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As the playoff hopes of the Pittsburgh Pirates took a hit during the last two and a half weeks, all Gerrit Cole could do was watch.The Pirates ace will make his return from the 15-day disabled list (elbow) Monday when Pittsburgh opens a four-game series in Philadelphia. But the Pirates have almost eliminated themselves from the playoffs. Sundays loss in Cincinnati marked their third in a row and 11th in their last 13.Theyve fallen to 5 1/2 games behind St. Louis for the final wildcard spot in the National League playoff race. Theyre now 69-72 on the year. Pittsburgh was 63-61 when Cole last made a start.Cole, the teams ace, has had a disappointing and injury-plagued 2016. He has a 3.55 ERA in 20 starts. In his last four starts before hitting the DL with elbow inflammation, he gave up 34 hits and 17 earned runs in 21 2/3 innings, helping drop his record on the year to 7-9. This, after an impressive 2.60 ERA in 32 starts in 2015.Its the injuries that slowed him in 2016.It is awful, Cole said Thursday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Especially in a season like this where you feel you can make an impact. But you deal with the cards you are dealt and try to make the best hand out of it.Now, hell likely have four more starts to right his season, as the Pirates fight to save their playoff hopes.Im a big believer that the greatest indicator of the present is the past, athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk told the Post-Gazette. But Im also stubborn and want to be a pioneer and move forward and try to do something different to prevent these injuries. So, sure, (Cole) is more prone to injuries with three in one season.However, were going to have an all-systems attack on how were going to address a lot of his kinetic-chain issues that may or may not have caused some of his ailments this year.In Philadelphia, Cole and the Pirates meet a Phillies team that freshly promoted two prospects, outfielder Roman Quinn and catcher Jorge Alfaro, and is finishing out another year of rebuilding. Quinn, a Top 10 prospect in the Phillies system, started in his MLB debut Sunday. He batted second and played center field.Quinn went 0-for-3 with a walk and a diving catch in his debut.The Phillies (63-80), losers of three straight after a 3-2 loss in Washington Sunday, are likely to call up more prospects as they play out the final strings of 2016. And theyll likely use a variety of pitchers down the stretch, as some pitchers are reaching their innings limits.Veteran righty Jeremy Hellickson (10-9, 3.90 ERA), whom the Phillies decided to hang onto at the trade deadline, meets Cole Monday night.Hellickson, 29, has been the veteran presence and innings eater the young Phillies pitching staff has relied on.I think having Jeremy here is very important to our club, general manager Matt Klentak said last month. There was a reason we brought him here in the first place. The reason we traded for him was to add some stability to our rotation, help to mentor our young pitchers, to help to protect them from the workloads, help to save the bullpen.Hell continue to do all of that as the final three weeks of the season play out. Replica Shoes Wholesale China . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. Wholesale Shoes From China . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. http://www.wholesaleshoes.us.org/ .5 seconds to play in the game, Kevin Love never stopped believing that they would come out of there with a win. Replica Shoes Wholesale . 10 Texas Rangers jersey for one last time. Young formally announced his retirement Friday after returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13 major league seasons. Shoes Wholesale China Market .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. (STATS) -- Liberty head coach Turner Gill and assistant Ron Brown each received one-game suspensions for a secondary NCAA recruiting violation, the university announced Friday.Brown will sit out Saturdays home game against Monmouth, while Gill will serve his penalty at a yet-to-determined date this season.The Level III violation occurred when Brown texted a scholarship offer to a prospective recruit prior to the Aug. 1 permissible date of his senior year in high school. NCAA rules regard a text as the same as a written offer.Gill reported the infraction to Libertys athletic department after Brown informed him of the incident.Our football staff makes every effort to live within the guidelines and policies established by the NCAA in all areas of our program, Gill said in a statement released by Liberty. I knew it was necessary to self-report this violation once it was brought to my attenntion.dddddddddddd I take full responsibility for the consequences that go along with this violation and will make sure it does not happen again.NCAA rules state both the head coach and identified assistant must serve one-game suspensions for this type of violation.We take compliance with NCAA rules and regulations seriously, and have followed the directives mandated for this sort of violation, Liberty director of athletics Jeff Barber said. A culture of compliance has been clearly established by our programs which is proven by the self-reporting of NCAA violations such as this one.Liberty (3-3, 1-0 Big South) brings a two-game winning streak into Saturdays Big South matchup and is coming off a 36-21 victory at Kennesaw State in last weeks conference opener. ' ' '