TORONTO -- J. Nate Solder Jersey .A. Happ has been saying the word "frustrating" a lot more often than hed like. Over his last three starts, the Blue Jays left-hander has lasted just 14 innings, giving up 14 total runs to shoulder the loss in each of those games, including Sundays 5-0 defeat against the Kansas City Royals. "You guys are probably sick of me saying this, its frustrating," Happ said. "Its frustrating for everybody." Happ (3-5) pitched only four innings, allowing five runs, three earned, on six hits and a walk. He also struck out three. Kansas City (70-66) inflicted most of its damage on Happ and the Blue Jays (62-75) in the third inning, when the team sent nine men to the plate and capitalized on a costly error that ultimately led to four runs. Jose Reyes was called for obstruction when he bumped into Jarrod Dyson, who was caught in a rundown between second and third base. Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., appeared to have tagged the runner but the obstruction call put Dyson at third. He would score on a single from the next batter, Alex Gordon. And then the floodgates opened. The Royals added another run with an RBI from former Blue Jay Emilio Bonifacio, and Eric Hosmer drove in two more to make it 5-0 before Happ could record a single out. "I dont know what to say about that (obstruction call) because I dont know the exact ruling on it." Happ said. "I do know he wasnt even looking at Jose and he actually took a step back into Jose. I know he has a right to create his own baseline but he had no clue Jose was even there. "It changes that inning, definitely, but at the same time, Im trying to minimize damage and I felt like I wasnt making good pitches to lead off that inning." Blue Jays manager John Gibbons raced onto the field to argue the obstruction call to no avail, and after the game, Reyes took ownership of the costly play. "I just tried to get the ball from Lawrie and in that situation, we got contact and Im not allowed to do that," the Blue Jays shortstop said. "After that, thats when they scored the runs. Its a tough day. I didnt mean to do that, but I guess everything happened so quickly in the game. Hopefully that doesnt happen again." Gibbons said he wasnt sure if the obstruction call affected Happ mentally, but he couldnt downplay the impact it had on the inning. "I dont know, I mean it just opened everything up -- youre first and third with no outs," the Toronto manager said. "When they get those guys on, I mean (Happ) is slow to the plate, hes a big lumbering guy. Its tough to stop, so if you get guys on there they can run you out of the ball park." While Happ struggled, his Kansas City counterpart shined. James Shields (10-8) dominated through seven scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and a walk while striking out nine. He retired the first 11 batters he faced before giving up a hit to Edwin Encarnacion. Shields, who was traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to Kansas City in December, is now 12-6 against his former division rival. "Shields is good," said Gibbons. "They get a lead like that, youre probably not going to get to him too often. I think hes proven that against this ball club for years." Kansas City manager Ned Yost was happy his starter could salvage the finale of the three-game series after two close losses, including a late comeback victory for the Blue Jays on Saturday. "We had James Shields on the mound, which couldnt have been a better answer to what happened yesterday," Yost said. "It just seems like hes getting stronger and stronger as the year goes on ... its what he does everyday. He gets ahead with his fastball and then uses an outstanding change-up to put hitters away." Toronto had its three-game winning streak come to an end. The Blue Jays best chance to score came in the fifth inning when Rajai Davis hit a one-out triple. But Shields struck out Anthony Gose on three pitches, and got Kevin Pillar swinging to end the threat. Toronto relievers Chad Jenkins and Neil Wagner combined for four scoreless frames and Dustin McGowan -- who was activated earlier in the day after rehabbing a strained oblique for the past month -- worked the ninth. Hosmer had two hits and drove in three runs and Dyson also racked up a pair of singles. Bonifacio had two hits and scored twice, and stole two bases to bring his tally to a perfect 11 for 11 in steals with Kansas City. The Royals opened the scoring with a Hosmer RBI groundout that scored Bonifacio, who was walked by Happ, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher J.P. Arencibia. Blue Jays rookie Ryan Goins eight-game hitting streak was snapped. He tied Jesse Barfields team record for the longest hitting streak to begin a career on Saturday. Though Torontos three-game set with the Royals ended with a bitter loss, Reyes was able to find a positive. "Were happy to come up with the series," he said, flashing a half-smile. "Every time we win a series, we take that." NOTES: Reliever Steve Delabar was also activated prior to the game after spending nearly a month on the disabled list with right-shoulder inflammation. ... The Blue Jays won the season series over the Royals 4-2. ... Attendance was 22,961 ... The Blue Jays travel to Arizona to take on the Diamondbacks for a three-game set beginning Monday afternoon. Esmil Rogers (3-7, 5.03 earned-run average) is scheduled to start against Arizona right-hander Brandon McCarthy (3-8, 3.67 ERA). Brandon LaFell Jersey .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres signed forward Nicolas Deslauriers to a two-year contract on Monday. Alfonzo Dennard Jersey . The Italian came from behind to overtake Jarlinson Pantano in the final 50 metres and edge out Dario Cataldo on the line after a climb to the sanctuary of Oropa, the scene of Marco Pantanis memorable victory in 1999.MINSK, Belarus - When Troy Brouwer returned from a vacation during the NHLs Olympic break, he tuned in to the final few games of Team Canadas run to gold in Sochi. Understandably, he liked what he saw. "I think the Olympic team did an absolutely amazing job at showing how Canadians play hockey," said Brouwer. Brouwer wasnt the only one. Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett saw not just a winning style of hockey but something to emulate. As coach of Canadas team at the world championship, he wants to follow the path blazed by Mike Babcock and the stars who went undefeated at the Olympics. "I look at the blueprint from a few months ago in Sochi, the way Canada played: A hard, Canadian style of hockey," Tippett said in a recent phone interview. "If we can go and try to continue that mindset for our team, I think that would be something that would be crazy not to look at." It would be crazy to think any team can duplicate that effort in perfect fashion. Canadas team for the IIHF world hockey championship wont have any players from Sochi and this is a different tournament altogether. Most of the other countries are in the same boat, absent the top-end NHL talent from the Olympics, save for Alex Ovechkin and Sergei Bobrovsky returning for Russia after its disappointing run and others like Jaromir Jagr of the Czech Republic and Gustav Nyquist of Sweden also going to Minsk. But that doesnt change Canaadas plan for this tournament, which begins with Fridays opener against France. Kyle Turris isnt Sidney Crosby, Morgan Rielly isnt Shea Weber and neither James Reimer nor Ben Scrivens is Carey Price, but the hope is that talented NHL players in their own right can get the same job done. "I think your team has to have its own identity, but you look at what that team did and the success it had on the big ice and with NHL players, theres certainly some things that you can use on our team," Tippett said. "The team that played in Sochi, you could say was one of the best teams in the history of the game, the way they played. You realize we dont have that same team, but the way they played and their commitment to playing as a team was as strong as anything weve seen in a long time. That part of the game can certainly translate into our team." The first steps are there. General manager Rob Blake along with assistant GMs Ron Hextall, Brad Treliving and Brad Pascall, like Steve Yzerman and his management team several months ago, looked for forward pairs to put together. Tippett, like Babcock, believes in having a left- and a right-handed shot on each defensive pairing. In terms of selecting the roster, Blake reiterated the obvious: that unlike the Olympics, an event every healthy player called wants badly to play in, the world championship is more selective. It has been a long NHL season and its too much of a grind to expect Sochi Olympianss to jump at the chance to play three extra weeks in Minsk. Jerod Mayo Patriots Jersey. "You go down to the tier of the younger guys and you get your commitments," Blake said in a phone interview. "You kind of work around. But Ron Hextall, Brad Treliving and Brad Pascall, the one thing they were pretty passionate about from the beginning is the guys that want to be there, those are the ones that you want." That group includes three Maple Leafs: Reimer, Rielly and centre Nazem Kadri, who played on the wing in Canadas exhibition game Tuesday in Zurich. It also includes in defenceman Braydon Coburn and forwards Brayden Schenn and Matt Read, three Flyers who just wrapped up a seven-game series loss to the Rangers. The crown jewel of the roster might be one of the final additions: Colorado Avalanche rookie Nathan MacKinnon, the likely Calder Trophy winner who impressed in his first season and first Stanley Cup playoff series. MacKinnon is on the team at age 18 like Crosby was in 2006, when the Penguins star had eight goals and eight assists in nine games. Even before MacKinnon it was a young team thanks to defencemen Erik Gudbranson, Ryan Ellis, Tyler Myers and Rielly and forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Sean Monahan and Mark Scheifele. Jason Chimera of the Washington Capitals, who won gold at the 2007 worlds in Moscow, is Canadas oldest player at the age of 35. Chimeras Capitals teammates Brouwer and Joel Ward are also on the roster. Chimera, a candidate to be captain, is important to Tippetts plan for the tournament because he knows what its all about. "The importance of the players who have been over there before and their experiences, especially relating that to our younger players that havent had that experience, is going to be a very important part of our preparation," Tippett said. The one thing about Canadas relative international inexperience is that its not a rarity here. Aside from Norway, Switzerland and Latvia, which feature national teams with major Sochi flavour, most teams have significant turnover from the Olympics. Tippett didnt see that as something Canada can take advantage of. From his experience as an assistant in this tournament, he knows what it means for European players and countries. "For the players that play in those leagues over there, this is their Stanley Cup playoffs," Tippett said. "If they win, their country puts a lot of onus on this tournament, and even though the players on our team would look at the Stanley Cup as the greatest thing to play for, you almost have to have that mind-set that the world championships, for a lot of these players over there, thats their Stanley Cup. "Well make sure that our players know the importance it is to those other teams to win and our competitiveness should be at the same level if were going to have a chance to win." --- Follow @SWhyno on Twitter ' ' '
