finished, people would have to respect him as we

MILWAUKEE -- The Pittsburgh Pirates are red hot heading to Chicago. But their postseason aspirations could hinge on medical examinations off the field over the coming days.Ivan Nova threw six sharp innings before leaving early because of a hurting left hamstring and the Pirates hit three solo homers to rally past the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 on Sunday for their eighth straight road victory.Were going to leave here in a good place but weve got to show up in Chicago, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. I dont think you could ask for much more here at the end of August. We get to play meaningful games. It should be fun.Pittsburgh is in the thick of the NL Wild Card race, but Novas injury is the latest issue in a road that gets much tougher for the Pirates.I was trying not to think about it, said Nova, who was pulled as a precaution. It was my first time experiencing something like that. I decided to tell the manager.Ace Gerrit Cole will not start Monday, instead heading to get an outside opinion on his ailing right elbow and missing at least one scheduled start.We will talk more about Gerrit and his situation when he comes back from the doctor, general manager Neal Huntington said.John Jaso and Gregory Polanco each homered in the sixth off Brewers starter Chase Anderson (7-11) to complete Pittsburghs first sweep at Miller Park since 2004. Starling Marte added a solo shot in the eighth.Nova (4-0) retired 10 of his final 11 batters after allowing Jonathan Villars solo homer in the third. He scattered three hits and struck out four before being pinch hit for in the seventh. Tony Watson converted his 10th save in 13 opportunities.Nova is pitching like a staff ace so far in Pittsburgh before he hits free agency this winter. Hes struck out 22 and walked just four in 31 1/3 innings with a 2.87 ERA over his first five starts since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Yankees.Itd be pretty silly for the manager to push him out there for one more inning and he blows his hamstring, Hurdle said. We were very pleased with that effort.ANDERSON STRUGGLESAnderson again failed to get out of the sixth inning for Milwaukee -- for the 11th time in his last 12 starts.He worked his way out of a bases loaded jam with one out in the fourth, but grooved a pair of pitches in the sixth and was pulled after Polancos shot put Pittsburgh ahead for good.The command was there for me today for the most part, just got away from me in the sixth inning, Anderson said.PIRATES MOVEPirates 3B Adam Frazier was optioned to Single-A Bristol before the game and RHP A.J. Schugel was recalled. Frazier started at third base in Saturdays 9-6 win.TRAINERS ROOMPirates: With Cole out, Hurdle says his rotation plan in Chicago will be Steven Brault on Monday followed by Chad Kuhl and Ryan Vogelsong.Brewers: Brewers RHP Junior Guerra (right elbow) is expected to return to the rotation at some point after Thursdays day off. He threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in his previous rehab start at Triple-A Colorado Springs.UP NEXTPirates: Brault (0-1, 3.60 ERA) will be recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis. The left-hander will make his third career start.Brewers: Zach Davies (10-6, 4.06) takes the hill in the opener of a series against St. Louis. Cheap NBA Jerseys . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Cheap College Jerseys . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. https://www.cheapnfljerseysjustwholesale.com/cheap-mlb-jerseys . SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. NFL Jerseys Sale . For the Wild it was their first win of the season and they now have a record of 1-1-2 while the Jets fall to 2-2. Jets start a six game home stand Friday with another divisional game, home to the Dallas Stars. China NFL Jerseys . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. A former WWE superstar with zero mixed martial arts experience entered the UFC Octagon on Saturday -- and it was only the third or fourth strangest thing to occur on the evening.Thats how bizarre UFC 203 was.In the co-main event, referee Gary Copeland allowed heavyweight Travis Browne to essentially call an injury timeout to fix a mangled finger, which is definitely not supposed to happen. Brownes opponent, Fabricio Werdum, went on to win anyway -- and then proceeded to half-heartedly kick Brownes trainer, Edmond Tarverdyan, during a brief in-cage scuffle.Stipe Miocic knocked out Alistair Overeem to retain the UFC heavyweight championship in the next fight, after which a dazed Overeem claimed Miocic had tapped out to a guillotine choke prior to scoring the knockout. Rather than talk it out later once Overeems faculties returned, the UFC ran a series of in-house replays from multiple angles that clearly showed there was no tap -- all while Overeem stood awkwardly by.And all of this took place after the event had already seen a fight scrapped at the last minute, when C.B. Dollaway suffered a freak injury to his back when an elevator in his hotel malfunctioned.What do we ultimately make of all this madness? Heres what we learned at UFC 203.The UFC cant promote a second CM Punk fightLook, a lot of positive words have been written about Punk in the past 48 hours and Im not here to disagree with any of them. Whether or not his story deserved to be linked to the UFC, its an inspiring one.Punk, 37, walked out of a lucrative career in professional wrestling two years ago because it didnt make him happy. He pursued a journey in mixed martial arts because it did. Good for him.That said, there is no way the UFC can justify bringing him into the Octagon again after his first-round submission loss to Mickey Gall?(3-0) on Saturday.The UFC does deserve credit for doing something no one thought it would do, and that is book Punk against a legitimate opponent. Thats not to say Gall has proven himself a UFC-caliber welterweight -- he hasnt yet. But at the very least, hes an athletic 24-year-old prospect with a tangible skill set.And if were being candid here, that alone probably meant he was out of Punks league. Punk has a long professional wrestling career on his odometer. As inspiring as it for him to say, age is just a number, the reality is that number stannds for something, as does the back surgery he underwent earlier this year.ddddddddddddHed never say this, but he was in an impossible situation at UFC 203.If last weekend was Punks initiation to MMA, a trial by fire to see if hed have the guts to come back from a public beating, his second fight should be about actual competition. Because thats what this guy has said he wants. He wants to fight for real and in order to do that, he deserves the right to do it in a real situation.That means booking him against a similarly skilled opponent.The UFC isnt the right promotion for that job. The opponent Punk needs is not someone the UFC should be signing -- even to a one-fight deal.And again, none of this is meant to be a negative on Punk. On a personal note, Id have interest in seeing Punk fight outside the UFC. If he did so, theres no question in my mind Id tune in. But as far as seeing him do it in the Octagon? Count me out.When Punk announced he had signed with the UFC in 2014, he described this respect he had for everyone who stepped into the cage and said by the time he was finished, people would have to respect him as well.He earned that respect on Saturday, by seeing the process through and stepping into the Octagon himself. Doing so a second time might actually jeopardize that respect.The dark horse that is Stipe Miocic continues to rideEven the staunchest Miocic supporters would be hard-pressed to say they always pegged him for UFC history. Hes two wins away from doing exactly that.This stat is well documented, youve probably heard it by now: No UFC heavyweight champion has ever defended the title more than twice consecutively.Throughout his career, no one has really doubted Miocic but there has always been room on his bandwagon. While its not a shock hes the heavyweight champ, it never felt like a foregone conclusion beforehand either.Should Miocic be the one to finally break that two-defense barrier, among all the great names that have previously held that title, it would fit in perfectly to his dark horse reputation. His path to get there figures to be difficult, as it will presumably include a matchup against former champion Cain Velasquez.At this point, however, it would be foolish to discount his chances. ' ' '