Eingangshalle » coast over the next 11 days.The Nationals, who lead the

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two teams that would be National League first-round playoff opponents square off Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series that will feature neither teams staff ace.The Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants will take identical 59-42 records onto the field for the first of seven games they will play coast to coast over the next 11 days.The Nationals, who lead the NL East by four games over the Miami Marlins, rode ace Stephen Strasburgs strong seven-inning outing to a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday before boarding a flight to San Francisco.The Giants, meanwhile, retained a 2 1/2-game lead in the NL West despite a 2-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, a game in which ace Madison Bumgarner lost despite allowing only two runs (one earned) in eight innings.By virtue of both having pitched Wednesday, neither Strasburg nor Bumgarner is scheduled to start again until next week.Interestingly, both are tentatively slated to pitch a week from Sunday, when the Giants and Nationals wrap up a three-game series in Washington.Thursdays first 2016 meeting of the division leaders will pit Giants center Denard Span against his former team for the first time since he left as a free agent over the winter.Washington might finally have found an adequate replacement atop the batting order in Trea Turner, the offensive star the Wednesday win with three hits and three RBI.He is batting .297 in eight games as the Nationals leadoff hitter after the earlier Span replacements struggled at a .214 clip.Hes fun to watch, Strasburg said of Turner after Wednesdays game. I was just excited the other day to finally watch him hit a triple. I was waiting for that for such a long time, just to see him run.The Nationals will be catching Span in his hottest stretch of the season. The Giants leadoff man has recorded two more hits in nine of his past 16 games, raising his average to .256.The Nationals will begin the San Francisco portion of the seven-game sequence by sending right-hander Tanner Roark to the mound.Roark has been roughed up on a regular basis over his past nine starts, allowing four or more runs on four different occasions, including in his last outing against the San Diego Padres.Roark gave up a pair of home runs among four hits in five innings against the Padres, allowing all San Diegos scoring in 5-3 Washington loss last Friday.Home runs were plentiful in the Giants just-completed series with the Cincinnati Reds, during which San Francisco pitchers allowed eight long balls in three games.That was the most home runs allowed by the Giants in a three-game series in AT&T Park history.The homers led directly to a pair of Reds wins, which dropped San Franciscos record since the All-Star break to 2-9.Weve been through this plenty of times, and we know what its about, Bumgarner said of the Giants struggles of late. Things will turn around for us.Right-hander Johnny Cueto (13-2) gets the call for the Giants on Thursday. In his most recent outing, he allowed one run, which was unearned, in six innings Saturday during a no-decision against the Yankees at New York. San Francisco won 2-1 in 12 innings.Outside of the pitching matchups, second base will be a position of focus in the weekend series.Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy smacked his 20th home run of the season in the series finale against Cleveland. He will take the field Thursday with the NLs best batting average (.354).The Giants, meanwhile, have gone 23 games without their star second baseman, Joe Panik, who is recovering from a concussion. San Francisco has gone just 10-13 during that stretch.Panik began a rehab stint at Triple-A Sacramento earlier this week, and Giants manager Bruce Bochy hopes to have his 2015 All-Star, a .300 hitter in each of the previous two seasons, back in the lineup by the weekend. Cheap Chiefs Jerseys .C. - The Carolina Hurricanes have placed backup goalie Anton Khudobin on injured reserve with an unspecified lower-body injury. Cheap Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. http://www.cheapchiefsjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-christian-okoye-jersey Tony Gonzalez Jersey . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. Larry Johnson Jersey .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. IRVING, Texas -- The Bedlam rivalry between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State is moving to its earliest date in more than a decade as the Big 12 tries to avoid a quick rematch in the return of its championship game in 2017.The Sooners and Cowboys will play on Nov. 4 next season after the rivalry was held at or near the end of the regular season every year since 2005.This year, they would have played in consecutive weeks under the format that will be adopted in 2017, when a championship game returns despite the leagues round-robin schedule . Oklahoma and Oklahoma State finished 1-2 last season as well.The title game will be held for the first time since 2010, the last season before conference realignment left the league with 10 teams and no divisions. It will be held Dec. 2 at the home of the NFLs Dallas Cowboys.The Big 12 opted not to split into divisions after deciding against expansion while still adding the title game, leaving no way to guarantee that the top two teams wont play in consecutive weeks at the end of the regular season.The return of the championship game also means no byes after Oct. 7, with the league losing its extraa week to play regular-season games.dddddddddddd The first full schedule on Oct. 14 is highlighted by the Red River rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas.Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will both be at home on the final weekend of the regular season. The Sooners will face West Virginia, and the Cowboys will get Kansas on that Thanksgiving weekend, which includes the Baylor-TCU rivalry in Fort Worth and Texas Tech visiting the Longhorns.The last time Oklahoma and Oklahoma State played before late November was Oct. 30, 2004, when the Big 12 still had 12 teams and a divisional format.There are three games on each of the first two weekends of Big 12 play, starting with West Virginia-Kansas, Oklahoma-Baylor and TCU-Oklahoma State on Sept. 23.Kansas State (home against Baylor) and Texas Tech (home against Oklahoma State) have their conference openers on Sept. 30 along with Texas and Iowa State. The Longhorns visit the Cyclones.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 ' ' '