Trevor Bayliss believes a reduction in the number of first-class counties could help England bridge the "huge gap" between county and international cricket.

Victory at The Oval ensured England maintained their unbeaten home series record in Test cricket under Bayliss' five seasons as head coach, though he will probably be remembered best for coaching the side to their maiden World Cup victory earlier in the year.

But in a wide-ranging exit interview with ESPNcricinfo, Bayliss has questioned "whether the county game is producing the players we need" and suggested a reduction in the number of teams from 18 to ten in a bid to improve the quality of competition. He also feels the quality of county pitches must improve if developing players are going to be given the best opportunity to prepare for the higher level.

"You have to ask whether the county game is producing the players we need," Bayliss said. "Is the competition underneath [the England team] doing the job it should be? There's a huge gap between county and international cricket. Huge.

"Again and again, we've picked the best players in the county game. And again and again, they've found the gap too large to bridge. Our top players come back from county cricket and they're not complimentary about the standard. They don't think it helps prepare them for international cricket.

"The pitches are soft and damp. So bowlers get far too much assistance and batsmen don't get into the habit of building long innings. Those same bowlers then come into Test cricket and they find the pitches do almost nothing and the ball won't swing round corners. And the batsmen find the pace of the Test bowlers a shock.

"If you had better pitches - pitches that offered less to bowlers - you might start to see some fast bowlers developing. You might see more spinners developing. You might even see some better slip catchers because I think the big problem in English cricket is concentration. Players have forgotten how to concentrate for long periods of time. They just don't have to do it at county level.

"I'm not criticising groundsmen. They have a tough job, because there's too much cricket and the Championship starts in early April.

"But no one seems to want to get their head down and guts out a score. The attitude seems to be, 'I'd best get on with it before an impossible ball comes along.' But maybe that's partly because society has changed. Everything is quicker now.

"The ECB and the counties have to pull in the same direction. There has to be a collaborative approach ensuring that England is at the heart of it. Ultimately, a successful England team, across all formats, will naturally benefit the game at county level and even have a positive impact on grassroots.

"I think there are too many teams. If you had fewer - maybe ten - the best players would be in competition against each other more often and the standard would rise. I think you'd see tougher cricketers develop. Cricketers who are better prepared for the Test game.

Bayliss also expressed his incredulity over counties offering stints to overseas players who will, later in the same season, use that experience in Test series against England. Marnus Labuschagne, for example, prepared for the Ashes by representing Glamorgan and adapted to conditions so well that he finished the series as Australia's second-highest run scorer.

"I find it incredible that Marnus Labuschagne, Peter Siddle, Cameron Bancroft, James Pattinson and the like are invited over to play county cricket ahead of an Ashes series," he says. "There's no way Australia would allow England players to acclimatise in the Shield ahead of an Ashes series. And quite right, too. I think the ECB should have a look at that.

Bayliss he suggested there should be more knockout cricket at age-group level to help prepare players for high-intensity moments in the professional game. "Australian cricketers are tough and robust. They come up through a system which prepared them for Test cricket. From age-group cricket into club and Grade cricket, they play semi-finals and finals. So they get used to played knock-out cricket. They get used to playing under pressure. I think England could do with more of that.

Read the full interview here

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- In a video chat with his Instagram followers on Tuesday, Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon said he's "going to play somewhere" this season and that "it would be a waste of talent" if he did not.

Gordon also said that even though the Chargers finished 12-4 in L.A. and reached the postseason in 2018, last year "was good, but nobody [fans in L.A.] cared."

Gordon continues to hold out due to a contract impasse with the Chargers. Gordon's representation asked for and was granted permission by the Chargers to pursue a trade, but so far no deal has materialized with another team.

Gordon is scheduled to make $5.605 million in the final season of his rookie deal. Just before the season started, Chargers general manager Tom Telesco announced that the team postponed negotiations with Gordon until the season is over. If Gordon chooses to report he will play under his current contract.

Gordon desires a contract extension that will compensate him among the top running backs in the league like Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Le'Veon Bell, who earn an average of $13 to $14 million annually. During training camp the Chargers offered Gordon a new contract that doubled his salary at roughly $10 million annually.

Gordon likely will continue to sit and wait to see if his leverage in negotiations changes during the season, depending on the Chargers' record or injuries at his position.

If all that fails, the NFL's constitution and bylaws state that players on the Reserve/Did Not Report List are "prohibited from being reinstated in the last 30 days of the regular season."

If Gordon wants to play this year he would have to report no later than Nov. 29 (31 days before the end of the regular season).

Gordon also needs to report by then to earn credit for this season so he can become an unrestricted free agent in 2020. However, the Chargers can still place the franchise tag on Gordon next season and could control his rights for the next two years.

Gordon continues to train in San Diego during his holdout.

Watching the Oakland Athletics play the past two nights, one feature stood out, aside from the baseball itself: the football yard lines still visible on the field at the Oakland Coliseum. This signifies two important things:

1. The A's are unlike any other franchise;
2. The Raiders apparently have not yet moved to Las Vegas.

The A's are the only team that still shares its stadium with a football team. This, of course, was commonplace for much of baseball history, especially for the three decades beginning in the 1970s when municipalities built multipurpose stadiums that might have lacked charm but served a useful purpose. In 2019, however, the yard lines are symbolic of the issues the A's face when competing against the rich kids of the sport.

Yet, somehow, under Billy Beane and David Forst in the front office, and Bob Melvin as manager, the A's continue to plug along and have success. They've won 91 games so far and currently hold the lead in the American League wild-card race, a tense three-team battle with the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians. After 2018's surprising 97 wins and appearance in the wild-card game against the New York Yankees, this season's run isn't as much of a shock given the weakened nature of competitive balance in the AL, but it's still impressive. The A's have had to overcome issues in the rotation, the demotion of 2018 All-Star closer Blake Treinen, and the even tougher season of 2018 major league home run leader Khris Davis.

What they've received is four superlative performances that have been mostly ignored in the dust of the Houston Astros' romp to the top of the standings. Consider:

Matt Chapman: He finished seventh in the MVP voting in 2018 and has followed that breakout campaign with another season. The batting average is down from last year, but he's going to win the Gold Glove again, has hit 34 home runs, has more than 70 extra-base hits and has missed only five games. He also has killed it in high-leverage situations: .287/.358/.617 entering Tuesday's game.

It's the defense that makes him so valuable. After leading the majors with 29 defensive runs saved last season, he ranks seventh this season with 17. He won the AL's Platinum Glove as the league's top defender and he could win it again (only Indians catcher Roberto Perez has more DRS in the AL). Because of that defense, Chapman ranks fifth among AL position players in Baseball-Reference WAR. He might be the most underrated player in the game.

Marcus Semien: Chapman does not, however, lead the A's in WAR. His left-side infield mate has had a monster season with 7.1 WAR entering Tuesday -- that's higher than Miguel Tejada's MVP season of 2002, is the best in A's franchise history and the second best by any shortstop this decade, behind Francisco Lindor's 7.9 in 2018. Some of that is quantity: Semien has played every game. But he also has popped 31 home runs, has already scored 117 runs, has 76 extra-base hits ... oh, and has become a solid defender at shortstop.

In Semien's full first season as the Oakland shortstop in 2015, he made 35 errors -- including 24 in the first three months. The A's stuck with him, believing in his athleticism and work ethic, and with help from then-A's coach Ron Washington, Semien improved. This year, he has emulated Chapman and started each pitch in a lower crouch. He has a career-high .980 fielding percentage and plus-1 defensive run saved, so the metrics regard him as an average shortstop and the eye test says he's even better than that. Excellent bat, good defense, durability. That's a potential top-five MVP candidate.

Matt Olson: One reason the A's got off to a slow start -- they were 19-25 on May before embarking on an 11-game winning streak -- is Olson injured his hand in the second game of the season in Japan against the Mariners and didn't return until May 7. It took him awhile to get going and that's when the A's started taking off. Olson has 34 home runs in 117 games -- that's a 44-homer pace over the 151 games the team has played.

Oh, he's also a terrific defender. Some regard him as the best defensive first baseman in the majors (he also won a Gold Glove in 2018) and his 10 DRS in 2019 lead the majors. With Chapman and Olson anchoring the defense, the A's have the fourth-best defensive efficiency in the majors (that's simply the percentage of balls in play turned into outs). They rank just 12th overall in DRS -- but first in UZR, a different defensive metric.

Liam Hendriks: Last June, the A's designated the veteran reliever for assignment. "The A's are set to part ways" with Hendriks, according to MLB.com. The club had seven days to trade him, release him or put him on waivers. When Hendriks eventually cleared waivers, he accepted an assignment back to Triple-A Nashville. He worked his way back to the majors and even ended up starting the wild-card game against the Yankees as the opener (that didn't get go so well).

Forward to 2019, and I'm watching him against the Astros last week and he fires two 100-mph fastballs to Jose Altuve. Yes, the guy who averaged 90 mph with his fastball when he reached the majors with the Twins as a starter in 2011 is now reaching triple digits -- at least on rare occasions. "The more I think, the worse I am," Hendriks told The Athletic's Ethan Strauss in August. "This year, I don't care who's hitting."

With Treinen failing to duplicate his stellar 2018, Hendricks became the Oakland closer and is 4-3 with a 1.68 ERA entering Tuesday, with his 80⅓ innings ranking second among more traditional relief pitchers. Maybe this year he pitches the ninth inning of the wild-card game instead of the first inning.

Maybe the most remarkable aspect of the long-running Beane regime is this is now his third block of success with the A's -- all on shoestring budgets and all without reverting to tanking, like the Astros and Cubs did to spearhead their rebuilds (and like so many other teams are now attempting or recently attempted). He had the original Moneyball powerhouse team that made the playoffs from 2000 to 2003 (with the remnants of that team winning one more division title in 2006). They made the playoffs from 2012 to 2014, although that 2014 season ended with the bitter loss to the Royals in the wild-card game. And now they've built the 2018-2019 contenders.

In all those years, the A's have had only three top-10 picks in the draft and none in the top five. They took A.J. Puk sixth overall in 2016, Austin Beck sixth in 2017 and Kyler Murray ninth in 2018. Yet here they are. No sure-fire first-round studs, no big free agents, just a fun, exciting and gritty team that has gone 43-22 since the beginning of July. Yes, that elusive World Series appearance is still out there and getting past the Astros, Yankees and Twins won't be easy -- and they have to first get past the Rays and Indians to get that shot at the AL powerhouses anyway. Still, if you like a good underdog story, this is one to root for.

Luis Severino finally made his season debut for the New York Yankees, pitched four shutout innings, topped out at 99 mph, threw 47 of 67 pitches for strikes and even talked Aaron Boone into letting him pitch an extra inning.

As the Yankees start to focus on their postseason pitching plans, Severino's outing couldn't have gone much better, considering his limited rehab work in the minors as he returned from shoulder and lat injuries. Suddenly, a playoff rotation with some serious concerns looks a little stronger and definitely deeper.

Severino's outing got off to a shaky start when Los Angeles Angels leadoff hitter Brian Goodwin worked a 12-pitch walk and David Fletcher followed with a base hit. Severino got a double play to escape that inning and allowed just one hit and a walk in his final three innings. In fact, his night appeared to be over after the third inning, but he went back out in the fourth to finish his stint. He hit 99 mph three times that frame, looking much like the two-time All-Star who went 33-14 with a 3.18 ERA the past two seasons:

Luis Severino said Aaron Boone wanted to take him out after the third inning because he saw some fastballs at 93-94. Severino said he'd give him velocity in the next inning and went out and threw 98.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) September 18, 2019

As he watched from the dugout railing as the Yankees built on a 2-0 lead and cruised to an 8-0 victory, Severino was all smiles:

LIVE look-in at Yankees fans after watching Luis Severino's RETURN.#SevyDay ??? pic.twitter.com/TZNiSvogKj

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 18, 2019

Yes, this was a bad Angels lineup missing Mike Trout, but Severino flashed his filthy stuff, including a wipeout slider to go with his high-octane four-seamer. His swing-and-miss rate of 26.5% was right on par with the 26.8% he averaged last year.

"My fastball command, I think, was great," Severino said. "I still need to work a little bit more in sliders to left-handers."

Obviously, it's one game, and we'll have to see how he bounces back in his next appearance, but it's a huge positive for the Yankees.

"Looked pretty good out there, pretty sharp," catcher Austin Romine said. "We need Sevy where we're going. He's pitched some big games for us, and we look forward to him pitching some more big games for us."

Boone will spend these final two weeks figuring out how he'll work his rotation for those big games. James Paxton has won nine consecutive starts, posting a 2.50 ERA and .170 opponents' average in that stretch, and is looking more and more like the Game 1 starter. After that? Who knows. Masahiro Tanaka has been inconsistent all season; he has allowed two runs or fewer in 16 of his 30 starts but still has a 4.60 ERA. He has allowed 16 hits and eight runs in nine innings in his past two starts. Domingo German has 18 wins, but his last outing was a four-inning relief appearance as Boone perhaps prepares him for a bullpen role in October.

Indeed, what we might see is Paxton and perhaps Tanaka used in more traditional roles, and then Boone perhaps will use tandem starters in the other two slots, some combination of Severino, CC Sabathia, German and perhaps J.A. Happ (two righties and two lefties, which could be beneficial). Or maybe Severino can work his way up to 90-100 pitches and be ready to go five or six innings. After that, Boone will lean heavily on his bullpen, though the ranks there thinned out, as Dellin Betances, who just made his season debut on Sunday, is done for 2019 after the Yankees announced that he suffered a partially torn Achilles tendon in that outing.

If Severino looks this good in his remaining work, I slot him behind Paxton and go with a rotation of Paxton, Severino, Tanaka and Sabathia/German tandem -- with lots of innings from the league's best bullpen.

Severino's return from injury so late in the season to a potential prominent role in the postseason wouldn't be unprecedented. In 2015, Marcus Stroman made just four late-season starts for the Blue Jays after tearing his ACL and then started three times in the playoffs. In 2012, Chris Carpenter didn't return for the Cardinals until Sept. 21. He made three starts and then three in the postseason (the final three of his career, as it turned out). The Yankees will hope Severino makes more than three starts -- more like four or five, a number that will indicate the team has made the World Series and Severino is throwing well.

Correa also returns: Carlos Correa had been out since Aug. 19 with lower back stiffness and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Houston Astros' 4-1 win over Lance Lynn and the Rangers. He was a little rusty; no surprise there, plus Lynn isn't exactly chopped liver. He fanned Correa swinging in the second on a 95 mph pitch up and away (good location), on a 1-2 cutter swinging at the knees (good wipeout pitch and location) and got Correa to line out softly to shortstop in the seventh (just 54-mph exit velocity). Correa then fanned swinging against Jose Leclerc.

Still, adding Correa and hitting him seventh ... yeah, that's no fun for opposing pitchers:

Why is Carlos Correa and his .911 OPS hitting 7th?

[checks rest of lineup]

Good God.

— Mark Armour (@MarkArmour04) September 18, 2019

Meanwhile, Justin Verlander helped his Cy Young case with six scoreless innings to run his record to 19-6 with a 2.50 ERA. Alex Bregman helped his MVP case with his 37th home run. Yordan Alvarez helped his Rookie of the Year case -- well, who are we kidding, he's going to win that easily -- with a 454-foot missile to center field, his 26th home run.

Brewers win again, beat Padres 3-1: Brandon Woodruff returned from the injured list to pitch the first two innings of a bullpen game, Mike Moustakas hit a big, go-ahead home run in the seventh, and Drew Pomeranz blitzed through the final two innings, six up and six down, to get the save and keep Josh Hader on the bench for a night. That's 11 wins in 12 games for the Brewers, including a 7-1 record since the night Christian Yelich got hurt in the first inning.

If this feels vaguely familiar, it's because the 2018 Brewers won their final eight games to wrest the division title from the Cubs. Of course, that was in large part due to Yelich, who hit .458 with five home runs and 17 RBIs those final eight games. This year, they don't have their MVP. In this 12-game stretch, they're hitting just .235/.326/.430 (they've averaged 5.0 runs per game due to some timely hitting). The pitching has been terrific, allowing 3.4 runs per game.

Worth repeating: The Brewers play all sub-.500 teams the rest of the way. They picked up a game on the Cardinals and Cubs, so they're now tied with Chicago and two games behind St. Louis. Those two teams have seven games against each other. The Brewers might sneak in and steal the division, which they haven't led since July 5.

Five is fine: When Miguel Sano launched a mammoth 482-foot moon blast for his 30th home run, it gave the Twins five 30-homer sluggers -- an MLB first. Sano joins Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, Mitch Garver and Eddie Rosario in the 30-homer club. Twelve other teams in MLB history have had four 30-homer guys. And don't count out the Astros from getting there. Bregman and George Springer already have 30-plus. Yuri Gurriel has 29, Jose Altuve 28 and Alvarez 26.

Biggio matches dad with a cycle: Have a day, Cavan Biggio. The Blue Jays rookie went 4-for-5, hit for the cycle and stole two bases. Trivia time! He's the second player in 100 years to hit for the cycle and have multiple stolen bases (joining Charlie Moore, who did it for the Brewers in 1980). He and Craig also become just the second father-son duo to hit for a cycle, joining Gary and Daryle Ward.

Yaz homers at Fenway: That feels like a headline from 40 years or 50 years ago, but it's true: Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Hall of Famer Carl, homered at Fenway Park for the Giants, something his grandfather did 237 times in the regular season in his career (and four more times in postseason games). Carl was there:

A special night for the Yastrzemski family.
#SFGiants pic.twitter.com/oILYtdV1cK

— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) September 18, 2019

Red Sox fans responded with a standing ovation.

One of the best moments of the season.

Trinbago Knight Riders 216 for 4 (Simmons 90, Brathwaite 2-48) tied withSt Kitts and Nevis Patriots 216 for 7 (Brathwaite 64, Lewis 45, Phillip 3-38)

Super Over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 18 for no loss (Brathwaite 17*) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 5 for 1 (Brathwaite 1-5) by 13 runs

Carlos Brathwaite played an innings to remember, arresting a middle-overs collapse with hitting of the highest caliber to keep St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the hunt chasing 217, before delivering the knockout punch with both bat and ball in the Super Over after the game was tied - only the second such occurrence in CPL history.

If his 30-ball 64 wasn't enough of a contribution, he took it upon himself to snap Trinbago Knight Riders's winning streak, smashing Ali Khan for two sixes and a four to set them 19, before conceding just five with the ball. Incidentally, that was exactly what the Patriots needed to win -19 - when Jimmy Neesham was taken for 18 by Rayad Emrit and Alzarri Joseph to tie the game. A total of 36 fours and 24 sixes were hit, and Knight Riders' Lendl Simmons was a heavy contributor to that tally in his 45-ball 90 - his third successive fifty - during the course of which he overtook Chris Gayle to lead the run charts this season. But it proved insufficient as the Patriots clinched the thriller in Basseterre.

On the off side, there is god and then Lendl Simmons

It started with an inside edge that narrowly missed the stumps, but thereafter, there was hardly one that missed the middle of Simmons' bat. His strokeplay through the off side was the perfect union of style and power, belligerent, but a sight for sore eyes. Based on little changes in length, line and the field, Simmons either drove through the covers on the up, punched through cover-point off the backfoot, opened the face to pierce the infield behind square, or slashed up and over third man. But he was only marginally partial to the off side, as 42 of his 45-ball 90 came through the leg side, some clubbed over long-on, some pulled over deep midwicket and others tickled fine. However, part of the reason he could pepper all corners of the field was the bowlers' inconsistency in both length and line. They bowled two lengths - either too short or full - and strayed on both sides of the wicket, and Simmons, in the form of his life, cashed in every time.

Alzarri Joseph pulls things back

At 100 for one after 8, Knight Riders were on course to challenge their own record 267 from the last match. That's when Alzarri Joseph came on for his first and pulled things back with immediate success. He delivered the first boundary-less over, conceding just six - also the cheapest at that point - bringing some calm to proceedings. Though Simmons picked up a couple of sixes from his second, he fell to Sheldon Cottrell in the next over, and Joseph came back to unsettle Colin Munro and Kieron Pollard with his pace. His third over went for just two, with the 14-ball period post Simmons' fall culminating in Munro's dismissal. His last over was equally miserly, just three coming off it as he finished with 1 for 25, which arguably proved to be the difference as Knight Riders made 94 in their last ten overs, having made 122 in the first ten.

Evin Lewis gatecrashes Neesham's party

There were no birthday presents for the allrounder who turned 29, as Lewis tore into him from the get-go, launching him down the ground first ball. The next two went for four, and in context of what was to come, it was the best result for Neesham. Lewis, after showcasing finesse with a dab to third man and lap to fine leg, was back to his brutal best, clobbering one over deep midwicket, clubbing another one over long-off, before finishing off with another boundary to take 31 from the over. Neesham continued to have a poor day as he conceded 68 in his four, including the 20th which went for 18 resulting in the tie.

Powerplay squeeze

After Neesham had been greeted into the attack with a brutal assault, Ali Khan pulled things back, keeping Lewis off strike by bowling tightly to Laurie Evans. The fifth over was taken for just three as a result, and after Anderson Phillip managed to do the same, he was rewarded with Evans' scalp, the frustrated batsman holing out to deep square leg. Lewis had just played two balls in the last two overs, and another over went by where he was kept at the non-striker's end, as Hafeez struggled to get Khary Pierre off the square. With Lewis back on strike next over, Phillip bowled to a plan, firing them full outside off and keeping them away from Lewis' reach, who had by then started to lose rhythm, and though a few extras were conceded through wides, Lewis fell into the trap as he sliced the fourth delivery of the eighth to Pollard at deep point.

Remember the name

Three wickets in the space of four quiet overs had turned the tide Knight Riders' way. The required run-rate had shot through the roof into the 12s and he had Shamarh Brooks for company, with a career strike-rate of 112.50. What does Braithwaite do? Just presses forward and extends his arms to send one sailing over the sight screen. That was just the start, his second ball, with plenty to come.

The next few overs, Brooks went along at a run-a-ball, but every time the required rate threatened to get out of hand, Brathwaite found the boundary - six down the ground, four swept away, four, a dab to third-man. For the time that he was at the crease, he ensured the boundary was found every over, and there was fear in the mind of the opposition; a fear he instilled single-handedly, with Brooks managing just one four. And though he fell with 44 still required from three overs, the required rate remained achievable, and Knight Riders had started to panic, something he took full toll of after the game went into the Super Over.

Tasmania have promoted assistant coach Jeff Vaughan to take over the main coaching role during the Sheffield Shield portion of the season in a move designed to give head coach Adam Griffith a different perspective on Tasmania's cricket program while developing Vaughan's coaching credentials.

Griffith is the head coach of Tasmania as well as Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL. Adam Voges (WA and Perth Scorchers) and Andrew McDonald (Victoria and Melbourne Renegades) are the only other men who coach teams across all three formats in Australian domestic cricket.

Griffith took time away from Tasmania's pre-season to do a short-term stint as Australia's bowling coach during the World Cup campaign in England, which allowed Vaughan to run the early part of the preparation for the summer. Griffith's previous experience under Justin Langer in Western Australia, where he was given opportunities to take the reins for various short-term domestic assignments, gave him the confidence to promote Vaughan to look after the Shield side for the entire summer.

"It's something I've been thinking about for 6-12 months now, on how to continually develop our people," Griffith told ESPNcricinfo. "One of my passions is not only developing our players but helping our coaches develop, including myself.

"We were contemplating whether I should step back for a couple of games on tour, which is something that happened with me in WA, I was allowed to take the team away at times and lead the group.

"When we sat down and looked at the schedule this year, we've got a new High Performance Manager and a new CEO coming in and I think it's a really important time for our organisation as a whole and our high performance department as a whole, and giving Jeff the opportunity to lead the team on game day and have that autonomy as head coach will hopefully help his development in his space and also allow me to continue to run the program.

"I'll still continue to be the head coach of Tasmanian cricket but on [Shield] game days and leading into the games, Jeff will have that opportunity. I'll still be involved with the Shield team and still working with the bowlers and I'm really looking forward to seeing how Jeff progresses. He's earned the right to have this opportunity."

Vaughan's coaching stocks continue to rise. His influence on Matthew Wade as a batting mentor since returning to Tasmania has not gone unnoticed following Wade's impressive return to international ranks after dominating domestic cricket.

"He's already starting to think about the Shield, which is brilliant," Griffith said. "He's already starting to think about how the team needs to prepare and some training sessions and how we want to play, do we tweak last year, do we do the same things, selection of the team and that sort of stuff. He's doing that now while I'm focussing on how we're going to win our first four one day games. That allows us to do that and it allows me to get my head up out of the sand a little bit and have a look at our whole program."

Griffith's own stocks are high as Tasmanian cricket continues to rebound strongly following an exhaustive independent review in early 2017, led by former Australian great Michael Hussey, after a sustained period of poor results across all formats.

Griffith is highly regarded by Langer having worked closely with him during his entire tenure in WA prior to becoming Australia coach. Langer is looking to reshape his own coaching team and CA are yet to find a full-time appointment to replace David Saker, who ended his time as Australia's bowling coach last summer and Brad Haddin's contract as Australia's fielding coach has also come to an end.

Griffith said his move to step back from the Shield commitments has nothing to do with the Australian team at this stage. The exit of experienced Cricket Tasmania chief executive Nick Cummins, to a role with Cricket Victoria, and high performance manager Drew Ginn, who has been appointed new executive general manager of high performance at Cricket Australia, has left Cricket Tasmania with some holes to fill. They are still searching for a new CEO but have appointed Simon Insley as Ginn's replacement.

Griffith will coach Tasmania's Marsh Cup squad as their campaign starts in Perth on Monday. Jordan Silk will captain the side for the first two games in the absence of Wade, who is being rested following the Ashes series. Ben McDermott will keep wicket.

HOUSTON -- Justin Verlander picked up his major league-leading 19th win, and Yuli Gurriel, Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez all homered to help the Houston Astros to a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.

The Astros are a win away from their third straight 100-win season and have a magic number of one to clinch a playoff berth and three to capture their third straight American League West title.

Verlander (19-6) added to his case for the AL Cy Young Award by striking out eight and scattering four singles over six scoreless innings. He lowered his AL-leading ERA to 2.50, and his 283 strikeouts this season leave him 11 shy of becoming the 18th player in MLB history to reach 3,000.

Roberto Osuna struck out two in the ninth for his 34th save.

Texas starter Lance Lynn (14-11) was tough early and the Astros had only one hit before Gurriel's home run to the first row of the seats in right field with one out in the fifth.

There were two outs in the sixth when Bregman launched his homer onto the train tracks atop left field to give him 37 this season. It's the most home runs by an Astro since Chris Carter also had 37 in 2014.

Houston went back-to-back when Alvarez extended his rookie franchise record with his 26th homer on a ball hit to straightaway center field to make it 3-0.

Nomar Mazara had two hits, including a solo home run off Hector Rondon in the seventh inning as the Rangers dropped their fourth game in a row overall and their sixth straight to the Astros.

Lynn yielded seven hits and four runs with eight strikeouts in seven innings. He is 0-5 in his past eight starts behind an offense that hasn't provided much run support. The Rangers haven't scored more than three runs in one of his starts since his last win on Aug. 2.

Jose Altuve singled with one out in the first inning before Lynn settled in, retiring the next 12 batters, with six strikeouts before Gurriel's homer.

Houston shortstop Carlos Correa went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his return after sitting out since Aug. 19 because of a sore lower back.

The Astros tacked on a run in the seventh inning when Robinson Chirinos tripled and scored on a single by George Springer.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Rangers: OF Joey Gallo (wrist surgery) is working out and playing in games at the Rangers instructional league in Arizona and could come off the injured list by the end of the week.

Astros: Correa was able to get in only one rehabilitation game at Triple-A Round Rock before the team's season ended, so the Astros will ease him back into playing every day. Manager AJ Hinch said he'll be off on Wednesday to give him two days off coupled with an off day Thursday, and that he'll probably play only two of three games this weekend against the Angels. ... RHP Brad Peacock (sore shoulder) threw a bullpen session Monday and is scheduled to throw live batting practice Thursday as he moves closer to coming off the injured list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Kolby Allard (4-0, 4.34) will start for Texas on Wednesday night. The rookie gave up seven hits and four runs in four innings in his last start but did not factor in the decision in a 6-4 win over Tampa Bay.

Astros: RHP Gerrit Cole (17-5, 2.62), who leads the majors with 292 strikeouts, is scheduled to start for Houston on Wednesday. Cole gave up four hits and one run while striking out 11 as he pitched a season-high eight innings for the second straight start in a 4-1 win over Kansas City the last time out.