struck out the side in the fifth to make it five in a row.

DENVER -- Jusuf Nurkic had 16 points and 11 rebounds and the Denver Nuggets won a home game for the second time this season, beating the Utah Jazz 105-91 on Sunday night in a matchup of struggling Western Conference teams.Rookie Jamal Murray had 16 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to help Denver improve to 2-4 at the Pepsi Center. Wilson Chandler added 17, and Danilo Gallinari had 13 points, five rebounds and eight assists.Gordon Hayward had 25 points for Utah, and Dante Exum, Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson each had 10. The Jazz have lost four straight.Will Barton started for the banged-up Nuggets after missing his previous nine games with an ankle injury. He made a 3 on his teams first attempt from the field and finished with seven points.The Nuggets led by double digits most of the night and only trailed once, 2-0. Utah stayed in touch until the fourth quarter thanks to Denvers 13-for-30 free throw shooting.The Jazz struggled early and often in their fourth back-to-back of the season, hitting just 5 of 22 shots in the opening quarter. They trailed by 19 in the second before finding any consistency.TIP-INSJazz: PF Derrick Favors missed his third straight game with a left knee bone contusion, while PG George Hill missed his eighth straight game with a sprained thumb. Hopefully the band will be back, Utah coach Quin Snyder said of his teams early season injuries. We havent really established a band so I dont even know what that sounds like. ... Veteran C Boris Diaw (rest) came off the bench after sitting out Saturdays game against Houston. He had two points.Nuggets: G Gary Harris missed his fourth consecutive game with a right foot injury and is not expected to return until mid-December.TIED BY INJURIESA plethora of injuries have hindered early expectations for the Nuggets and Jazz, two teams looking to get back to the postseason. Snyder said he hopes injuries wont link the Northwest Division rivals for long.We dont really want to be cousins in that one, he said.UP NEXTJazz: Host Denver on Wednesday night.Nuggets: End their four-game homestand on Tuesday night against Chicago. Mike Quick Jersey . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. Clayton Thorson Youth Jersey . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. http://www.theeaglesfootballauthentic.com/eagles-shareef-miller-black-jersey/ . The return match will take place next Wednesday. Udinese leads Fiorentina 2-1 in the other semifinal. Napoli staged a second-half comeback from two goals down after Gervinhos opener and a stunning strike from Kevin Strootman. Tommy McDonald Jersey . Ouellette, from Montreal, already has three Olympic gold medals since joining the team in 1999. Brian Dawkins Eagles Jersey . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. HOUSTON -- Lance McCullers isnt reveling in his success after two straight 10-strikeout games.Houstons 22-year-old starter remains focused on improving.Its a good two starts, but tomorrow its back to what I can do to try to help the team win against Toronto the following week, he said. So thats all Im really thinking about right now.McCullers fanned 10 in six solid innings, Colby Rasmus broke out of a slump with a two-run homer and the Astros beat the New York Yankees 4-1 on Wednesday night.McCullers (6-4) allowed five hits and one run and his 10 strikeouts tied a season high.All in all hes becoming a little more of a complete pitcher the more that he utilizes all his weapons, manager A.J. Hinch said.He kept the Yankees off-balance by throwing almost as many curveballs as fastballs, but to Brian McCann it seemed like more than that.Hes got one of the better curveballs youre going to see and out of 90 pitches it seemed like he threw 89 of them, McCann said. He has a great arm and a really good curveball.Rasmus snapped an 0-for-29 skid when he sent an off-speed pitch from Masahiro Tanaka (7-3) into the seats behind the bullpen in right-center field to make it 4-0 with one out in the third.He said he hasnt felt right most of this month after getting an ear infection early in July.My ear had a little bit to do with it, kind of got me down those few days there to get my balance off and what not, he said. I was trying to play through it and suck it up. I got that kind of tamed now ... so Im hoping that can get me on a good roll and I can help this team win some ball games.Ken Giles and Luke Gregerson pitched a scoreless inning each before Will Harris got his 11th save by striking out two in the ninth.Tanaka, who entered the game with a 1.50 ERA in nine road starts, allowed seven hits and four runs in five innings for the loss. He had thrown 12 1/3 straight scoreless innings on the road before an RBI single by Carlos Gomez with one out in the first inning.He had the onee bad inning.dddddddddddd He left the (splitter) up, he left a couple pitches up that inning, manager Joe Girardi said. They made him work. He had a real easy first inning and then after that they really made him work. The one inning really did him in.Marwin Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games with a single to start the third. He advanced to second on a groundout and took third on a wild pitch. A single by Carlos Correa came next to score Gonzalez and push the lead to 2-0.Rasmus then collected his first hit since July 5, when he also homered and drove in two runs, on his 12th homer this season.McCann cut the lead to 4-1 when he led off the fourth inning with a home run to center field.Didi Gregorius singled with one out before McCullers walked Starlin Castro. But McCullers ended the threat by striking out the next two batters to end the inning.McCullers then struck out the side in the fifth to make it five in a row.McCanns homer was the highlight of the night for the Yankees, who managed just four other hits, which were all singles, and struck out a season-high 15 times.TRAINERS ROOMAstros: Houston 3B Luis Valbuena was out of the lineup after leaving Tuesdays game in the second inning with a strained right hamstring. Hinch said he was feeling better on Wednesday and was confident that he would avoid a trip to the disabled list. ... Gomez left the game before the third inning with a strained right hamstring, but said after the game that he didnt think it was serious.UP NEXTYankees: New York has a day off Thursday before opening a three-game series at Tampa Bay with Ivan Nova (7-5, 4.65) on the mound.Astros: Houston is off on Thursday before Collin McHugh (7-6, 4.18) starts in the opener of a three-game series at Detroit. McHugh allowed two runs and six hits in six innings of a win over the Angels on Saturday. ' ' '