Fische » The Pittsburgh Steelers expect third-round picks Diontae

Johnson and Justin Layne to get their hands on the ball. That’s where the similarities in their job descriptions end.The Steelers began the process of reloading following the high-profile departure of star wide receiver Antonio Brown by taking Johnson with the 66th overall selection in the NFL draft on Friday night then took aim at a secondary in serious need of a ballhawk or two by grabbing Layne with the 83rd pick.Johnson understands the parallels he shares with Brown. Both are 5-foot-10. Both are around 180 pounds. Both played collegiately in the Mid-American Conference. Both posted 40-yard dash times that didn’t exactly dazzle pro scouts.Yet Johnson — selected with a pick the Steelers acquired when they sent Brown to Oakland in March — knows that’s where the parallels end. Brown is a great player. The three-year letterman at Toledo is eager to write his own story.“At the end of the day Cody Ford Jersey , I can only be me,” Johnson said. “Do what I do best.”Namely, attack defenses in a way that renders his lack of breakaway speed — at least according to the stopwatch — meaningless. The player who ran a so-so 4.53-second, 40-yard dash won over the Steelers’ coaching staff with his ability to win one-on-one battles at the line of scrimmage.Head coach Mike Tomlin noticed Johnson first then sent wide receivers coach Darry Drake to do some digging. What Drake found turned him into Johnson’s biggest advocate in the team’s draft war room.“He’s a tremendously gifted young man,” Drake said. “The most natural catcher that I’ve seen in a while. … He doesn’t have great timed speed but he plays the game fast. He’s really, really good against the press and this is a press league. DBs walk up to your face and try to fingerprint you. He gets off bumps, gets in and out of his breaks as well as anybody I’ve seen in a long time.”Johnson caught 43 passes for 663 yards and seven touchdowns for the Rockets as a redshirt junior last season and was named the MAC’s Special Teams Player of the Year after returning a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns. He’ll likely get a chance at special teams too, where Brown first distinguished himself after being taken in the sixth round out of Central Michigan in 2010 before developing into one of the top receivers in the league.Brown’s record-setting run in Pittsburgh ended with an ugly divorce in the offseason, with the Steelers sending him to the Raiders. They used one of the picks they acquired from Oakland to grab a player that joins a room that will have a decidedly different feel with the prolific but also high-maintenance Brown out west.This is the third straight season the Steelers have taken a wide receiver in the top three rounds of the draft. They selected JuJu Smith-Schuster in the second round in 2017 and James Washington in the second round last year. Pittsburgh signed former Jacksonville Jaguar Donte Moncrief to a two-year deal in March and also have Ryan Switzer and Eli Rogers in the mix.Drake likes Johnson’s versatility and expects the Steelers will move him around instead of just sticking him in the slot. Drake also isn’t worried about Johnson’s 40-time. The coach who counts Larry Fitzgerald among his former pupils doesn’t believe the stopwatch tells the whole story.“We want that guy Devin Singletary Jersey , that blazer but normally with that package of that dynamic speed, very seldom do you get the total package,” Drake said. “This guy has the ability to be a total package guy.”Pittsburgh is hoping to one day say the same about Layne, who arrived at Michigan State as a wide receiver before moving to cornerback during his freshman season to help address a spate of injuries at the position. At 6-2 and 192 pounds he has the size to be a potential difference maker on the outside for a secondary that picked off just five passes in 2018.“He’s competitive, he’s not afraid to throw it up in there,” Steelers defensive backs coach Teryl Austin said. “He’s got a lot of good things to work with.”Even if Layne didn’t always get a chance to show it. He picked off just three passes during his career with the Spartans, though his 15 pass breakups in 2018 ranked among the top 10 in the Football Bowl Subdivision.Layne called the move from offense to defense “nothing major.” Last he checked, the game is still the game.“I’ve been playing both ways my whole life,” said Layne Dawson Knox Jersey , who went to Benedictine High School in Cleveland, the alma mater of late Hall of Fame Steelers coach Chuck Noll. “I’m a football player today. I expected to go in the second round but it’s all good. They’re going to feel me.” It isn’t very often that Alex Bregman whiffs on two straight fastballs, so when he did so in the ninth inning on Wednesday it left Houston’s third baseman a bit upset.

Fortunately for the Astros, he took out that aggression on the next pitch, connecting for a two-run homer that completed a big rally to lift Houston to a 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It was Bregman’s third straight game with a homer and it capped a huge comeback for the Astros, who trailed 5-0 in the middle of the first inning after a terrible start by Dallas Keuchel.

The Astros trailed by one when Tony Kemp singled off Ryan Tepera (5-3) with no outs in the ninth and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then with one out in the inning, Bregman sent a fastball to left field, where it bounced off the wall above the Crawford Boxes, to give Houston the victory.

”That was the first guy I’ve swung and missed two straight fastballs on this year I think besides (Luis) Severino Brian Burns Jersey ,” Bregman said. ”So it kind of ticked me off.”

Manager A.J. Hinch wasn’t surprised that Bregman came through for his team.

”For him to be able to stay calm in the moment, we’ve seen this – Alex Bregman, game on the line, ice in his veins,” Hinch said.

Bregman also doubled twice on Wednesday after hitting a homer and doubling three times in a win on Tuesday night.

”I don’t know how many hits Bregman had this series but he had too many,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said.

Will Harris (3-3) allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth for the win.

Gibbons was frustrated that his team let this one get away.

”That’s probably my low point this year because you’ve got it right there,” he said. ”Those are the teams you want to beat. I think what magnifies that is anytime you get a 5-0 lead that’s what gets you.”

After the Blue Jays took a 5-0 lead in the first, Houston scored three in the bottom of the first to close the gap and got within one Evan Gattis‘ RBI double in the fifth. But Kevin Pillar singled and scored on an error in the sixth to make it 6-4.

Marwin Gonzalez snapped an 0 for 23 slump with a solo shot to the bullpen in right-center off Tyler Clippard with two outs in the eighth inning to cut the lead to one.

The Blue Jays jumped on Keuchel immediately a day after being shut out for the fifth time this season in a 7-0 loss. Randal Grichuk hit a leadoff double followed by a walk by Teoscar Hernandez. Yangervis Solarte made it 1-0 with an RBI double before Keuchel walked Steve Pearce.

Hernandez scored on a sacrifice fly by Kendrys Morales before Pillar made it 3-0 with a run-scoring single.

Another RBI single, this one on a grounder by Aledmys Diaz Greg Little Jersey , pushed the lead to 4-0 before Luke Maile’s sacrifice fly made it 5-0.

Toronto starter Marco Estrada allowed seven hits and four runs – three earned – in five innings.

Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner who hadn’t allowed an earned run in his past two starts, gave up seven hits and six runs in 5 1/3 innings.

Evan Gattis doubled twice and drove in three runs to give him 30 RBIs this month, which is a franchise record for RBIs in June.

Keuchel settled down after his terrible first inning, allowing just one baserunner over the next four innings. But Pillar, who singled in the third inning, hit another single with one out in the sixth before a single by Diaz.

Keuchel walked Maile to load the bases and Toronto extended the lead to 6-4 when Devon Travis reached and Pillar scored on an error by Jose Altuve.

”Just a tremendous job of staying the course. Not getting too mad at himself. Not getting too frustrated and just putting up zeros to allow us to make it a game,” Hinch said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Astros: SS Carlos Correa sat out for the second straight day with a sore back. Hinch said the problem isn’t serious but he wants to give him time to rest. … RHP Joe Smith (right elbow inflammation) threw a bullpen on Wednesday and will likely begin a rehabilitation assignment this weekend.

1,500

Gibbons managed his 1 Will Grier Jersey ,500th game on Wednesday. He’s managed the second-most games in Blue Jays history behind the 1,764 games that Cito Gaston managed. He is 757-743 in his career, which leaves him in 11th place for wins among active managers.

Gibbons, who is in his second stint as Toronto’s manager, has been at the helm since 2013.

UP NEXT

Blue Jays: Toronto is off on Thursday before opening a four-game series against the Tigers on Friday with Marcus Stroman (0-5, 6.80 ERA) on the mound. Stroman allowed six hits in five scoreless innings in his return from the disabled list in his previous start.

Astros: Lance McCullers (8-3, 3.82) will start for Houston in the first of four games at Tampa on Thursday night. McCullers allowed four hits and three runs while fanning nine in six innings in his previous outing.

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