consulting producer Paysinger

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The Oakland Athletics have played their way into contention by beating up on teams that are far from it.

Oakland enters the All-Star break having won 21 of its last 27 DeAndre Hopkins Jersey , and the A’s are only three games behind the second wild card. At 55-42, manager Bob Melvin’s Athletics would have the second-best record in the National League if they were in it. Instead, they play in the AL West, where their impressive mark still leaves them eight games behind division-leading Houston.

Nevertheless, there have been some encouraging signs for an Oakland team that hasn’t finished above .500 since 2014. The A’s are 31-21 on the road and during one stretch homered in 27 straight games away from home. Oakland has seven players with at least 10 homers, led by Khris Davis with 21 and Matt Olson with 19.

On the mound, Sean Manaea has rebounded from a poor May, and Blake Treinen and Lou Trivino have been excellent out of the bullpen.

The question for the A’s is whether they can win enough games against the other playoff contenders in the American League head to head. The reason Oakland is in this position is because it has taken great advantage of an AL that includes a handful of extremely beatable teams at the bottom. The A’s are 21-4 against the Orioles, Royals, White Sox Walter Payton Jersey , Blue Jays and Tigers. They’re also 4-0 in interleague games against San Diego.

Against the Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, Indians and Mariners, it’s been a different story. Oakland is just 16-21 in those games.

But the A’s took two of three at Cleveland earlier this month, then followed that by winning three of four at Houston. Even when playing close to home, their success in visiting ballparks continued when they took two of three at San Francisco.

Elsewhere around the majors:

VIEW FROM THE TOP

It hasn’t been a breeze this season for the Chicago Cubs, who went to the last three NL Championship Series and won it all in 2016. Kris Bryant only recently came back from a shoulder injury, and Anthony Rizzo hasn’t been hitting that well. Plus, Chicago has had to contend with a spirited challenge from Milwaukee in the NL Central.

But the Cubs enter the break with the NL’s best record Ian Thomas Jersey , and the Brewers have lost six in a row. Then there’s the rival Cardinals, who are 7 games behind Chicago and fired manager Mike Matheny over the weekend .

It’s a little early to start planning for a third straight Cubs-Dodgers NLCS, but Los Angeles is on a nice run of its own, having gone 27-13 since the start of June.

HIGHLIGHT

Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton left marks in the wall in center field after scaling it to make an acrobatic catch on a drive by Matt Carpenter of St. Louis on Friday night. Hamilton went up the wall somewhat awkwardly and was off balance when he caught the ball, falling back onto the warning track. But he held on for the out. It was that kind of week for the Cardinals.

LINE OF THE WEEK

This one came in a losing cause: Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer struck out 12 in eight scoreless innings, allowing only three hits Tuesday night. Then the Indians allowed seven runs in the ninth and lost 7-4 to Cincinnati.

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Former NFL player Spencer Paysinger is drawing on his high school days living between two worlds for his first major Hollywood project.

Paysinger grew up in economically depressed South Los Angeles, but he attended Beverly Hills High School, where he captained the football team in the wealthy enclave. The culture shock he experienced is the basis for "All American," debuting Oct. 10 on the CW.

"I definitely had a gang influence with friends and family growing up in South Central, and people might think that Beverly Hills definitely shielded me from some problems. But in actuality Russell Shepard Jersey , it only opened up a whole new can of worms," Paysinger told a TV critics' meeting on Monday.

"Just dealing with kids with affluence, kids with drug problems and having their parents not be there for weeks on end because they're vacationing or they're doing big business. Just dealing with that contrast was probably the biggest thing that I had to go through."

Paysinger commuted daily to high school as part of a program that brought students from other areas to Beverly Hills, where he had two uncles and an aunt who coached and taught there.

Spencer eventually attended the University of Oregon and won a Super Bowl title with the New York Giants, one of four NFL teams he played for before achieving his goal of retiring from the league no later than age 30.

The series shoots in some of Paysinger's old haunts in South L.A., like a local park and the barbershop he has patronized since he was a kid.

"South Central's been portrayed so many different ways in the media for however long," Paysinger said. "But with this show, I definitely want to implant that family aspect of the community."

Producers hired a consulting firm that designs all of the football plays in the show, and consulting producer Paysinger wants to make sure the action is authentic.

"I don't want friends, I don't want family texting Johnny Hekker Jersey , emailing me saying, 'That's not it. They couldn't have converted on that,' " he said.

Paysinger isn't the only one with pro sports ties involved in the show. One of the writers is Jon Alston, who played five years in the NFL, and retired Major League Soccer player Robbie Rogers is a producer.


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