June by heading in the opposite direction from when the month started and build off the momentum from a wild victory Thursday.

The first weekend of June was one to forget when the Rockies were swept in a three-game series by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In full revival after a slow start to the season http://www.tennesseetitansteamonline.com/a.j.-brown-jersey , the Dodgers scored 33 runs in their three victories.

Now the Rockies head to L.A. with a full head of steam. They lost a heartbreaker Wednesday on a Giants game-ending home run and coughed up a late lead Thursday before DJ LeMahieu’s ninth-inning home run was the difference in a victory.

With the month set to close this weekend, the Rockies have some confidence on their side as they open a three-game series against the Dodgers. The Rockies will send left-hander Tyler Anderson (4-3, 4.62 ERA) to the mound Friday night against Dodgers lefty Rich Hill (1-2, 5.30).

Even after the Rockies were swept by the Dodgers to open the month they still sat in second place in the National League West, 31/2 games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodgers were in third place, 4 1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks.

Heading into this weekend series, though, the Rockies are in fourth place eight games back, while the Dodgers are in second, 31/2 back. The Rockies have gone 9-16 in June.

The Rockies victory Thursday appears to be motivated by a talk-is-cheap statement from Nolan Arenado, who then went out and hit a first-inning home run in a win that ended a four-game losing streak.

“We can talk about it all we want; we’ve been talking about this since April,” Arenado said, according to The Athletic. “How are we going to turn it around? Blah blah. We haven’t yet.”

The Dodgers have turned around their season by going 17-7 in June. But their turnaround goes back even further. They are 27-11 since May 17 and have the long ball to thank for it.

With two home runs Thursday, the Dodgers now have 53 in the month to tie a franchise record. They will spend the next two games chasing the major league record of 58 for a single month.

But the Dodgers are coming off an 11-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday and went 3-4 against the Cubs over the past 10 days. The Dodgers have called the Cubs a measuring stick and they ended up losing the season series to the team they have faced in each of the last two National League Championship Series.

Now the Dodgers return to division play http://www.tennesseetitansteamonline.com/amani-hooker-jersey , after just six games against NL West opponents this month. The Dodgers are 5-1 against the Rockies this season.

If there is anything the Cubs might have exposed when it comes to the Dodgers it is a bullpen that appears to be in something of a lull. Dodgers’ relievers gave up eight runs in a defeat Tuesday and 10 in Thursday’s loss.

“I’m not concerned about it,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters after Thursday’s game. “We match up very well with (the Cubs) and they match up well with us. I think we are very comparable clubs. You give away outs, walks, we both can slug. You have to play good baseball. You look at a couple of games where they broke it open against our (bullpen) but by and large, our bullpen has been pretty good for some time.”

Anderson is 2-3 with a 4.85 ERA in eight starts versus the Dodgers. Hill is 0-3, 7.52 in four starts against the Rockies.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers acquired Jason Pierre-Paul to bolster an anemic pass rush. However, the former New York Giants star wants to be a lot more than a one-dimensional player.The two-time Pro Bowl end believes he can be part of the solution to a leaky run defense, too, in addition to stalking opposing quarterbacks.“I want everybody to know that I’m still capable of playing the run,” the 29-year-old said. “They already know I can play the pass. But if you can’t stop the run, there is no pass rush.”The Bucs traded for Pierre-Paul in March after having one of the NFL’s least-effective defenses a year ago, when they went 5-11 and ranked last in passing and total yards allowed, as well as sacks with 22.The team hasn’t had a player with 10 or more sacks in a season since Simeon Rice had 14 in 2005.The 6-foot-5 Taylor Rapp Jersey , 275-pound Pierre-Paul had 58 1/2 sacks in eight seasons with the Giants, including a career-best 16 1/2 in 2001 and 12 1/2 in 2014.He hasn’t come close to posting double-digit sack totals since suffering a serious hand injury in a Fourth of July fireworks accident three years ago. Still, his numbers have improved each season from one in eight games in 2015 to seven in 2016 and 8 1/2 in 2017.The Bucs feel Pierre-Paul, who played in college locally at South Florida, is an ideal fit for what they want to do with a revamped defensive line also featuring Pro Bowl tackle Gerald McCoy, offseason acquisitions Beau Allen, Vinny Curry and Mitch Unrein, and first-round draft pick Vita Vea.More Tampa Bay Buccaneers newsBuccaneers make big step forward avoiding 0-2 startBucs’ running game shows signs of life with 2nd-year RB Ronald Jones II leading wayJameis Winston throws 3 INTs, Buccaneers drop season-opener to 49ersBuccaneers edge Browns 13-12 behind K Matt Gay’s game-winnerBruce Arians gets 1st win with Bucs against surprise starter Josh Rosen, DolphinsCoach Dirk Koetter likes what he’s seen in training camp.“Just a real impressive veteran player that’s willing to share with the younger guys,” Koetter said. “His ability to work in the heat — sometimes those veteran players don’t want to come out and work as hard as we ask them to in training camp, but he’s been out front all the way.”Like Pierre-Paul, the coach believes the ninth-year pro is versatile enough to help the Bucs slow opponents on the ground, as well as through the air.“When we played (the Giants) last year Shareef Miller Jersey , just from our standpoint, we probably feared him more in the running game than we did in the pass game.” Koetter said.“That’s not a downgrade to him because we see good pass rushers every week,” the coach added, “but a lot of those speed rushers can’t play the run. I mean, he’s 280 pounds.”Pierre-Paul won a Super Bowl with the Giants in 2011, while Allen and Curry signed with Tampa Bay in free agency after being part of a deep line rotation that helped Philadelphia win it all last season.The Bucs are counting on them to bring a championship mentality to a team that’s missed the playoffs 10 straight seasons — the second-longest drought in the league.“It’s been great. We just keep creating chemistry out there. Everybody pass-rushes differently; everybody plays the run different,” Pierre-Paul said.“As veterans on the team, we’re teaching the young guys how to come up and how to do things correctly,” he added. “We were all once in their position, so we are (building) great chemistry together. That’s a great start for us.”