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CHICAGO - This road trip, the Blue Jays last of the three-city variety and the last against non-American League East opponents, hasnt gone according to plan. Cheap Shoes Wholesale Free Shipping . Really, this road trip is an extension of the entire month of August, which hasnt gone according to plan. After Sundays 7-5 loss to the White Sox, a game in which Toronto dug a deep hole early only to claw back but fall short, resulted in another lost series to a Chicago team with no playoff aspirations. The Jays are 1-5 on the road trip, with two in Milwaukee to go, 4-11 this month and fell behind yet another team - the Yankees - as baseballs playoff push kicks into its final six weeks. Star slugger Jose Bautista, known for his pragmatism when assessing the current state of affairs, didnt deviate from the course. "Weve got to play the same way we would if we were in first place," said Bautista. "Weve just got to come out here and try to win every single game and just hope that the guys that are ahead of us lose enough games that we gain that ground. Thats pretty much all you can control is the way you play and then hope for everybody else to lose some games. That certainly can happen. It happened to us." Players wake up on Monday morning members of a third place team. The Yankees beat the Rays on Sunday, moving ahead of Toronto in the division. The Jays are seven and a half games behind AL East-leading Baltimore. New York also moved ahead of the Jays in the hunt for the second wild card spot. Toronto is four games back of the leader, Seattle, and with Detroit and the Yankees in between, the waters get increasingly muddied. The pitching staff (4.90 ERA in August) is showing signs of fraying. Drew Hutchison followed up a tough start in Seattle with a poor outing on Sunday. Hutchison gave the Jays seven innings but he allowed six, two-out runs in the first inning thanks to, among other things, two walks, a grand slam and a two-run home run. The offence chipped away but couldnt overcome the damage. Edwin Encarnacion hit his first home run since returning from the disabled list, a positive sign for a ballclub that thrives off the home run and suffers more than most teams without it. Month-by-month, here are the Jays home run totals: April: 31May: 47June: 28July: 25August: 7 "It wasnt like we didnt have any shots," said manager John Gibbons after Sundays game. "We had them on the ropes and at the ballpark on a day the ball was flying we couldnt elevate anything, other than Eddies ball. And we need that. We need that to win." So its off to Milwaukee where, like Chicago, the Jays will be spared the Brewers best starting pitcher. Mike Fiers and Jimmy Nelson will provide the mound opposition for the two-game series, under National League rules, which begins on Tuesday. Its the next chance for the Jays to right the ship. CECIL GAINING STRENGTH Looking at the numbers, breaking it down into different blocks of time, Brett Cecil has the perfect description of his second season working in the Blue Jays bullpen. "I feel like the whole season for me has been up and down," said Cecil. "I started off well, seven appearances and everything to show for it. Then I had a couple of bumps and I feel like since then its continued to be up and down." Working backward from the most recent chunk of outings, Cecils run hot and cold. From July 20 to August 16: 12 appearances, 11 of which were scoreless, posting a 2.70 ERA. Between June 11 and July 19, Cecil had nine outings in which he allowed four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings (6.75 ERA). For the approximately month-long span from May 11 to June 10, which coincided with the clubs hottest stretch of the year, Cecil appeared in 11 games, pitching 7 2/3 scoreless innings. After 10 scoreless appearances to start the season, Cecils first hiccup came between April 24 and May 11 when he posted a 10.13 ERA over eight outings. Like left-handed relief counterpart Aaron Loup, whos already walked more than twice the number of hitters this season than he did in 2013, Cecils been bitten by the base on balls. Hes walked 21 batters in 39 2/3 innings this season, compared with 23 in 60 2/3 innings last year. The culprit isnt health. Cecil said he feels fine after battling elbow pain late in 2013. The problem is with his mechanics. Hes been falling off to the third base side too often as he completes his delivery. "With throwing so many curveballs, trying to figure out how to keep my fastball in the zone when I want to throw it," said Cecil. "It seems like Im way up in the zone or way down in the zone so Ive got to find that happy medium." Torontos 4.26 bullpen ERA is fifth-worst in baseball. It comes on the heels of a 2013 year in which the relief corps was the bright light in a down year, posting a 3.37 ERA (ninth-best) while pitching the third most innings (552 2/3). What role carryover fatigue has played in the decline is a matter of debate. "As far as Im concerned this has been another successful season to this point, out of the bullpen, and hopefully it only gets better," said Cecil. Wholesale Shoes Cheap . Dallas also Monday recalled defenceman Aaron Rome from his conditioning assignment with the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League and assigned goaltender Jack Campbell to the AHL squad. Wholesale Shoes Online . Karlovic of Croatia used his big serve to beat Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7). Kohlschreiber had lost all of his three previous matches against Istomin but the German broke serve for a decisive 3-2 lead in the third set and held on to reach his first final of the year. http://www.cheapshoeswebsites.com/ . He was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 5th. The 34-year-old Laval, Que. native has played six seasons with the Penguins.Chester, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of teams in desperate need of points will clash on Thursday as the Philadelphia Union welcome the Chicago Fire to PPL Park in a classic six-pointer. Philadelphia enters the match sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 38 points, three behind New York for the fifth and final playoff berth. Last time out, the Union suffered a 1-0 defeat to East-leading D.C. United which put a significant dent in the Unions playoff hopes. The games lone goal came after 10 minutes. A deflected cross found its way to United fullback Chris Korb, who quickly whipped the ball in to the top of the six. Luis Silva was waiting and deftly headed the ball past Union goalkeeper Rais MBolhi and into the back of the net. The Union suffered their first loss since Aug. 15 -- when they lost 2-0 at the Houston Dynamo -- though the defeat at D.C. United followed a pair of draws. The goals have dried up. You know, were struggling. We are getting chances. Were creating chances, maybe a little more commitment to get in the box, said Union manager Jim Curtin. We are going to have to find a way to fight through it, and we need to now win three games in a row to give ourselves even a chance at the playoffs. The Union were also shut out at the attacking end for a second consecutive match, the first time since April 19-26 they were blanked in back-to-back games. Conor [Caseys] up there fighting with two center backs and thats not good enough, Curtin said. We have to have more commitment from Chhaco [Maidana], from Vincent [Nogueira], from Amobi [Okugo] to get in the box late. Cheap Shoes Online. You saw today there were probably ten crosses that get knocked down around the 8-to 12-yard-line and we dont have anyone there to get on the end of it. Thats a commitment to getting in the box. Chicago, meanwhile, is coming off a 2-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo which extended its winless run to five matches. The Fire fell behind just after the quarter-hour. From the left side of the field, midfielder Ricardo Clark got the best of Fire veteran Logan Pause before firing a cross toward the back post. Omar Cummings split a pair of defenders to come sliding in for a simple finish. Houston then added a second goal in the 67th minute. Defender Kofi Sarkodie hit a cross from the right side to midfielder Brad Davis, who headed the ball back to a wide-open Boniek Garcia at the penalty spot, and he thumped home a picture-perfect volley with his left foot. Its been tough all year, weve tied 16 out of 29 games and youve got to turn some of those ties into wins and we havent, Fire head coach Frank Yallop said. So were not good enough. I guess we have something to slightly build on that we dont lose a ton of games, but we lost which is obviously a very disappointing result at this time of the season. But weve got to pick ourselves up, weve got play on Thursday, so weve got to get ready for that one. This will be the third and final meeting between the sides, which played to draws on April 5 and July 19. ' ' '