ASHBURN, Va. -- Matt Jones will miss the rest of the preseason with a left shoulder injury, but the Washington Redskins hope their top running back will be ready for the start of the regular season.Coach Jay Gruden said Jones will be held out of the Redskins final two preseason games after spraining his shoulder Friday against the New York Jets. Gruden said Jones has already made significant strides since the injury and has high hopes hell be ready by the regular-season opener Sept. 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.We think the recovery time will be pretty quick, Gruden said Monday. He could be a little sore, but I think hes going to be fine.Jones ran for 490 yards and three touchdowns and caught another touchdown in 13 games as a rookie last season before going down with a hip injury. He became the Redskins No. 1 back after they let Alfred Morris leave for Dallas in free agency.The 23-year-old is getting stim treatments for blood flow and worked out on the sideline during practice Monday. He said he was feeling much better and isnt worried about missing out on game action.I dont feel like this is even a setback, because I take mental reps on the field, Jones said. It feels better knowing I did it in the preseason. Im not saying that preseason doesnt matter, I do want to still get better, but Ive got some time to get ready for the first game.Washington had little experience at the running back position even before Jones got hurt. He and third-down back Chris Thompson are the only players on the roster with NFL game experience, and the Redskins will lean heavily on rookies Robert Kelley and Keith Marshall and second-year player Mack Brown the rest of the preseason.Kelley replaced Jones as the top back against New York and could start Friday in the third preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.I think he and Keith will get the lions share of the carries, Gruden said. We want to see them in game situations against a good Buffalo team.Even if Jones is back by the opener, all eyes are on Kelley, an undrafted rookie out of Tulane, and Marshall, a seventh-round pick out of Georgia, to see what they can do. Teammates are impressed by their habits in practice, but Friday night at FedEx Field in the exhibition dress rehearsal for real games is a different animal.Im excited to see how they do, especially with a prime-time opportunity like theyre getting, said left tackle Trent Williams, whos set to make his preseason debut against the Bills after battling a sore right knee. We have a lot of faith in those backs. They show a lot of promise, theyve got a lot of talent, but obviously theyve got to put in the field on Friday and well have a better picture of it after that.Gruden has given no indication so far that Washington will look externally for running back depth, and Kelley, Marshall and Brown will get chances to keep it that way.Thats why were here, Kelley said. Thats why you have backups, for somebody to step up and take the place of that starter while hes down. When he gets back well be back doing our role on the team.Quarterback Kirk Cousins, who was held out of the Jets game to rest, recalled his own experience as a young player and hopes to help the young running backs Friday as they fill in for Jones.It stretches you as a player and its going to get you to where you need to be that much faster, Cousins said. I think its a really good thing for them. There may be some growing pains here and there, but thats what the preseason is for: to see what they can do, what they cant do.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/AP-NFLJordan 12 Cheap For Sale . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team took control of the game early. Cheap Air Jordan 12 Australia . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. http://www.cheapairjordan12australia.com/ . Still, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke thought taking him out before the fifth inning was an unusual move. "Im looking up at the board and hes got two hits given up and one run, and Im taking him out after the fourth inning," Roenicke said. Jordan 12 For Sale Australia . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. Cheap Jordan 12 Retro Australia . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111.Wow. If Game 2 is anything like the Giants-Cubs opener, its going to be an intense night at Wrigley Field when San Francisco tries to get even with Chicago. Who has the edge??Go inside the numbers and matchups that will decide Saturdays game, and then vote for which team will win at the bottom of the page.Inside the pitching matchupWhen Jeff Samardzija is on the mound: The free agent delivered exactly what the Giants could have expected, making 32 starts, topping 200 innings, and producing a solid 3.81 ERA. Samardzija works off a 93-95 mph fastball that doesnt generate a high rate of swings and misses but does generate an above-average ground ball rate, especially when he throws the two-seamer.Samardzijas primary secondary pitches in recent years have been a slider and cutter, but in August he suddenly resurrected a curveball he hadnt thrown since 2012, essentially dropping the cutter in the process. The cutter had actually been a pretty effective pitch for him -- batters hit .213/.244/.361 against it -- but the curveball has been even more effective, holding batters to a .179 average in a small sample size so far. Since Samardzija doesnt throw a changeup, the curveball gives him a lower-velocity offspeed pitch to go with the 87 mph slider. The curve is thrown in the low 80s, so maybe the change in speeds will improve the effectiveness of a fastball that batters hit .322/.381/.519 against. (Indeed, his OPS against his fastball went down in August and September). -- David SchoenfieldWhen Kyle Hendricks is on the mound: Speaking of throwing first-pitch strikes, nobody had a higher rate of them than Hendricks, tied with Johnny Cueto at 68.4 percent. That goes a long way to explaining how he led the NL with a 2.13 ERA. Hendricks ranks near the bottom of the league in fastball velocity, but his ERA wasnt just a product of the Cubs defense: He led major league starters in limiting hard contact.He does that by expertly changing speeds with his four-seamer, sinker, curveball, cutter and changeup -- and hitting his spots. Everything is to the corners -- away to lefties, away to righties. No starter had a higher percentage of pitches on the outer half of the plate than Hendricks, with 62 percent of his pitches on the outer third of the strike zone.Hendricks throws his fastball about half the time, increasing the usage of his changeup and cutter this season. Both were deadly weapons as batters hit .135 against the changeup and .164 against the cutter, with good K rates of 29.5 and 25.3 percent. Indeed, dont be fooled by the lack of velocity: His strikeout rate is more than adequate, ranking 24th out of 74 starters. How do you beat him? Its not easy. You can hope he elevates a fastball or misses over the middle, but he doesnt do that often. Knowing he pounds the strike zone, you can try to jump on him early in the count..ddddddddddddHe didnt have a large platoon split, so thats not a major factor. The Giants do put the ball in play, so maybe their ability to foul off pitches will come into play, waiting for Hendricks to make a mistake. -- SchoenfieldPlayer in the spotlightBuster Posey. Poseys power disappeared in the second half with only three home runs and he hit only .257 in September. Poseys postseason history at the plate isnt good -- a weak .241/.318/.319 line entering this series over 49 games, with only four home runs. The Giants won the World Series in 2014 even though Posey didnt have an extra-base hit the entire postseason. I doubt they can win if that happens again. -- SchoenfieldWhat will decide tonights gameIf Samardzijas curveball can quiet the Cubs bats. He used his curveball 15 percent of the time in the second half after not throwing a single curve in the first. Opponents hit just .179 on the pitch with a .425 OPS. It would be prudent for Samardzija to throw the curve Saturday ... a lot. The Cubs hit just .193 off curveballs this season, 25th in the majors. Their .577 OPS ranked 20th. Who specifically should he use it against? Addison Russell hit .122 against curveballs this season, 141st of 146 qualifying hitters.?--?Sarah Langs, ESPN Stats & InfoChoosing sides: Who will win?As good as Hendricks was this year, with barely a mistake for six months, he still has to prove himself in October. Last postseason, he failed to make it out of the fifth inning in both starts. I expect a higher-scoring game, which isnt saying much after Fridays 1-0 affair, but Samardzija will outpitch Hendricks by just enough. -- Mark SaxonThis is the matchup the Cubs have been waiting for even if they didnt know it. What they do know is Samardzija. He is decidedly more hittable than Cueto, as he has given up 14 hits in 10 innings to his former team -- and the Cubs have scored nine runs off him. Meanwhile, the aggressive Giants will be sliced and diced by Hendricks, leading to a pull-away victory by the home team. -- Jesse RogersWe saw the template for how this series is likely to go in Game 1. Hendricks and his 1.32 home ERA are tough to beat, but we know the Giants wont be rattled by their rough loss Friday. Win Saturday and they still split and have Madison Bumgarner looming in Game 3. Still, Hendricks has just been too good at Wrigley and as solid as Samardzija has been, the Cubs starter has been on a different level. Cubs go up 2-0.?-- Bradford DoolittleWhere the series standsAfter a thrilling Game 1 win, the Cubs have a chance to push the Giants to the brink on Saturday night -- and they better capitalize on it, because Bumgarner will get the ball when the series shifts to San Francisco. ?--?ESPN.com ' ' '