Bayern Trupp » Its no secret that were looking

OAKLAND, Calif. -- With the Texas rotation ravaged by injuries early in the season, Martin Perez has more than filled the void. Perez pitched his second consecutive shutout to extend his scoreless innings streak to 26 and the Texas Rangers wrapped up a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a 3-0 victory Wednesday. "Hes been the glue," manager Ron Washington said. "Hes held it together. Hes the one guy in that rotation whos been in it from last year who hasnt had a blip yet." The Rangers have been without Yu Darvish, Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis already at times this season but still find themselves in first place thanks to some strong play from fill-ins and major improvement from Perez. Perez (4-0) outpitched Sonny Gray (3-1) in a heralded matchup of emerging stars, allowing just three hits and two walks in his first start since throwing a three-hitter against the White Sox for his first career shutout. "I dont want to think too much about my ERA and the games that Ive thrown before," Perez said. "Im going to focus on my game today. We had a great game." Perez, who also threw eight scoreless innings against Houston on April 13, is the first Rangers pitcher to have three straight scoreless starts since Kenny Rogers had four straight over 30 innings in 2005. Perez also joined Charlie Hough in 1983 as the only Texas pitchers to have three straight starts of at least eight scoreless innings. "He knows how to pitch," Washington said. "He has weapons and he can throw them all for strikes and he has poise. He does a great job of staying with the game plan and thats something that hes learned from last year, how to study, how to go out there and just execute his pitches." Donnie Murphy homered and Michael Choice scored one run and drove in another for the Rangers, who moved a half-game ahead of Oakland in the AL West with their first sweep of the As since August 2011. The As never even threatened Perez on their way to getting swept at home for the first time since September 2012 against the Angels, ending a streak of 32 straight home series with at least one win. "Youre going to have your little lumps in the road," As third baseman Josh Donaldson said. "Everybody knows that here. We just have to come back." Oakland got leadoff singles from Jed Lowrie in the fourth and Derek Norris in the fifth for its first two hits off Perez. But Perez followed each of those hits by getting the next batter to hit into a double play, giving him a major league-leading 11 groundball double plays. Donaldson doubled with one out in the seventh, but was stranded there when Alberto Callaspo grounded out with runners on first and second to end the inning. "He keeps the ball off the barrel of the bat," As manager Bob Melvin said. "Hes pitched really well this year. The reason he can get deep in games is hes not striking a lot of guys out, hes just keeping it off the barrel of the bat." Gray allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings to end a six-game winning streak in the regular season dating to last September. He fell behind when Choice led the game off with a walk and scored on Alex Rios triple. The Rangers were poised for a possible big inning when Rios was originally ruled safe at home on a grounder Lowrie at shortstop. But Melvin challenged the call and Rios was ruled out on instant replay. Choice, traded from Oakland to Texas in the off-season, added an RBI single in the fifth and Murphy hit his first homer of the season in the sixth to make it 3-0. NOTES: Rangers 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff was held out with a sore back. ... Scott Kazmir (2-0) will take the mound against Brett Oberholtzer (0-3) on Thursday when Oakland opens a four-game series in Houston. ... Texas is off Thursday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle on Friday. Air Max 200 Promo Homme .com) - The Minnesota Twins made it official on Wednesday, announcing the signing of outfielder Torii Hunter to a one-year contract. Air Max 270 Femme Moins Cher . -- Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Sidney Rice tweeted an apparent goodbye after a report about his pending release. http://www.airmaxpaschersite.fr/basket-a...720-outlet.html. Chile applied pressure in midfield right from the beginning, challenging aggressively and continually surging forward. Eduardo Vargas beat the offside trap and fired home a stinging shot for Chiles opening goal in the fifth minute. Basket Air Max 720 Pas Cher . -- New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has no concerns about the health of shortstop Derek Jeter, who was limited to 17 games last season due to leg injuries. Air Max 90 Pas Cher Chine . While coach Doc Rivers high-fived fans and pumped his fist at the crowd, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul quietly congratulated each other.ROME - Juventus aims to bounce back from a loss to Napoli in the Italian Super Cup when it hosts Inter Milan on Tuesday as Serie A resumes with a full slate of matches after a holiday break.Juventus holds a three-point lead over Roma and has lost only once in the Italian league — to Genoa in October — but struggled at times in a shootout loss to Napoli in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 23.The squad is energized again after the vacation, which we needed after five months at high intensity, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said Monday. Its going to be a difficult match with Inter as its the first one of the year and that makes it dangerous. Just look at what happened yesterday to Real Madrid with Valencia.In other matches, Roma visits mid-table Udinese, Napoli looks to build on the Juve win at struggling Cesena, and AC Milan hosts Sassuolo.___DERBY DITALIA: When Juventus and Inter play, its called the derby dItalia — Italys derby — as its a matchup between two of the clubs with the most fans in the country.This season, its also a matchup between two of the leagues leading scorers: Carlos Tevez tops the scoring chart with 10 goals for Juventus, while Mauro Icardi is tied for second on the list with eight for Inter.Inter is the only big Italian club that Tevez has not scored against since joining Juve last season. Fellow Argentine Icardi scored twice against Juve in a 2-1 win while with Sampdoria two years ago in the first match after the winter break.Inter has made progress recently and rediscovered its confidence. The team that pays more attention and is more focused will win, Allegri said. Its not a physical or technical matter, its a mental thing.___SCORING HELP: With Inter in 11th place, 18 points behind Juventus, new coach Roberto Mancini has been looking for a striker to share goal scoring duties with Icardi and he may have foundd his man in Lukas Podolski.ddddddddddddThe 29-year-old forward has already joined Inter while finalizing a transfer from Arsenal. Having scored 47 goals in 121 appearances for Germany, he has the pedigree to satisfy Mancini.We needed two wingers and Podolski is one of them, Mancini said Monday. He has a lot of experience and I hope he can give us a big hand.Inter is also reportedly interested in signing Ezequiel Lavezzi from Paris Saint-Germain or Xherdan Shaqiri from Bayern Munich. Mancini indicated, however, that it would be difficult to sign either player.___JUVES NEEDS: Wesley Sneijder helped Inter win a treble of titles under Jose Mourinho in 2010 and is now being courted by Juventus.Its no secret that were looking for a playmaker and a defender, Allegri said. Sneijder has great technical qualities. He would help complete an area of midfield that is already very strong and that would create competition.Sneijder currently plays for Galatasaray, already eliminated from the Champions League.Juve is also looking for help in defence. Center back Andrea Barzagli has missed the entire season thus far following right foot surgery in July. The Italy international is slated to miss at least another month.___438 GOALS: Francesco Totti and Antonio Di Natale have scored a total of 438 goals between them in Serie A and will go head-to-head Tuesday in an attractive matchup of the leagues two top active scorers.The 38-year-old Totti is second all-time with 237 goals in 571 appearances and the 37-year-old Di Natale is seventh on the list with 201 in 404 matches.Silvio Piola, who won the 1938 World Cup with Italy, has the record of 274 goals.Were fighting for the title and the difference with last year is that we have to win something, said Roma coach Rudi Garcia.___Andrew Dampf can be followed at www.twitter.com/asdampf ' ' '