consecutive games, and Colorado snapped Paul Goldschmidts 26-game hitt

NEW YORK -- The numbers are not the sort that Roger Federer likes to see beside his name. One of them -- his age, 32 -- he cannot control. The other -- his ranking, No. 7 -- he insists he can. "People are going to say what they like," Federer said Saturday, two days before his first-round match at the U.S. Open. "Important is that I concentrate on my game and that the passion is there, that I work the right way, that Im prepared, and that I feel like I can win a tournament." The five-time U.S. Open champion is seeded seventh, the biggest number next to his name at a Grand Slam tournament since 2003, the year he started on his record-setting run of 17 majors. In June, Federer exited Wimbledon in the second round, the earliest hed been dismissed from a major tournament since the 2003 French Open. Starting with that loss, his season has included a steady diet of defeats that would have once been considered freakish and a withdrawal from a tournament that went unexplained. All these factors point toward an obvious conclusion: Age is taking its toll on the most decorated mens player ever. Not since Pete Sampras captured the trophy in 2002 has a man over 30 won the U.S. Open. But Federer doesnt envision quite such a grim picture. A bad back that might help explain some of his summer doldrums is no longer bothering him. A new racket that confounded him over the summer has been shelved for the time being. His ranking, and corresponding seeding, may have dropped from third to seventh in the nine weeks between Wimbledon and the Open, where his first-round match is against 61st-ranked Grega Zemlja, but Federer considers himself fit enough to contend. "Now I can really say Im really just focused on the point for point, and thats why Im not concerned," he said. "My back problem is not that major. I just need to make sure I dont have any bad moments in the future." He would love to wipe away most of this 2013 season. He has a grand total of one tournament title, won at a small event in Halle, Germany -- a grass-court tune-up for Wimbledon. In addition to his second-round Wimbledon loss to 116th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky, Federer has fallen to No. 114 Federico Delbonis and No. 55 Daniel Brands, the sort of players who used to feel beaten by Federer before they even walked on the court. That air of invincibility is gone, and small cracks in a once-impenetrable facade have cropped up. Federer withdrew in Montreal early this month without giving a reason, though he had been complaining about his back through the summer. He expanded on his health Saturday, saying the back was no problem as he heads into this, his 58th appearance at a major. "At times, I was playing a lot, having it in the back of my mind, and that has definitely affected me sometimes with my movement ... and actually not being able to really focus on the point for point mentality that you want to have out on the tennis court," Federer said. "So now, I can really say Im really just focused on the point for point, and thats why Im not concerned. " Federer had been working with a new, slightly larger racket, but was unable to figure out the nuances of the prototype and decided to shelve the experiment until after the U.S. Open is over. "I just said, You know, Ill go back to the racket I know and the racket I have won everything with," Federer said. Novak Djokovic, the man occupying the No. 1 spot that Federer once owned, (He was seeded No. 1 at 18 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments from 2004-08) calls the ups and downs with the rankings simply a cycle of life. "You cant always expect somebody to be at the highest level," Djokovic said. "Its normal to go up and down. Thats why this sport is so very demanding, physically, mentally, emotionally. In any way you turn it around, the sport is actually asking from a tennis player everything, you know, all the commitment possible from every aspect." Federer insists his commitment has never waned, even if his ranking has. He says this takes him back to his younger days, in his early 20s, when he used to get excited at the prospect of what the new rankings would look like each Monday. "Usually, I was more excited that it was going up," Federer said. "The older you get, the less you pay attention to it. But nevertheless, I clearly want to move up from here." Cheap Buffalo Bills Gear . "I just think what it does for everybody in life is real simple," said Babcock early on Friday afternoon. "You dont give in. You just keep on keeping on. Is it going to go your way every time? No. But you choose your attitude and how you perform and how hard you dig in." Nearly four years to the day of the 2010 gold medal match in Vancouver, his team dug in with its best effort of these Olympics, snuffing out the high-powered Americans for another opportunity at gold. Stitched Buffalo Bills Jerseys . -- John Senden never imagined it would take more than seven years to win again. http://www.cheapbills.us/ . The No. 5 Aztecs held Burton, the Mountain Wests leading scorer, to 11 points, 10 below his average, in beating the Wolf Pack 73-58 on Saturday night. Buffalo Bills Jerseys China . Today, he looks at the offensive line. 1. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (OT, McGill) You Should Know: Over the course of his university career, Duvernay-Tardifs commitments to medical school and the family business frequently limited him to one practice per week, yet he was still the Metras Trophy winner as the Top Lineman in CIS football in 2013. Wholesale Buffalo Bills Jerseys .40 metres at the Drake Relays. Drouin, from Corunna, Ont., bested his own record of 2.38 metres set in Aug.DENVER - Carlos Gonzalezs fifth-inning base hit didnt land far from Arizona right fielder Gerardo Parra, who held him to a single with a quick throw to second base. Trouble is, D.J. LeMahieu, running on the pitch, was about to score all the way from first. The relay from shortstop Chris Owings beat LeMahieu to the plate, but catcher Miguel Montero couldnt hang onto the low throw and LeMahieu slid across with the go-ahead run. Rockies manager Walt Weiss praised both LeMahieu and third base coach Stu Cole. "D.J.s got to give Stu the opportunity to wave him and thats what he did. He never slowed down and gave Stu the opportunity to make a gutsy call," Weiss said after Colorados come-from-behind 9-4 victory Saturday night. "It still seemed like we had the runner beat with the throw but we didnt hold on to it," manager Kirk Gibson lamented after the Diamondbacks fourth straight loss left them with a 1-7 record and their worst start in franchise history. "It was a pressure play they put on us. We didnt execute it." Gonzalez was as surprised as the D-Backs were when he looked back and saw LeMahieu huffing for home. "It was awesome, a heads-up play," Gonzalez said. "Parra kind of falls asleep in right field thinking that I was going to go to second base, throws the ball to second base, D.J. never stopped and that was the go-ahead run, that was what we needed. And once again, the bullpen did an amazing job tonight holding the opposing team and we just kept scoring runs." After falling behind 4-0, the Rockies scored the games final nine runs for their second straight blowout of the reeling D-Backs. Nolan Arenado homered twice for his first career multi-homer game, Michael Cuddyer went deep, rookie right-hander Tommy Kahnle picked up his first major league victory, Charlie Blackmon went 3 for 4, tying the Rockies franchise record with nine hits in consecutive games, and Colorado snapped Paul Goldschmidts 26-game hitting streak that was the longest in the majors. Yet, it was LeMahieus hustle play that truly epitomized the Rockies successful night.dddddddddddd Its the kind of aggressiveness on the base paths Weiss has been preaching about all spring that will be required of his team if the Rockies are going to have the kind of season their owner thinks they can. He predicted a 90-win season in the competitive NL West. Never looking back, LeMahieu didnt see where Gonzalez had hit the ball, "but I could kind of see by Stus body language that if something happened, if he bobbled it or whatever, that we could take an extra base there. It was a great call by him." Gonzalez praised both Cole and LeMahieu with his most improbable of RBIs. "He thanked me for my hustle and getting him that RBI," LeMahieu said with a chuckle. "It feels good as a teammate to pick up an RBI for a guy like that." That hustle also benefited Kahnle (1-0), who was selected in the 2013 Rule 5 draft from the New York Yankees. He pitched 1 2-3 innings of one-hit ball in relief of starter Jorge De La Rosa, who struggled through his second straight start. Brandon McCarthy (0-1) surrendered six earned runs on seven hits in six innings for Arizona. The Rockies fell behind 4-0 before scoring three times in the fourth and twice in the fifth to take the lead. De La Rosa allowed four runs, three of them earned, on four hits. He struggled through a 42-pitch, 21-minute first inning but only gave up one run on Martin Prados double into the left-field corner that scored Goldschmidt from first. He also gave up a two-run homer to Mark Trumbo, his fourth, in the third inning. Notes: Goldschmidt went 0-for-2 with two walks. ... Blackmons nine hits in two games tied the franchise mark set by Juan Pierre in 2002. ... Trumbo now has four home runs and 11 RBIs in five career games at Coors Field. ... De La Rosa threw 101 pitches, 30 more than McCarthy threw in six full innings. ... Colorado SS Troy Tulowitzki took a designated day off. ... The series wraps up Sunday afternoon with the D-Backs sending LHP Wade Miley (1-1) against LHP Brett Anderson (0-1). 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