Rookie right-hander Freddy Peralta seems to make history every time

Fittingly enough http://www.ravensfootballauthentics.com/iman-marshall-jersey-authentic , too, since he’s about to face a Cincinnati Reds pitching staff — mainly, reliever Michael Lorenzen — that is doing some pretty historic things themselves. Only with their bats and not their arms.

The 22-year-old Peralta is 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his first four major league starts, including two in which he has struck out 10 or more and allowed only one hit. He’s the first pitcher in baseball’s live-ball ERA to do that, and the first Brewers pitcher to have two such games in a career.

How good has Peralta been? He has permitted more than two hits in only one of the four starts. In 22 2/3 innings, he has allowed only seven hits and struck out 35.

Peralta is the first major league pitcher since at least 1908 to give up three hits or fewer and strike out at least five in each of his first four career games.

“His stuff looks electric from center field, and you can see that in the swings and takes and called strikeouts,” Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich told reporters after Peralta pitched seven shutout innings of one-hit ball to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 on Tuesday. “He’s been great every time he goes out there, and hopefully that continues.”

Peralta is doing it without an overpowering fastball Trace McSorley Jersey , like so many other young pitchers are today. He’s throwing his four-seam fastball at an average velocity of 91.2 mph, or about what an average starter threw 15 years or so ago.

“He’s got a high spin rate and the ball just kind of jumps at you, even though it’s 92 mph,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

If the last-place Reds can get to Peralta on Sunday at Great American Ball Park — and no team has yet — they would split a four-game series in which they lost the first two games.

Cincinnati bounced back from a 3-2 deficit Saturday with an eight-run seventh inning powered by a pinch-grand slam from Lorenzen off a Jacobs Barnes fastball and went on to win 12-3 for its 10th victory in 13 games.

“Michael Lorenzen was pretty special,” Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said.

Pinch-hit grand slams are rare enough. But by a pitcher?

What’s even more remarkable is Lorenzen also homered Friday night during an 8-2 Brewers victory, and he homered in his previous at-bat before that while pinch hitting against the Chicago Cubs on June 24.

“I love playing baseball,” Lorenzen said. “Every day, I look forward to contributing in some form.”

That’s three homers in the last three at-bats for Lorenzen, who’s quickly becoming the National League’s bullpen equivalent of the Angels’ multi-dimensional Shohei Ohtani.

Lorenzen is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 15 games Kyler Murray Jersey , and he’s 4-for-6 at the plate. He’s the first pitcher with multiple pinch homers in a season since Brooks Kieschnick in 2003 — and he has done it in only a week.

“The guy’s swinging the bat really well, that’s for sure,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We treat him as a position player. Obviously, we’ve got to make some adjustments … he’s swinging it well.”

Then there’s this: No Reds pitcher had hit a grand slam in 59 years, or since Bob Purkey in 1959, until starter Anthony DeScalfani did it June 23 against the Cubs. Now, Reds pitchers have hit grand slams twice in eight days.

Lorenzen’s homer was more than enough for the Reds to overcome Eric Thames‘ 14th home run against them in the two seasons and his fourth this season — the first three of which were game-winners.

Only two of the Reds’ 15 hits Saturday were for extra bases — Lorenzen’s homer and a Scooter Gennett double — but they were 8-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

Peralta will go up against veteran right-hander Matt Harvey (3-5), who has recently given the Reds a glimpse of his former dominating self with the New York Mets. He has won each of his last two starts, giving up three runs in 12 2/3 innings http://www.cardinalsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-byron-murphy-jersey , after going 0-3 in his previous four starts.

An iconic Nike logo of a leaping Michael Jordan that the company has used to market billions of dollars of merchandise didn’t violate the copyright of an earlier photograph of the basketball star, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The logo was based on a photograph taken by someone Nike hired. That photo was ”obviously inspired” by a 1984 photo by Jacobus Rentmeester, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. But the court in a 2-1 decision said the photos are unmistakably different in key elements.

Both show Jordan leaping with his legs extended outward toward a basketball hoop with a ball above his head.

Nike used its photo for the ”Jumpman” logo – a silhouetted image of Jordan in the leaping pose in its photograph.

Rentmeester photographed Jordan while he played at the University of North Carolina. His photograph appeared in Life Magazine in a photo essay featuring U.S. athletes competing in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

An email to a law firm representing Rentmeester wasn’t immediately returned.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Next month’s NIT games will use experimental rules that include an extended 3-point line, a wider free-throw lane and 10-minute quarters instead of 20-minute halves.

The NCAA announced the changes Tuesday.

The 3-point arc will move to roughly 22 feet, which is used by FIBA for international competition. The lane will expand from 12 feet to the NBA’s 16 feet.

Also, the shot clock will reset to 20 seconds after offensive rebounds instead of the full 30 seconds.

The NCAA says in its release that officials will review whether widened lanes ”reduce physicality and create more driving opportunities,” as well as the impact of the rule changes on ”the pace and flow of the game.”

The NIT begins March 13 and ends March 29 in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

SOCCER

MADRID (AP) – Enrique Castro ”Quini,” the former Spain striker who played for Barcelona and thrived in a long career with Sporting Gijon, has died of a heart attack. He was 68.

Sporting said Castro collapsed while walking near his house in the northern city of Gijon.

Known as ”The Wizard Andy Isabella Jersey ,” Castro played in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups with Spain.

His career was also notable for a kidnapping incident during his first year with Barcelona, when he was abducted at gunpoint after a home game, spending 25 days in captivity before being rescued by police.

Castro also survived throat cancer that required surgery in 2008.

He played for Barcelona until 1984, making 178 appearances and winning five titles with the Catalan club.

Barcelona said Castro was ”a synonym for goals” and ”one of the best strikers in Europe in his time.”

He played with Sporting from 1968 until 1980, and again after leaving Barcelona to end his career with more than 400 appearances for the club.

The Spanish league said there will be a minute of silence to honor Castro in matches on Wednesday and Thursday.

Castro was the first division’s leading scorer five times.

NFL

NEW YORK (AP) – Papa John’s is ending its recently stormy role as an official sponsor of the NFL.

Officials at the pizza chain said Tuesday that the two sides agreed to end the relationship, which became strained last year when its founder John Schnatter criticized NFL leadership over national anthem protests by players.

But the company based in Louisville, Kentucky, is not divorcing itself from the league altogether. It says instead it will focus its football marketing efforts on 22 of the league’s 32 teams and its star players.

Schnatter blamed slowing sales growth at Papa John’s on the outcry surrounding football players kneeling during the national anthem. The company later apologized for the remarks and Schnatter stepped down as CEO at the end of last year.