tuning up

Ethan Schiefelbein, tuning up for the pressure of the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, gave up five hits, struck out four and walked one.

For serious students of the game, the offseason is typically dedicated to tuning up the player’s weak points.

The Americans are tuning up for a World Cup that, they hope, avenges the disappointment of four years ago.

It begins with what could be mistaken for the players tuning up for playing Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.”

Yet the payoff was only 21 games from there until the postseason began two months later — two months in which the Clippers envisioned resting and tuning up for the most important postseason in franchise history.