Peyton Manning Jersey

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SAN DIEGO — Padres manager Andy Green says make nothing of the statistic. The only thing that’s important is that the Padres will be going for a series win Sunday in the rubber match of a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Petco Park.

But here’s the stat. The Padres lost Friday night’s series opener to the Pirates — marking the 18th time in the last 19 series that the Padres have lost the opening game in the series.

Saturday night they held onto a 4-3 win to improve to 14-5 in the second game of their last 19 series. Going into Sunday , they are 11-7 in the third game.

“I don’t put much into that first game of a series statistic,” Green said Saturday. “I think it’s just one of those things that you don’t make too big a deal out of. The goal is to win the series and we have Tyson (Ross) on the mound for the rubber game.”

The right-handed Ross (5-5, 3.32 earned run average) will be opposing Pittsburgh right-hander Jameson Taillon (5-6, 3.96 ERA) in Sunday afternoon’s rubber match.

The 32-year-old Ross has been the Padres most reliable pitcher this season. The Padres are 11-5 when he starts (including a 7-2 record over his last nine starts), although they have failed to score a run for him the last three times he has started.

Ross has not allowed more than three runs in his last nine starts and he has gone five or more innings in his last 11 starts. Over his last two outings, Ross has allowed three runs on nine hits and six walks in 13 innings. And his ERA over those past nine starts is 3.08.

Ross has already made one successful start against the Pirates this season. On May 18 in Pittsburgh, Ross held Pittsburgh to two runs on five hits and four walks with two strikeouts over six innings to get credit for the win in a 3-2 Padres victory.

Sunday will be Ross’ seventh career appearance against the Pirates. In six previous starts, Ross has a 2-2 record and a 3.24 ERA. Another thing Ross has going for him Sunday is Petco Park. He has a career 2.91 ERA in the Padres’ downtown home in 53 games (44 starts).

Taillon , 26, will be facing the Padres for the first time this season although he will be making his third career start against the Padres. He has a 1-0 record with a 1.26 ERA over 14 1/3 innings in his first two outings against the Padres. He shut out the Padres on three hits and two walks over eight innings in 2016.

Like Ross, Taillon will also be making his 17th start of the season. After starting the season 2-0 with a 0.89 ERA in his first three starts, Taillon has gone 3-6 with a 4.87 ERA in his last 13 starts. But he has won each of his past three road starts, giving up four runs in 21 innings.

The biggest plus for Taillon Sunday could be the sunlight. He is 9-2 with a 2.87 ERA in 17 career day games and 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA in five daylight starts on the road.

Todd Haley spent six seasons helping turn the Pittsburgh Steelers offense into one of the most dynamic in the NFL.

All the yards and all the touchdowns weren’t enough, however, for the fiery offensive coordinator to keep his job.

The Steelers chose not to renew Haley’s contract on Wednesday, three days after the AFC North champions were ushered out of the playoffs in a 45-42 divisional round loss to Jacksonville.

”I have made the decision to not renew the contract for offensive coordinator Todd Haley ,” coach Mike Tomlin said in a statement. ”I would like to thank Todd for his contributions to our offense the past six years, and we wish him the best in his coaching future.”

The 50-year-old Haley, whose father Dick spent two decades as Pittsburgh’s director of player personnel in the 1970s and 80s, was hired in 2012 and tasked with developing an offense around quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Though there appeared to be some tension between the two early in Haley’s tenure, the results rewrote much of the team record book.

The Steelers finished in the top seven in total offense in each of the past four seasons, including third in 2017.

Pittsburgh won three division titles and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons thanks in part to Haley’s playcalling, the ascension of All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown to one of the best players in the league and the arrival and development of All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell.

Brown is the only player in NFL history with five consecutive seasons with at least 100 receptions. Bell is one of the best all-around backs in the league and his 406 touches in 2017 were 60 more than any other player.

Roethlisberger tied for the NFL lead in yards passing in 2014 and just as importantly saw the number of times he was sacked decrease substantially even as he put the ball in the air more frequently.

Haley and Roethlisberger downplayed any discord between the two, though Haley swapped places with Randy Fichtner in the middle of the season , moving from the sideline to the coach’s box.

Haley was injured during an incident at a bar near Heinz Field on New Year’s Eve shortly after the Steelers wrapped up a 13-3 season with a victory over Cleveland.

Haley was not considered a direct party to the incident and he said afterward he had the team’s full support and was told it was not an issue moving forward.

Less than two weeks later, Haley finds himself looking for work. Tomlin declined to endorse Haley’s return during his season-ending news conference on Tuesday. A day later Haley’s productive if tumultuous time with the Steelers was over.

Whoever replaces him will have one of the most talented offenses in the NFL at his disposal. The entire starting offensive line is under contract for 2018. Roethlisberger has already stated publicly he will be back for a 15th season.

Brown is signed through 2021. Bell’s situation is a little more unclear. The team can place the transition tag on him as it did this season, though he told ESPN.com he could sit out or retire if he and the Steelers do not reach a long-term agreement. Bell said on Sunday his hope is to remain in Pittsburgh.

Fichtner is the leading in-house candidate to take over for Haley. Fichtner has been with the team since 2007 and has spent the past eight years as quarterbacks coach. He has a solid rapport with Roethlisberger and the transition would likely be very easy for a team built to win now.

For all of Haley’s acumen, Pittsburgh’s offense came undone this season in critical moments due to curious playcalling.

Twice the Steelers were stopped in fourth down situations against Jacksonville. A first-quarter drive ended when Bell lost yards on fourth-and-inches.

Pittsburgh had the ball and a chance to tie the game early in the fourth quarter when Roethlisberger threw incomplete to rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster on fourth down when advancing the ball a mere foot would have extended the drive.

Those sequences came a month after the Steelers lost to New England at home on Dec. 17 when a potential go-ahead touchdown pass to Jesse James in the final seconds was overturned on replay and Roethlisberger attempted a pass after a fake spike two plays later.

The pass was picked off and the Steelers lost, costing them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, a sequence that helped cost Haley his position with the team.

NOTES: Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak will remain with the team. The Hall of Fame offensive lineman and former head coach of the Tennessee Titans had interviewed for the vacant head coaching job in Arizona but removed himself from contention saying ”the timing for my family was not appropriate for me to pursue this potential opportunity.” … Longtime wide receivers coach Richard Mann announced his retirement after 33 seasons as an assistant, including the past five with Pittsburgh.

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