against a team that struggled all year long against left handed pitching. A

Watch Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Zach Johnson in action at this weeks AT&T Byron Nelson, with extended coverage live on Sky Sports. The live Feature Groups service begins on Thursday on the red button, Sky Sports iPad app and Sky Sports Xtra from 1pm for the first two rounds, ahead of full live coverage from 9pm on Sky Sports 4 HD. Day dominance motivates Spieth Jordan Spieth admits he is motivated by Jason Days form Farmers Insurance Open champion Brandt Snedeker kicks off Thursdays coverage when he features alongside Louis Oosthuizen and Matt Kuchar, who looks to build on last weeks strong showing at TPC Sawgrass. Louis Oosthuizen and Sergio Garcia are part of Thursdays coverage Sergio Garcia tees off in the following threeball alongside Keegan Bradley and Charl Schwartzel, who won earlier in the season at the Valspar Championship.Fridays offering begins with Open champion Zach Johnson teeing off with Dustin Johnson and defending champion Steven Bowditch. Soon after, world No 2 Jordan Spieth looks to build on his poor record at the TPC Four Seasons Resort as part of the marquee group containing 2012 champion Jason Dufner and Texas Open winner Jimmy Walker.Featured groups (all times BST): Thursday1.40pm: Louis Oosthuizen, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker1.50pm: Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and Keegan BradleyFriday Spieth hasnt finished higher than tied-16th in this event 1.40pm: Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson and Steven Bowditch1.50pm: Jason Dufner, Jordan Spieth and Jimmy WalkerWatch coverage of the AT&T Byron Nelson throughout the week live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf Also See: Spieth seeks improvement Byron Nelson: 2015 highlights R&A bids to speed up play Golf live on Sky Jose Cruz Jr. Jersey .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Bryan Abreu Jersey . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. https://www.cheapastros.com/2803o-roy-oswalt-jersey-astros.html .ca! Hi Kerry, Heres an interesting one. I know its common knowledge that all players are responsible for their sticks. We witnessed that when Zack Kassian hit Edmontons Sam Gagner in the face after a missed check. Michael Brantley Astros Jersey . Third-seeded Murray had the easiest path to victory on New Years Eve, barely breaking a sweat during his 6-0, 6-0 win over 2,129th-ranked Qatari wildcard recipient Mousa Shanan Zayed. Jim Umbricht Jersey .H. -- Matt Kenseth made it 2 for 2 in the Chase, holding off teammate Kyle Busch to win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Go inside the numbers and matchups that will decide Saturday nights game, and then vote for which team will win at the bottom of the page.What we learned in the division seriesThat maybe using five relief pitchers in one inning isnt a good idea against these teams. The Dodgers won all three of their games by one run and the Cubs twice beat the Giants by one run. We have two managers who love to use their benches and arent afraid to empty their bullpens, so this series could be another late-inning chess match, at least until you get to closers Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman. Note that the Cubs hit just .200/.247/.350 against the Giants, with pitchers driving in six of their 17 runs and seven of the runs coming against the San Francisco bullpen. The Cubs will not only have home-field advantage, but the advantage of lining up their rotation with plenty of rest while the Dodgers will be scrambling after Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill both pitched in Game 5 on Thursday.?-- David SchoenfieldInside the pitching matchupWhen Kenta Maeda is on the mound: The 28-year-old rookie from Japan had a solid season, going 16-11 with a 3.48 ERA, although he was better in the first half (2.95 ERA) than the second (4.25). The Dodgers kept him on a tight leash down the stretch as he faced more than 24 batters just once in the second half and went five innings or fewer in seven of his final 10 starts. He followed that up by lasting just three innings in his start in the division series. He struggled out of the gate, throwing 28 pitches in the first inning.Maedas approach is that of a conventional U.S. pitcher, as he doesnt have a splitter like a lot of Japanese hurlers. He throws his fastball about 43 percent of the time, mostly a four-seamer, and adds a slider, curveball and changeup. The slider is his best wipeout pitch as batters hit just .176 against it, a key reason he had a large platoon split as left-handed batters had a .730 OPS versus .580 for righties. For some reason, he went to more fastballs against the Nationals, with right-handed batters Trea Turner, Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon all getting hits off the fastball, including Rendon homering on a 2-2 pitch.The Cubs will be able to line up four left-handed hitters against Maeda, so hell need his changeup to be an effective pitch. He actually threw the curveball more on the season than the changeup, but it wasnt a good pitch for him (.398 average allowed). Given that Maeda hasnt been going deep into games, Dave Roberts will likely have to empty his bullpen in this game. -- SchoenfieldWhen Jon Lester is on the mound: Lesters late surge made him a strong Cy Young contender, as he went 9-1 with 1 .46 ERA over his final 12 starts, and then threw eight scoreless innings against the Giants, throwing an efficient 86 pitches. The Dodgers were the worst-hitting team in the majors against left-handed pitching, so its not a surprise that Lester faced the Dodgers twice and allowed just one run and seven hits in 15 innings.Lester has made a notable change in his approach, throwing his fastball more than ever. He threw it 60 percent of the time (and 69 percent against the Giatns), when he was under 50 percent two years ago. Lester has maintained his velocity pretty well throughout the years and at 32 still averaged 92.0 mph with his fastball, a tick above-average for a left-hander. The feeling was Lester had fallen in love too much with his cutter, although it has remained an effective pitch as batters hit just .212/.268/.302 against it. He still throws that about 20 percent of the time.His curveball has become a two-strike wipeout pitch, with a K rate above 50 percent and batters hit .092 against it in 96 plate appearances ending with the pitch. He doesnt throw it a lot -- about 10 per game -- but look for him to use it with two strikes against right-handers. Lester allowed 28 stolen bases (although runners were caught 13 times against him), but the Dodgers dont run much with just 45 steals (Howie Kendrick led the team with 10). -- SchoenfieldPlayer in the spotlightJustin Turner. The Dodgers third baseman had a monster division sseries, hitting .dddddddddddd400/.591/.733. He actually had a huge reverse platoon this year, with a .919 OPS against righties and .640 against lefties (and had one last year as well).?-- SchoenfieldWhat will decide Saturday nights gameThe series could hinge on the Dodgers ability to capitalize when they get runners in scoring position. The Cubs sported the best OBP allowed in baseball with runners in scoring position, while the Dodgers batters ranked just 24th in OBP in similar situations. If the Dodgers cannot convert with runners in scoring position, theyll have to rely on their pitchers to hold down the third-best offense in baseball (5.0 runs per game) to keep them in the game.-- Daniel McCarthy, ESPN Stats & InfoDid You Know?Only one Japanese pitcher has recorded a win in Game 1 of a playoff series: Daisuke Matsuzaka won Game 1 of the 2008 ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays, pitching seven innings of scoreless baseball in a 2-0 victory.-- Daniel McCarthy, ESPN Stats & InfoNLCS Betting GuideLos Angeles Dodgers (+190) vs. Chicago Cubs (-210)Joe Peta: For the second year in a row, Ive made it through both wild-card games and all four of the division series matchups with a perfect bracket. I got derailed last year in this very spot -- the NLCS -- and the Mets victory over the Cubs turned out to be the only blemish on the card. If the Cubs can get past their 71-year curse to win a pennant, I can get over my 365-day one as well. Lets look at why that will happen for both of us through the lens of one skill set, opponents contact rate.With a roughly 97 percent probability, the Cubs were three outs away from a scenario -- winner-take-all game against Johnny Cueto -- that would have caused enormous angst for the fan base. It nearly happened, because in the two games in San Francisco, the Giants put 67 balls into play in the largest normal-altitude field in the majors. The latter fact is relevant because, although its counterintuitive, the larger the field, the more defensive excellence is marginalized, and, of course, the Cubs had a historically great defense this year. The Giants struck out less than any team in the NL this year -- a whopping 2.1 percent less than the second-best club, the Miami Marlins. The Dodgers were 11th, and the Giants were so elite, Los Angeles was closer to Miamis strikeout rate than the Giants were.Click here for more.Choosing sides: Who will win?? Just like the last round, every run in the NLCS will be as precious as antimatter. That means homers might decide a few of these games, as tends to happen this time of year. Jon Lester hasnt been allowing homers and if he can work around Justin Turner, he should negate the Dodgers lefty power. I like the Cubs in Game 1. -- Brad Doolittle Jon Lester has thrown 15 innings against the Dodgers this year with just one runner crossing the plate. Theres no reason not to think that trend continues against a team that struggled all year long against left handed pitching. And Lester is no normal lefty. Hes on top of his game and will shut the Dodgers down again to propel the Cubs to a 1-0 series lead. -- Jesse RogersThe Dodgers will roll into the Windy City with momentum, but a rested Cubs team figures to be too much to handle. The Dodgers have a chance if Kenta Maeda can use his off-speed stuff to precision and take advantage of an aggressive Cubs offense, but rekindling the magic of Game 5 in the NLDS will prove difficult. -- Doug PadillaWhere the series standsGiven the Dodgers inability to hit lefties, on paper this game certainly favors the Cubs. If Maeda struggles, Roberts will have to decide whether to burn through the bullpen or sacrifice Maeda a bit to help keep the pen fresh for the rest of the series. Plus, you have the concern that Jansen threw 51 pitches on Thursday and will have limited availability. It would seem the Cubs best chance of winning this series is to win the two Lester starts while the Dodgers may have to sweep the Kershaw/Hill games.?--?Schoenfield ' ' '