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MINNEAPOLIS -- The Cleveland Indians will try and take the momentum gained during an 8-2 homestand and carry it to the road when they begin a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Friday night at Target Field.Cleveland owns the second-best record in the American League and leads the Central Division by six games over the Detroit Tigers but has struggled against last place Minnesota this season. The Twins, who own the worst record in baseball (52-88) and have won just three times in their last 20 games, are 8-8 against the Indians.Minnesota is 10-34 against the other three teams in the Central Division.The Indians, meanwhile, salvaged a split against the Houston Astros in a 10-7 win at Progressive Field. The victory allowed Cleveland to push its lead one-half game further ahead of idle Detroit, which welcomes the Baltimore Orioles to Comerica Park on Friday.Weve got to win the homefield advantage, said Indians slugger Mike Napoli. Were still a game and a half behind Texas for that. So every game is still important for us. Were not letting down. Detroit is a good team. They are not out of it. Ive seen leads shrink quick. Our goal is to have the best record in the American League.Minnesota came back to steal a win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday to take the finale of a three-game series. The Twins were in danger of dropping to 2-5 during the first seven games of a 10-game, 11-day homestand, but instead, have a chance to post a winning record during that stretch if they can continue their winning ways against the Indians.The Twins are hoping to see a continued resurgence from rookie outfielder Byron Buxton, who has been red-hot since being recalled from Triple-A Rochester last week. Buxton has four doubles, four homers, 10 RBI and 10 runs in seven games since his recall.I feel more comfortable, Buxton said. I still have learning to do but I feel confident, feel prepared and I feel ready.Danny Salazar will continue his efforts to round back into form in the series opener for Cleveland. The right-hander has a 2.45 ERA over his last two starts while striking out 21 batters in just 11 innings.Tyler Duffey will start for the first time since Aug. 24 after a brief stint in Rochester. The right-hander has struggled in Minnesota this season to the tune of a 6.24 ERA in 115 1/3 innings. Duffey allowed five runs on eight hits in six innings his last time against the Indians, earning the victory on Aug. 3 at Progressive Field. Jerseys From China . The Cincinnati Reds remain perfect with their speedy rookie outfielder in the starting lineup. Soccer Jerseys China . -- Quarterback Will Finch threw for 252 yards and three touchdowns, and Yannick Harou rushed in two scores as the No. http://www.jerseyssoccercheap.com/ . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. Cheap Jerseys Wholesale . Schenn scored the game-winning goal and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday. China Jerseys Cheap . The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Jones (19-1). It was the champions closest call. Despite the loss, it was a remarkable show by the confident Swedish challenger, who had the best of the early rounds and then hung on in the fourth and fifth. SAINT-DENIS, France -- Football is a cruel game. Sometimes even for its winners.Cruel because Cristiano Ronaldo had to watch the victory of his life -- at least one of them -- from the sidelines.Portugals name, for the first time, is now engraved on a major trophy. But one of the enduring memories of the European Championship final will be that Ronaldo played too small a part in the 1-0 win against France for him to deserve being anointed as world player of the year for a fourth time. Truth is, Portugal played better without him.And cruel because France lost in the very stadium that suicide bombers attacked last November. After that horror there was a solid argument to be made that the French would have been more endearing winners, that a pick-me-up trophy could have helped speed their recovery from the trauma.And also cruel because in six games before they lost their scoring touch in the all-important seventh match, the French on balance played better football at Euro 2016 than Portugal.Wales, in the semifinals, was the only team the Portuguese beat inside of 90 minutes. Against France, it took them 109 minutes for Eder to burst through Les Bleus defenses, with a stunning strike.Lets also not forget that, in Portugal, Europe has a champion that didnt win any of its group-stage games and only squeezed into the knockout stages, with just three points, thanks to the more forgiving format adopted for this expanded first tournament with 24 teams. Critics who feel that the new systems addition of eight teams has come at the expense of footballing quality will doubtless argue that Portugals victory proves them right.But, as the French themselves say, cest la vie -- or, as English speakers would say, thats football. Because footballs stubborn refusal to follow the script is what makes it so compelling, this final again offering strong evidence of that.Who, after all, would have penned only a cameo role for Ronaldo, now the proud owner of one type of winners medal that Lionel Messi doesnt have, in Portugals Hollywood moment?As at Euro 2004, we again saw Ronaldo cry -- this time after his left knee buckled in a scrap for the ball in the 9th minute with Dimitri Payet. Normally, the French winger tends not to bother himself with the grunt work of tackling and defending. But Payet and his teammates were combative, even borderline aggressive, in the opening half where they quickly swarmed over Portugals defenses. France, a team that used to be bullied, most infamously in losing a 1982 World Cup semifinal to Germany, was the more physical side.To be fair to Payet, the injury to Ronaldo wasnt malicious, but rather just one of those things that can happen when one man clatters into another at an awkward angle. Portugals captain tried soldiering on. When he sat down oon the field, distraught, in need of treatment, a moth settled on his right eye, as if coming to dry his tears.ddddddddddddWith the knee strapped up, a sprint up field that finished in a hobble made it clear that Ronaldo couldnt continue. Referee Mark Clattenburg called on the stretcher bearers and that was it. Ronaldos final was over, after just 25 minutes.Liberated of their attention-grabbing superstar, no longer at the beck and call of his demands to give him the ball, his teammates played better, sharing the workload, getting into Frances box in numbers and giving French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris more to think about.For the French, this will be remembered as another final they should have won, like the 2006 World Cup final unhinged when Zinedine Zidane head-butted Marco Materazzi. Euro 2016 top scorer Antoine Griezmann twice came close to winning it. And Andre-Pierre Gignac saw what would have been a certain match-winner rebound off the post in injury time before the game went to extra time.But, with time, the if and buts will perhaps matter less than the fact that reaching this final was proof that France is now out of the long trough that followed its 2006 World Cup loss to Italy, with the nadir being a strike by French players at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.Going forward, France again has a team it can be proud of. All but one of its starting 11 against Portugal either play abroad or, in the case of Barcelona-bound Samuel Umtiti, are on their way overseas. The French domestic leagues bleeding of players to foreign shores proved to be Les Bleus gain at Euro 2016. Their street-wise football and their handling of the heavy weight of host-nation expectations owed no small debt to the experience and expanded world view players have picked up on their travels. Eder, Portugals match-winner, also plays overseas, for Lille in France.From France, football will now look, with some trepidation, eastward to Russia, host of the sports next major tournament, the 2018 World Cup. Then will come Euro 2020, which will be spread confetti-like across 12 host countries, followed by the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.All present logistical challenges for traveling fans. Although the quality of the football at Euro 2016 wasnt always much to shout about, it will be fondly remembered for easy French pleasures and for Frances security measures that helped keep the 31-day tournament safe from the threat of more terror attacks without souring the mood.For that, we can all be grateful.---John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester ' ' '