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TORONTO – Minutes after Kevin Pillar played the hero in Monday nights 5-4 Blue Jays walk off win over the Twins, he alluded to a conversation he shared with Jose Bautista earlier in the evening. The two were in the batting cage moments before game time. Bautista was taking final warm up cuts. Pillar was hitting soft toss. The one-time utility player turned All-Star pulled aside the clubs young, fourth outfielder and offered him some advice. Pillar described it as a discussion about hitting. Bautista told him there was nothing wrong with his swing, that he should remain aggressive in the batters box in order that the pitcher doesnt get too comfortable. He reminded Pillar that in Pillars role, he could step to the plate in crucial, late-game situations. Sure enough, Pillar got the game-winning single to snap a 4-4 tie in the ninth inning. Sure enough, he remained aggressive, perhaps too much so early in the at-bat when Pillar swung at the first two pitches down and out of the strike zone. With the count 1-2, Pillar took a pitch on the outer half to right field, Erik Kratz came around to score and the Blue Jays celebrated. Pillar thought enough of the conversation to share it with the assembled media postgame. Bautista seemed surprised to be approached on the topic. "You hope to have an effect on all your teammates, no matter what you talk about or discuss," said Bautista. "Even if its, hey youre opening up a little bit or having a 10-minute talk about being mentally ready, preparation and mindset and all that. You hope that your teammates listen to you. You dont hope that they do exactly what you say and if you say hop on one foot they start doing it, but if you make a comment that you think is going to help you hope they at least listen. Digest it and if it helps and it works then so be it." The type of conversation Bautista had with Pillar is rare this season, according to Bautista, because the Blue Jays are laden with veterans. The need doesnt arise as often. This, too, is the second year the group has been together after being arranged in the flurry of high-profile offseason moves made in November and December, 2012. "I think each person is more knowledgeable of others capabilities, more realistic with the expectations," said Bautista. "I think last year, people didnt know what to expect exactly with other players. Expectations might have been a little unrealistic, sometimes on the higher end and sometimes on the lower end. Sometimes you might have expected more out of somebody and that might have been not right. Sometimes you expected less and the guys surprise you. So now I think everybody is more in tune with each others capabilities." DICKEY THROWING MORE FASTBALLS R.A. Dickey is using his fastball more this season than he did last year. Hes thrown a heater 14.3 per cent of the time in 2014, compared to 11.9 per cent last season. This years number is more reflective of his 2012 Cy Young award season with the Mets, when 14 per cent of his pitches were fastballs. "I think its conscious because Ive had a lot of high-pitch games," said Dickey. "I had a 31-pitch first inning against (the Twins on Monday night), I had like a 30-pitch against the Royals, first inning. I need to get back to trying to induce contact earlier in counts so in that regard it has been something that Ive consciously tried to do. Especially with teams, Minnesota for instance is a team that leads the league in pitches taken so whenever you have a club like that you want to try to get ahead of guys as much as possible." Dickey is also conscious of his walk rate, which has skyrocketed this year. Hes issued a free pass to 10.2 per cent of hitters hes faced, compared to 7.5 per cent last year and 5.8 per cent in 2012. In each of his last two starts, hes allowed home runs off his fastball. On June 4 in Detroit, Miguel Cabrera took him deep on a first pitch fastball in the first inning. On Monday night against the Twins, leadoff hitter Danny Santana hit a home run off a full count fastball. Dickey had been falling behind in that first inning in Detroit and thought he could sneak a heater by Cabrera. "That was just a roll of the dice," said Dickey. "I had gone 2-0 with the first two hitters and felt that he would want to get in a hitters count. I tried to steal a strike the first time through the lineup and his numbers off me, I think hes had like 14 at-bats and two first-pitch swings and so the percentages were in my favour that he was taking and so I tried to play to those and got burned." Half of the home runs Dickeys allowed this season, five of 10, have been off fastballs. Has he become too predictable, throwing fastballs when in need of a strike? "I would hope not because I try to do a good job of throwing a lot of 2-0, 3-1, 3-2 knuckleballs," said Dickey. "Im not in the habit of routinely throwing a fastball in a fastball count but because I dont feature the same velocity as a lot of guys its a lot easier to put the barrel on the ball if theyve seen multiple fastballs in an at-bat; if theyre not well located in particular." JAYS INK TWO MORE PICKS The Blue Jays locked up their second and fifth round picks from last weeks amateur draft. They are highly-touted right-handed pitcher Sean Reid-Foley (49th overall) out of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Florida and centerfielder Lane Thomas (144th overall) out of Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both players are 18 years old. Christian Yelich Brewers Jersey . Zimmermann became the National Leagues first 16-game winner, pitching seven solid innings to lead the Washington Nationals past the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 Wednesday night. Brewers Jerseys 2020 . Amaro broke the NCAA all-time record for receiving yards in a season for a tight end with 1,352 during his junior campaign, eclipsing the mark of 1,329 set by Rices James Casey in 2008. https://www.cheapbrewers.com/249y-jay-ja...ey-brewers.html. The Packers, Lions and Bears were a combined 35-15 and as long as Jay Cutler can say healthy, all three could make the playoffs in 2012. Rollie Fingers Brewers Jersey .C. - Steve Clifford isnt exactly singing his teams praises after the Bobcats won for the sixth time in seven games. Devin Williams Brewers Jersey . Five straight losses (and six in the past seven) now dot the schedule – matching their longest skid of the year – after they fell again in New Jersey on Sunday night, topped 3-2 by Cory Schneider and the Devils.LONDON, Ont. -- The Guelph Storm want to eliminate the real possibility that the London Knights could come back to haunt them at the Memorial Cup. The Ontario Hockey League champion Storm insist theyre the ones with ample motivation to beat the host Knights on Wednesday, even though Guelph is already assured of a berth in Sundays final with a 2-0 record. Londons motivation doesnt require explanation. At 0-2, they must win the final game of the preliminary round in order to get into a tiebreaker game Thursday. If they dont, the hosts will be eliminated by the same team that knocked them out of the OHL playoffs April 11. A change to the MasterCard Memorial Cup schedule has made the improbable more possible. A day of rest between the semifinal and the final was incorporated into the tournament in 2007. Thats helped teams that have had to take the long way to the title. Twice in the last five years, a team that opened with two losses ran the table to win the Cup: the Windsor Spitfires in 2009 and the Shawinigan Cataractes in 2012. Both clubs staved off elimination in their final round-robin game, tiebreaker and semifinal en route to claiming the title. "Teams have done it and I think we have a team thats special like that and is able to achieve things like that," Knights captain Chris Tierney said. "Everyone is confident we can pull it off." Because of that extra day of rest, the bye to the final is not the nearly airtight advantage to winning the Cup it once was. Guelph doesnt want to face London on Sunday in their home rink riding the momentum of three wins in a row, including one against them. "We dont want to let these guys get back in the tournament and see them in the final if they get on a little roll here," Storm forward Zach Mitchell said. "Were going to try and put them out here. We dont want to let them hang around." The Storm relish having the upper hand against the Knights. London won the OHL championship in both 2013 and 2012, while Guelph was eliminated in the first round those years. "Back-to-back champions, you give a lot of beatings," Storm captain Matt Finn said. "The London Knights did that for a couple of years. "To be able to knock them out in the playoffs was great for us. To have a chance to knock them out of the Memorial Cup while theyre hosting is something we want to do because of the history." As explosive as the Storm are with 11 goals in two games, the Knights are also capable of pouring the puck into the net.dddddddddddd London and Guelph both scored over 300 goals in the regular season. But the Knights have just two goals in two games and both were scored by defencemen. The Knights have been stopped on two penalty shots and are 0-for-8 on their power play. London has certainly had scoring chances, but havent yet recovered their touch around the net. "We looked at the first two games a little bit and we actually did outchance the teams in both games," forward Max Domi said. "It comes down to the details in terms of finishing around our own net, sharpening up our passes, making better decisions with the puck in terms of getting it in deep and being more disciplined. All that stuff kind of adds up to winning or losing hockey games." Theres also Londons unsettled goaltending situation. Anthony Stolarz was in net for the 1-0 loss to the Val-dOr Foreurs to open the tournament. He allowed three goals in two periods against the Edmonton Oil Kings, before he was replaced by Jake Patterson in a 5-2 loss. Head coach Dale Hunter had yet to inform his goalies Tuesday afternoon which would start in Wednesdays crucial game. Stolarz, a Philadelphia Flyers prospect, opened last years Memorial Cup in Saskatoon, but Patterson was in net for the semifinal loss to the eventual champion Halifax Mooseheads. Londons lineup features seven forwards from the team that both lost 2-1 in overtime to host Shawinigan in the 2012 final and suffered last years semifinal loss. "Nobody wants to feel that again," Knights defenceman Zach Bell said. "Everybody wants to be able to play some more junior hockey. They dont want to end it on a bad note." The Storm ousted the Knights in the second round of playoffs in five games. Stolarz didnt play in the series because he was serving an eight-game suspension handed down in the first round. Guelph and London were 3-3 against each other in the regular season. In seven of their 11 meetings so far this season, the winner has scored six or more goals. The Storm are comfortable in the role of villain at Budweiser Gardens and are ready to embrace that again Wednesday. "This city doesnt like us too much, especially after knocking them out in the playoffs," Finn said. "Theyre going to be looking to get one back on us. We dont want to let them back in. Theyre a team that can put the puck in the net. We need to limit their chances offensively and frustrate them." ' ' '