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OAKLAND -- Oakland As right-hander Kendall Graveman was 12 starts into the season and was searching for answers. He was 2-6 with a 5.28 ERA, and opposing hitters were batting .309 with 11 home runs against him.Thats when pitching coach Curt Young made a suggestion that helped turn Gravemans season around.Curt came up to me and said, You got to find what works for you, what makes you have a chip on your shoulder, whats going to lock you in, Graveman said.Graveman said he remembered how locked in he was in 2014, when he visualized his pitches before every game and rocketed through the Toronto Blue Jays system, earning five promotions and finishing the season in the major leagues.It was something that I just had to get back to, visualize throwing every pitch to both sides of the plate to lefties and righties, Graveman said. Its almost like youre visualizing a pitch that you want to make in a big situation to try to get someone out, but also just visualizing quality pitches.I think for me it sets up nicely because I get to see the movement when I visualize it. Youve seen it so much after you throw it and watching video that I think that just reinforces it. The minds a powerful thing. I think we know that now in the game of baseball. You start really thinking positively before a start, I think positive outcomes will happen.In his past six starts, Graveman has gone 4-0 with a 2.68 ERA, and opposing hitters are batting .232 with two home runs.Graveman will take a career-high five-game winning streak into his start Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays and left-hander Drew Smyly.Smyly has lost a career-high seven straight games and is trying to escape the worst slump of his career. Hes 2-11 with a 5.64 ERA. Smyly, who missed 105 last year because of a left shoulder injury, entered this season with a career record of 24-15 with a 3.24 ERA.Its just been a slump, man, Smyly said. I wish I had an answer but I dont. You just got to keep grinding, keep searching. Im healthy. I feel fine. Every chance I get Im competing my hardest, so hopefully I can get it turned around. It is what it is.Despite Smylys struggles, the Rays have no plans to take him out of the rotation, manager Kevin Cash said.Were very confident he is going to pitch his way out of this, Cash said before the Rays 1-0, 13-inning loss to Oakland. Were looking forward to getting him on the mound (Saturday). I sat down and talked to him casually with him after his start in Colorado. Hes doing all the right things. The results just arent coming. Sometimes youve got to let it kind of work its course and one start, one, two good innings of something clicking can be really beneficial for him.Smyly gave up five runs and needed 100 pitches to get through five innings in a 7-4 loss to the Rockies on Monday at Coors Field.First of all, I believe hes healthy, too, Cash said. Weve talked to Drew. I think its just inconsistencies in his off-speed pitches. He has not gone into a start here recently where hes really had his wipeout cutter or wipeout breaking ball and it becomes difficult. Youre facing some good hitters, good lineups and to go out there with just a fastball -- he tries to get really picky with the fastball knowing that he doesnt have that. I know thats kind of been the focal point for him, to try to get one if not two of those off-sped pitches going for him.Graveman, who relies heavily on a nasty sinker, is 1-1 with a 2.04 ERA in three career starts against Tampa Bay. He took the loss on May 14 at Tropicana Field, allowing four runs over 5 2/3 innings in a 6-0 defeat.Smyly is 1-2 with a 6.87 ERA in six appearances against the As, including three starts.Federico Fernandez Argentina Jersey . Burris threw two TD passes, including a key 15-yard fourth-quarter strike to Bakari Grant that effectively countered a Toronto comeback bid and led Hamilton to a 33-19 victory. Lionel Messi Jersey . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. http://www.argentinasoccerauthentic.com/Maxi-Rodriguez-Copa-America-Jersey/ . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. Sergio Romero Argentina Jersey . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. Martin Demichelis Jersey . Fellow centre Pavel Datsyuk remains out because of a concussion. Zetterberg has 11 goals and 19 assists for a team-high 30 points, and Datsyuk has a team-high 12 goals and 11 assists.West Indies go into their Test series against India with fans expecting more of what transpired in their recent series versus Australia and Sri Lanka.The last time West Indies defeated India in Test cricket was in 2002, when under the coaching and captaincy leadership of Guyanese duo Roger Harper and Carl Hooper, they clinched a surprising 2-1 win that remains possibly their most significant series win this millennium.The story of this unexpected triumph dates back to the beginning of 2001. While West Indies decline was well underway, there was some cause for cheer that season when Hooper returned to international cricket after a premature retirement in 1999. India meanwhile were busy pulling off their remarkable 2-1 home series Test victory versus Steve Waughs mighty Australians.Though far from perfect, West Indies produced many encouraging performances under Hooper and Harper between the 2001 home series against South Africa and the 2003 World Cup, and were the most stable a West Indies team had been as a group since 1995 - the current T20 side under Darren Sammy excepted.In those early days of Sourav Gangulys captaincy, India had still not shed their reputation of being lions at home and pussycats abroad, underlined by them losing a Test away in Zimbabwe after that Australia series win. Still, with the players they had at their disposal, India seemed to have all the bases covered to clinch their first series victory in the Caribbean since 1971.For West Indies coach Harper, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Pedro Collins, that India series was the highlight of their playing and coaching careers, given West Indies less than stellar record before it and after. Although we won the 2004 Champions Trophy, beating India that year Id have to rank as the most memorable series Ive played in for the West Indies, Sarwan said.West Indies wasnt winning a lot, so to win at home versus such a strong Indian team was out of this world, and it meant a lot to the people of the Caribbean, Harper said. It was certainly a coaching highlight. It really helped to give our young team at the time some confidence that we could be competitive against top opposition.Javagal Srinath led Indias fast bowling attack on the tour. My memory of that wonderful series, although we lost, was the way Mervyn Dillon and Collins bowled and surprised us, he said. Then, well, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Hooper were a real pain to bowl to - they showed tremendous patience.During the first Test, in Guyana, India got an early glimpse of the Hooper and Chanderpaul show. If batting was a beauty contest, Hooper would be Miss World, it has been said in the Caribbean, and his double-hundred in Georgetown was his most clinical Test innings since he made 178 not out against Pakistan in Antigua in 1993. The way he dominated Anil Kumble was akin to Tendulkar humbling Shane Warne in India 1998.Carl Hooper put a lifetime of underachievement finally and firmly behind him yesterday, appropriately on the ground he has always called home, Tony Cozier wrote at the time. He went on to refer to it as belated vindication for the thousands of Hoopers celebrating fellow Guyanese in the stands and his host of loyal fans throughout the Caribbean who have always been adamant that it was only a matter of time, but for whom time was running short.For Chanderpaul the series was the turning point of his career. It was then that he began to own the nickname Tiger. Before it, he had scored just two Test hundreds and 23 half-centuries from 51 Tests, at the average of 38.60. By the end of the series, he had scored three more centuries, and he averaged 57.63 over the next 13 years and 113 Tests.Before the rain came to end the first Test, Rahul Dravid, batting at No. 5, produced a typical rearguard. Rahul played many great innings for India, especially overseas, said Srinath. You could say that was a bit of forgotten masterclass from him because we were under pressure before the rain came, when Sachinn got out, to first avoid the follow-on and get close to West Indies total.ddddddddddddinning the second Test, in Trinidad, was very significant for India, as it was the first time they had won outside the subcontinent since defeating England at Leeds 16 years previously.Test victories outside Asia was something many of us had not experienced in our careers and wanted to get right, Srinath said. We started very well, winning in Trinidad in our attempts to rectify this on that tour, but unfortunately we couldnt maintain that level in the final three Tests. Harper noted he was encouraged by what he saw from his team, especially the bowlers, in the opening two Tests and was looking forward to the final three, two of which were in Barbados and Jamaica, the bounciest wickets of the series.It was in Bridgetown that India blew a famous chance of a win in 1997. Outside of that 1997 Test, in four of the five Tests played in Barbados from 1996 to 2001, West Indies bowled first and made major inroads in the first hour. India were shot out for 102.Sachin Tendulkar, who had scored his 29th Test hundred in the Trinidad win to equal Donald Bradman, could not negotiate Collins.I was very nervous, playing what was just my second Test in front of my home crowd, recalled Collins. Everyone in Barbados was hyped about seeing Tendulkar and I remember him getting a standing ovation coming out to bat.I remember I was going to my mark thinking I was bowling to the best batsman in the word, trying to stay relaxed. And the first ball I bowled at him, he edged, and that released all the pressure on me, so much that I felt the Test was over.Led by Dillon, who for perhaps the only time in his career bowled as a true leader of the attack, West Indies four-man pace attack (journeymen Cameron Cuffy and Adam Sanford completed the line-up) in the final three Tests pulled off a reasonable imitation of the great Caribbean quartets of the 70s and 80s.One of things we worked on with Dillon was cutting down on his no-balls, Harper said. He always had the ability to bowl wicket-taking balls, and everything simply was perfect for him that series.The imitation of the hostility of the West Indies attacks of yore was underlined in the high-scoring drawn Antigua Test, where Kumble had his jaw broken by Dillon but heroically decided to battle the pain and bowl.The bravery Anil showed that day didnt totally surprise me or the team, because it was the kind of attitude that defined his career, Srinath said. Its a cliché that is often said: fight until the last drop of blood. And he epitomised that by bowling in that situation. Any sportsman watching that incident would have been inspired by it.Harper thought the long hours India spent on the field in Antigua played a key part in West Indies winning in Jamaica. After they spent all that time in the field, when they put us in and didnt get any early wickets at Sabina, the memories of those long hours began to tell on them as Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds got us off to that positive start.With our batting, we felt once we had scored runs, we were going to be competitive, since India were still vulnerable away from home, Sarwan said. No doubt the way Hooper and Shiv batted was the major factor in us winning that series.While Srinath only played three more Tests after that series, he believes learning from the mistakes made on that 2002 tour helped India become better tourists. Ganguly as captain and all the other great players in the team made a conscious effort to do better away from home, and much of our away performances over the next decade after that West Indies series was testament to the effort they put in. Indeed, India produced their best string of away Test performances in their history in the decade after, which eventually saw them being ranked No. 1 in Tests at one point. ' ' '