GURNEE, Ill. -- For the United States and Taiwan, the first session of the UL International Crown was a repeat of the first day of the inaugural event two years ago.Each country is hoping for a better weekend.The U.S. lost both of its four-ball matches to England, and Yani Tseng helped Taiwan sweep Australia on Thursday in the rare team event on the LPGA Tour.Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr lost 2 and 1 to Holly Clyburn and Jodi Ewart Shadoff, and Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller fell to Charley Hull and Melissa Reid by the same score. Thompson, Kerr and Lewis also were on the American team that was swept on the first day of the first International Crown in 2014 and finished sixth.Thats what this format is. You play good golf and youre going to lose matches, and thats the way it goes, Lewis said. Were going to go out there and play good golf again, and hopefully we get on the good side of it. Were still in this thing, and weve just got to take care of business tomorrow.Next up is two more days of four-ball matches at the sprawling Merit Club about 40 miles northwest of Chicago. The top two teams in each pool and the winner of wild-card playoff between the third-place teams will advance to the singles matches Sunday, with each player from the winning country taking home $100,000 apiece.With the course set up for low scores, world No. 6 Ariya Jutanugarn made seven birdies while playing with Porani Chutichai for Thailand, but they only managed a halve against Japans Ai Suzuki and Ayaka Watanabe. Jutanugarns sister, Moriya, teamed with Pornanong Phatum for a 2-and-1 win over Haru Nomura and Mika Miyazato.Top-seeded South Korea, with each of its four players ranked in the top 12, split its two matches against No. 8 China. Amy Yang and In Gee Chun won 2 up over Shanshan Feng and Xi Yu Lin, but Jing Yan and Simin Feng got two points for China with a 1-up victory over Sei Young Kim and So Yeon Ryu.The Chinese girls just played really, really great, Ryu said. They made an eagle, they made a bunker shot. I think their teamwork was really nice.Tseng and Teresa Lu went off in the first match and cruised to a 3-and-2 victory over Karrie Webb and Su Oh. Tseng and Lu then watched as Candie Kung and Ssu-Chia Cheng posted a 2-up win over Rebecca Artis and Minjee Lee.Taiwan also won its first two matches at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland in 2014, but didnt score another point all weekend.We changed a little bit about the strategy about how were going to play this year because we both won on the first day, like four points, but we lose them on Friday and Saturday, Tseng said. We kind of changed it a little bit, the teammates and the strategy on the golf course. We tried to make as much birdies as we can instead of one play aggressive and one play more smart and safe.Thompson and Kerr never led in their match. Clyburn closed it out with a birdie on the par-4 17th.We played really well on the front, and on the back we didnt play well enough to win, Kerr said. A couple more putts go in, a couple better shots. I left Lexi a couple times as a partner, and you cant do that in four-ball if you want to win.China and England did not make the field for the inaugural event, which is determined by the cumulative rankings of the countrys top four players on a given date. They replaced champion Spain and runner-up Sweden.We were saying along the way, were all pretty big football fans, and obviously we had the Euros recently and we made more points in one day than England did in the whole tournament, so can I just point that out, a smiling Reid said. So were pretty proud of that, so were already on a winner.Hull and Reid won three straight holes to go from 1 down to 1 up heading to the back nine. The 20-year-old Hull had three straight birdies and Reid eagled No. 8, a 468-yard par 5.After Lewis birdied No. 15 to square the match, Hull posted an eagle and a birdie to close it out for England.I just love playing in this kind of environment, especially when you are a bit of an underdog, said Hull, who is headed to the Olympics next month. I just like proving people wrong, and it just makes you go out there, gives you a little bit more of a buzz.---Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys . Catch all the action on TSN2 at 11pm et/8pm pt. The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. China NFL Jerseys . 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DENVER -- In all likelihood, left-hander Jorge De La Rosa is in his final month with the Colorado Rockies.He is 35 and can be a free agent after the season. The Rockies are well-stocked with young starting pitchers with a few more prospects close to the majors. De La Rosa is concluding a two-year, $25 million contract, so the Rockies can free up money by cutting ties with him.De La Rosa will start Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants in the rubber game of a three-game series.The Rockies acquired De La Rosa from the Kansas City Royals for cash considerations on April 30, 2008. He was all about potential then rather than results but became a successful pitcher with the Rockies.Indeed, De La Rosa, who is 8-7 with a 4.88 ERA this season, is Colorados all-time leader with 86 wins. He has more wins than any other pitcher at Coors Field, where he is 53-19 (.736) with a 4.18 ERA in 106 games, 98 starts.This will be his fourth appearance and third start against the Giants this season. De La Rosa is 1-1 with a 3.95 ERA in his two starts against San Francisco -- four hits and four runs, three earned, allowed in 6 2/3 innings on April 14 at Coors Field; seven hits and three runs allowed July 6 at San Francisco.In his career against the Giants, De La Rosa is 11-7 with a 3.85 ERA overall, 8-1 with a 3.22 ERA at Coors Field.Asked whether his time with the Rockies might be winding down, the soft-spoken De La Rosa said, Yeah, maybe. I know they got a lot of good pitching. I dont know if they need me or not. Im going to keep pitching, finish strong. Thats what I need to do.Opposing De La Rosa will be Albert Suarez, who will make his ninth career start. He is 3-3 with a 4.29 ERA in 18 appearances, eight starts. In his last outing, Friday at Wrigley Field, he took the loss when the Chicago Cubs won 2-1. Suarez, a 26-year-old rookie, gave up two runs on three hits and two walks with three strikeouts in five innings.Suarez has pitched twice in relief against the Rockies this season, allowing three runs in six innings. He worked five innings on May 27 at Coors Field after starter Matt Cain left in the second with an injury, and he gavve up five hits and three runs while throwing 65 pitches.ddddddddddddThe Giants beat the Rockies 3-2 Tuesday, tying the game with an RBI groundout in the eighth and winning it with an unearned run in the ninth.The victory left the Giants 17-31 since the All-Star break and 8-18 in that stretch on the road. San Franciscos offense Tuesday consisted of seven singles and Eduardo Nunezs third homer since the Giants acquired him July 28 from the Minnesota Twins.That was far from an offensive turnaround, but it was positively robust production compared to the recent dismal history the Giants made. Prior to Tuesday, San Francisco collected four or fewer hits in five consecutive games, tying the longest such streak in one season by any team in the modern major league era that dates from 1900.In those five games, the Giants had batted .099 (16-for-161). The only other team in the modern era with an average below .100 in any five-game span was the 2012 Minnesota Twins, who batted .096 (14-for-146) from May 1-6 that year.The Giants held a hitters-only meeting before their win Tuesday. Before his team took the field and eked out its 26th one-run win of the season, San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy sympathized with his hitters plight.Let me tell you, hitting is one of the toughest things, if not the toughest thing, in all of sports, Bochy said. It can be one of the toughest things as far as getting back on track. You get in a funk, and I do think it can be somewhat contagious.Part of it is guys start pressing a little bit, a little self-doubt may creep in there. Its such a hard thing to do. You can do a lot of drills in the cage, the soft toss, the tee, but still, when youre seeing live pitching, you have to have that confidence and ability to carry into the game what youve been working on. But when you get into the game speed, sometimes you have a tendency to go back to what you were doing. If you get in a bad habit, thats a hard thing to break when you got something over 90 miles an hour coming at you. ' ' '