KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When designated hitter Kendrys Morales started the season slowly, Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost stuck with him.The patience paid off. Morales is hitting .342 with nine home runs and 25 RBI in his past 31 games.Yost said he is absolutely showing the same perseverance with Alex Gordon, who was hitting .200 after going 0-for-4 on Tuesday, striking out twice and failing to get the ball out of the infield.Gordon did not start Wednesday but did deliver a pinch double. After an off-day Thursday, which included the Royals visiting the White House, Gordon walked and tripled in his first two plate appearances in a 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night. It was Gordons first triple since Aug. 17, 2004 at Minnesota.Gordy is a guy that puts everything he has into his game, Yost said. You ask players every single day to come in and be prepared and just give your very best effort every day. As a manager, you take what comes with that, you know good or bad. All they can do is give their best effort. And he does that with the best of them.But he also gets a little frustrated with himself and it kind of compounds the problem a little bit. He wants to be productive. I could see him really starting to grind. When you break out, youre going to break out. Hes just too good of a player not to. He hasnt forgotten how to hit.Gordon, who was a free agent this past winter, signed a four-year, $72 million contract to stay with the club that drafted him second overall in 2005. That is the richest contract ever given a Royals player.He said the contract doesnt have anything to do with it, Yost said. Gordy is a guy; he wants to make sure that youre getting your end of the bargain. You know what Im saying. And hes just right now pressing and getting a little bit frustrated.Does Gordon appear to be standing more upright and diving at balls across the plate?Those are questions I cant answer, articulatory, Yost said. Dale (Sveum, hitting coach) can. Dale has got some ideas that can help him. But like a lot of good players that have had success, they can be a little bit stubborn. They dont blow with the wind, which makes them successful.They are not always trying to tweak and change and do stuff like that. Him and Dale they talk and are trying to figure out what can help him be more productive.Gordon, who has struck out 72 times in 219 at-bats, did not strike out Wednesday on a night when Yu Darvish struck out 11 in six innings.You cant find a whole lot negative with Yus start tonight, Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.Keone Kela and rookie left-hander Jake Diekman each pitched a scoreless inning after Darvish was removed after 91 pitches. Kela gave up a career-worst four runs in one inning on Monday in a loss at the Angels. Diekman was pitching for the first time since July 5 at Boston and going on the disabled list with a lacerated left index finger.It was great to see Keone rebound from the outing in Anaheim, flooding the strike zone with a big fastball, Banister said. It was 97-98 mile per hour, a breaking ball and a double play ball, something he doesnt get a whole lot of.And then to have Jake Diekman and do what he did, to give us an opportunity there. Those two guys are going to play big for us down the stretch out of our bullpen.The two teams meet again Saturday night in the middle game of the weekend series. The Rangers lead over the Houston Astros has dwindled to 2 1/2 games in the AL West. With the victory and the Cleveland loss, the Royals picked up a game on the Indians but are still eight games back in the AL Central.Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura, who starts Saturday, walked a major league-leading 33 in his first nine starts, 6.10 per nine innings. In his past nine starts, however, Ventura has allowed just eight free passes in 52 2/3 innings, 1.37 per nine innings. That ratio ranks third lowest in the AL during that span.The Rangers will counter with All-Star left-hander Cole Hamels. This will be first time to appear in a regular-season game at Kauffman Stadium. He did throw a perfect inning there in the 2012 All-Star Game, retiring Billy Butler, Matt Wieters and Adam Jones. He worked a scoreless inning in this years All-Star game in San Diego.The Rangers are 14-5 in Hamels starts this season, including winning seven of his past eight. He struck out the first six Chicago Cubs he faced in his Sunday start, a 4-1 victory, allowing four hits and one unearned run in eight innings. Alex Morgan USA Jersey . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. The 21-year-old has three goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating in 24 games with the American Hockey Leagues Oklahoma City Barons this season. Lindsey Horan USA Jersey . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. http://www.officialsocceruswntshop.com/Casey-Short-Usa-Jersey/ . And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. From Pierre LeBrun While Anaheim GM Bob Murray said earlier this season he was not going to trade Jonas Hiller despite the fact hes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, some sources have told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Murray might be willing to move another goalie. Adrianna Franch Jersey .ca! Kerry, Two nights after the Scott-Eriksson incident in Buffalo, the Bruins returned home to play San Jose. In that game, Zdeno Chara put a check on Tommy Wingels that clearly targeted his head. Emily Sonnett Jersey . On Mar. 16, coming off a "fight of the year" performance at UFC 154 the previous November, St-Pierre faced Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in what would be his eighth defence of the welterweight title. Using his superior athleticism, St-Pierre cruised to a five round, unanimous decision victory setting up a much-anticipated title defence against number one contender Johny Hendricks. Christian Horner has played down talk of Carlos Sainz leaving Toro Rosso for Mercedes, insisting the Spaniard has a long-term deal with the Red Bull programme.Nico Rosbergs shock retirement from Formula One, made less than a week after he secured his first world championship, has left Mercedes with a seat to fill before the 2017 season. The timing of Rosbergs announcement has left Mercedes with a dilemma as most drivers are tied down to deals for next season.Sainz is one of the drivers to have been linked with the vacant seat. Renault tried to sign the Spaniard for 2017 but were rebuffed by Red Bull, and Horner says Mercedes will get a similar response.Why would we do that [let him go to Mercedes]? Carlos has done a great job. He is a Red Bull driver, Horner told the BBC.We have invested in him to get him into F1 and they are all on long-term contracts so it wouldnt make any sense to feed one of your main opponents with one of your assets. They will know the contractual situations of the drivers they are involved with but their choices are pretty limited.ddddddddddddHorner believes the world champions should follow the example of Red Bull and promote from within, though he also thinks Valtteri Bottas would be a competitive teammate for Lewis Hamilton if Mercedes successfully poached him from Williams.You give these guys a chance. Lets see what people can do in a front-running car.If they did take Wehrlein or Bottas, both are probably both capable of running right at the front, you just dont know until you give them the chance, which is what we did with Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo.A lot of people were saying we should take Kimi Raikkonen at the time we took Ricciardo. Until you give them the chance, you dont really get to see if they can cut it at the front.Mercedes has confirmed it will not be revealing Rosbergs replacement until January 3 at the earliest. ' ' '