetings at Angel Stadium. Overall, the As have won the last four season series after going 11-8 against the Halos in 2013. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '