The Los Angeles Angels haven’t faced right-hander Zack Greinke since the 2015 season [url=http://www.officialknightsproshop.com/authentic-adidas-reilly-smith-jersey]Reilly Smith Jersey[/url] , but they’ve continued to feel his effects.

Greinke (5-5. 3.97 ERA) is scheduled to start when the Arizona Diamondbacks open a three-game series Monday night at Angel Stadium.

The Angels (38-34) have lost five of their past six to fall eight games back of the final American League wild card.

The Diamondbacks (39-32) dropped their past two after winning six of seven. Their lead in the National League West has dwindled to 1 1/2 games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Angels remain just as starved for playoff success as they were in July 2012 when they acquired Greinke in a deal that sent young infield prospect Jean Segura to the Milwaukee Brewers as part of the package.

It was an exciting time in Anaheim.

Albert Pujols, a three-time NL Most Valuable Player, was in his first season with the Angels at age 32. Los Angeles center fielder Mike Trout was in his first full season in the majors and already an All-Star.

Greinke even did his part, going 6-2 with a 3.53 ERA in the last two months with the Angels, but they missed the playoffs for a third straight season and he opted to sign with the Dodgers in the offseason.

Still in his prime, Greinke went 51-15 in three seasons with the Dodgers and helped them reach the playoffs each year.

Meanwhile, Segura was named an NL All-Star a year after he was traded by the Angels and the 28-year-old shortstop continues to improve. Only now he’s in the AL West with the Seattle Mariners and playing a key part.

After Segura was traded to the Diamondbacks and he led the NL in hits in 2016, he was dealt to the Mariners, where he entered the weekend with the second-highest batting average in the majors (.344).

The Mariners lead the Angels by eight games for the final AL wild card.

Meanwhile [url=http://www.officialwild.com/authentic-adidas-joel-eriksson-ek-jersey]Joel Eriksson Ek Jersey[/url] , the Angels are still seeking their first playoff win since 2009.

They’ve had success when facing Greinke in the past. He’s 3-5 with 3.91 ERA in 12 career appearances against the Angels, including 11 starts.

Several Angels players have also hit well against Greinke during their careers.

Luis Valbuena is 11-for-26, Pujols and Justin Upton are each 10-for-29, and Trout is 5-for-15.

They’ll try to drop Greinke’s season record below .500, something he hasn’t experienced this late in a season since 2010.

“As long as I’m able to make good pitches, it’s fine,” Greinke told reporters after his last start.

The Angels will have one of their most successful starters this season ready to oppose Greinke.

Jaime Barria (5-2, 2.61) has solidified himself as a regular starter for the Angels, both through his performance and injuries to other pitchers.

He took the loss in his last outing [url=http://www.officialwild.com/authentic-adidas-kyle-quincey-jersey]Authentic Kyle Quincey Jersey Kids[/url] , but even that performance included plenty of positives. The 21-year-old right-hander went five innings against the Mariners, allowing three runs (two earned) and eight hits in the 6-3 loss.

“I think Jaime has definitely pitched himself onto our depth chart from spring,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia told reporters last week. “We’re encouraged at how much he’s grown, where he is right now and how much he’ll help us this year. There’s no doubt, he’s pitched his way into more looks for us.”

Barria has allowed more than two earned runs in just one of eight starts this season.

The NFL is heading to a new destination in London, and the first match-up at English Premier League club Tottenham will be the Oakland Raiders against the Seattle Seahawks in October.

That’s if the 60,000-plus capacity stadium, which has been designed to accommodate soccer and NFL, is completed in time for Week 6.

While Tottenham is sure that building work is on schedule on the White Hart Lane site where its previous stadium was demolished last year [url=http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-da_shawn-hand-jersey]Da'Shawn Hand Jersey[/url] , the NFL has contingency plans to move the Oct. 14 game to Wembley Stadium.

The home of the England national soccer team is where the NFL will be staging another two games after Raiders-Seahawks match-up, giving London three consecutive weeks of American football for the first time.

The Philadelphia Eagles will play the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Tennessee Titans will take on the Los Angeles Chargers. The NFL is yet to decide which game will be on Oct. 21 in Week 7 and which slots into Week 8 on Oct. 28.

”It’s a great learning for us, it’s another test for us,” Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice president of international, said Thursday at the site of Tottenham’s new stadium. ”If we were ever to put a franchise in the UK we would need to know we can do three consecutive weekends.”

The NFL had planned to stage two games in the 2018 season at Tottenham, which was runner-up in the Premier League last season. But Tottenham, which is using Wembley as its own temporary home this season [url=http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-levine-toilolo-jersey]Levine Toilolo Jersey[/url] , doesn’t want the burden of two NFL fixtures when it is still settling into its new, unnamed stadium.

”We have created something very unique,” Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said at the announcement of fixtures. ”We still have another six or seven months of really hard work of construction.”

Tottenham has signed a 10-year contract for games with the NFL.

”We very much hope there will be a franchise in London and we would very much like this stadium to be used for that club,” Levy said. ”We haven’t assumed there is going to be a franchise. It’s very much our desire.”

The new stadium was designed with NFL-sized changing rooms and to ensure the grass soccer pitch can be retracted and kept under lights below the stands when the artificial surface is required for NFL.

Waller said they ”don’t want to alienate” fans of Tottenham’s rivals by being so closely associated with one Premier League team.

”We will need to get that right,” Waller said. ”But we are also playing at Wembley so there will be plenty of other opportunities for fans to go elsewhere as well. It also puts an onus on us to ensure we are thoughtful about how we manage all our relationships.”

By the end of the year, 29 of the NFL’s 32 franchises will have played in London since regular-season games were first played in the British capital in 2007.

”When we played the first game here we had no idea if we were ever coming back,” Waller said.

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