The Washington Post - 12.11.2019

tuesday, november 12 , 2019. the washington post eZ M2 d3

Derek Stepan 5:33 into the peri-

od, and Alex ovechkin had a

high-quality chance on the power

play off a backdoor setup from

Kuznetsov but couldn’t beat

raanta.

With the Capitals’ net empty

and an extra attacker on, oshie

broke through on a rebound after

raanta saved an ovechkin blast,

forcing the extra period and sal-

vaging at least one standings

point.

“The guys believe,” Coach To dd

reirden said. “They believe

they’re never out of a game.

Things are going to go south for

us.... You’re not always going to

be at y our best. for me, it’s i mpor-

tant that you understand that.

“You can’t affect what had hap-

pened in the past, and let’s move

forward.”

notes: Capitals forward rich-

ard Panik, who missed 10 games

after he was placed on long-term

injured reserve oct. 18 with an

upper-body injury, returned to

action monday against his previ-

ous team.

Panik started on Washington’s

third line alongside Lars Eller

and Chandler Stephenson and

BY DAVE SHEININ

The historic rookie campaigns
of Houston Astros designated hit-
ter Yordan Alvarez and New York
mets first baseman Pete Alonso
were validated monday with land-
slide victories for the Jackie rob-
inson rookie of the Year awards.
Alvarez won unanimously in the
American League, and Alonso w as
a near-unanimous pick in the Na-
tional League.
Alvarez, 22, became the first
unanimous winner since Aaron
Judge (AL) and Cody Bellinger
(NL) swept the first-place votes in

2017. Alonso, 24, missed being a
      unanimous winner by just one
      vote. Voting was conducted by
      members of the Baseball Writers’
      Association of America and was
      completed before the start of the
      postseason.
      The honors for Alvarez and
      Alonso came following remark-
      able, history-making debut sea-
      sons. The former amassed the

highest on-base-plus-slugging

percentage in history for a rookie

with a minimum of 350 plate ap-

pearances — 1 .067 — and t he latter

slugged 53 homers for the mets,

breaking Judge’s major league

rookie record.

Asked for his reaction f ollowing

the a nnouncement, A lonso, on the

live mLB Network telecast, an-

swered, “Holy expletive.”

Baltimore orioles left-hander

John means — who went 12-11

with a 3.60 ErA for a pitching staff

that ranked among the worst in

modern history — w as the runner-

up in the AL, followed by Tampa

Bay rays and former University o f

maryland infielder Brandon

Lowe. Atlanta Braves right-hand-

er mike Soroka received the one

first-place vote that didn’t go to

Alonso and was the runner-up in

the N L.

Washington N ationals outfield-

er Victor robles received one

third-place vote to finish sixth in

NL voting.

The AL rookie of the year race

was never the same after June 9,

the date Alvarez was promoted to

the majors. Though he would

amass only 369 plate appearances

— not enough to qualify for the

batting title — his oPS from that

point was topped by only mike

Trout of the Los Angeles Angels

and Christian Yelich of the mil-

waukee Brewers, top contenders

for m VP honors in their respective

leagues, and he hit 27 homers,

drove in 7 8 runs a nd batted. 313.

Alvarez’s 87 games played are

the fewest for a position player

named AL rookie of the year, and

only Willie mcCovey, who played

52 g ames f or the 1 959 San francis-

co Giants, played f ewer a mong NL

winners of the award.

The NL award could have been

more of an actual race had San

Diego Padres shortstop fernando

Ta tis Jr. not suffered a back injury

in mid-August that cost him the

rest of the season. At the time,

Ta tis, 20, had a .317 batting aver-

age, a .379 o n-base percentage a nd

a .590 slugging percentage — for

an oPS of .969, 56 points higher

than Alonso’s on the same date —

with 22 homers and 53 r BI in only

372 plate a ppearances.

Soroka, 2 2, had the kind of

rookie campaign that might have

won the award in any other, non-

Alonso season. He went 13-4 with

a 2.68 ErA — the latter mark

topped by only four other quali-

fied pitchers in the majors — and

emerged as the ace of the NL East

champion Braves’ staff. Although

it didn’t factor into the voting,

Soroka also won his only start of

the postseason in dominant fash-

ion, limiting St. Louis to two hits

and one run over seven innings in

Game 3 of t he NL D ivision Series.

Baseball’s awards week contin-

ues with the announcements for

the manager of the year awards

(Tuesday), Cy Young awards

(Wednesday) and mVP awards

(Thursday).

[email protected]

Alvarez, Alonso are voted top rookies

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sebastian Aho scored twice,
Joel Edmundson had a goal and
two assists, and the Carolina Hur-
ricanes beat the ottawa Senators,
8-2, to snap a four-game losing
streak monday night in raleigh,
N.C.
Warren foegele, ryan Dzingel
and martin Necas each had a goal
and an assist, and Haydn fleury
and Dougie Hamilton also scored
to help the H urricanes (10-7-1) win
for only the second time this
month after matching a franchise
record w ith eight wins i n october.
Colin White and Brady
T kachuk scored for ottawa
( 6-10-1), which h ad w on t hree of its
previous four games. Anders Nils-
son gave up four goals on 19 shots
before being pulled in the second
period, and Craig Anderson
stopped 20 of 24 shots.

crosby sidelined with injury

Pittsburgh Penguins star

S idney Crosby will miss Tuesday’s

game at the New York rangers

with a lower-body injury.

Coach mike Sullivan said Cros-

by will not travel with the club to

New York. The Penguins also play

friday at New Jersey, but Sullivan

did not explicitly say Crosby

would miss b oth games.

The two-time mVP left a 3-2

shootout win o ver Chicago on Sat-

urday in the third period. Crosby

got tangled up with Blackhawks

defenseman Erik Gustafsson, and

moments later a shot from

Gustafsson smacked off his right

foot. He then headed to the dress-

ing room.

Crosby, 32, has five goals and 12

assists in 17 games.

l BlUe JacKets: The NHL

suspended Columbus forward

Nick foligno for three games for a

hit that leveled Colorado forward

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on

S aturday.

The Blue Jackets’ captain

dropped Bellemare with an elbow

to the jaw on an open-ice hit i n the

second period. foligno said he

hadn’t intended to hurt Bellemare

and “ felt sick to my s tomach when

I saw that I hit him in the h ead.”

foligno was assessed a major

penalty and a game misconduct

for charging. He said he traded

text messages with Bellemare af-

ter the game to make sure he was

okay. The NHL said the suspen-

sion will c ost foligno $88,709.67.

l cOYOtes: Arizona signed

General manager John Chayka to

a long-term contract e xtension.

Chayka has built the Coyotes

into playoff contenders since be-

coming the youngest general

manager in North American

m ajor s ports history at 2 6 in 2 017.

Arizona came up four points

shy of the postseason in 2018-19

and i mproved to 10-6-2 by beating

Washington o n monday n ight.

Chayka has overhauled the ros-

ter since taking over, adding Phil

Kessel, Nick Schmaltz and Antti

raanta. Arizona also drafted

C layton Keller, Jakob Chychrun

and B arrett Hayton under Chayka.

nhl roundup

Carolina ends skid with emphatic win

Hurricanes 8,

senaTOrs 2

to 12 games (10-0-2), in large part
thanks to the stellar play of Kuz-
netsov, who has been playing his
best hockey over the past two
weeks. Kuznetsov has nine points
(three goals, six assists) in his past
four games and has eight goals
and 10 assists this season.
“It’s always fun when he gets in
those modes, to have a front-row
seat on the bench and watch,”
oshie said.
Despite their late push mon-
day, the Capitals were ultimately
done in by their inability to finish
early in the game. They were held
scoreless in the first period, the
first time they didn’t score in a
regulation period since the third
period of their previous loss
against the oilers. They had mul-
tiple high-quality scoring chanc-
es, peppering Coyotes goaltender
Antti raanta, who made 31 saves
and was stellar throughout, but
just couldn’t convert them.
“The first five minutes it felt
like our line could have had five
goals, but that’s what a goalie’s
for,” Wilson said. “We have that
privilege on any given night to
have goalies that will make big
saves, and he made a few big ones
for his team.”
The Coyotes got on the board
first when Clayton Keller scored
with 5:45 left in the first period,
and the tenor of the game quickly
changed in the second period
when the Coyotes scored twice in
35 seconds during the first min-
ute after intermission.
The first of those two goals
came only 10 seconds in, when
Christian fischer’s tally was up-
held after a review. fischer’s goal
was ruled good after replay
showed the puck completely
crossed the goal line while it was
in Samsonov’s glove. michael
Grabner then scored unassisted
on a breakaway to give Arizona a
commanding 3-0 lead.
“What we’re going to take away
is our first two periods.... It was
way too sloppy,” oshie said. “Lot
of standing around trying to look
for plays instead of skating. There
was one line that was doing a lot
of skating — one guy mostly, and
that was Kuzy, and you saw [the]
success he had.”
Kuznetsov gave the Capitals
some life with his breakaway
score at 8 :47 of the second period.
The goal was preceded by a stellar
play on the other end of the ice by
defenseman Nick Jensen, who

capitals from D1

Winning streak ends at six as rally comes up short

Katherine Frey/the Washington Post

capitals forward t.J. Oshie, right, scores late in the third period monday to send the game to overtime.

dived to clear the puck from the

Capitals’ crease to prevent an

Arizona goal. Kuznetsov got loose

on that same sequence to cut the

Coyotes’ lead to 3-1.

Kuznetsov’s second goal, early

in the third period, came on a

backhand from the right side

after a shot by defenseman mi-

chal Kempny went wide off the

end boards and bounced out to

the other side.

The Capitals scrambled to tie

the score from there, outshooting

the Coyotes 11-6 in the third

period. Defenseman Dmitry

o rlov drew a tripping penalty on

Capitals’ next three

at philadelphia Flyers

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Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM),

WFED (1500 AM)

Adam Eaton and Victor robles,

but the Nationals would need to

act swiftly if rendon falls out of

their blueprint. Losing him and

Bryce Harper in back-to-back off-

seasons cannot be addressed

without spending.

rendon and the Nationals

traded proposals throughout this

past season, but none were able

to keep him from testing the open

market. Washington’s latest offer

was for seven years and between

$210 million and $215 million in

early September. Boras, rendon’s

agent, countered, and the Nation-

als did not accept the terms. That

Boras was still negotiating then,

less than two months before the

start of free agency, s uggests ren-

don remains interested in return-

ing. But those negotiations also

showed the sides are far apart.

The hang-ups for the Nationals

don’t end with Strasburg and

rendon. ryan Zimmerman is a

free agent and willing to come

back on a cheap deal. Gomes,

Howie Kendrick, Daniel Hudson,

Asdrúbal Cabrera, Brian Dozier,

fernando rodney and Gerardo

Parra were on the World Series

roster before becoming free

agents.

The Nationals can’t keep all of

the players who led them to their

first championship. They m ay c ut

a handful of them loose. Because

those decisions will shape their

plans, and dictate what they need

and don’t need in the coming

weeks, this offseason will inch

into gear.

re-signing Strasburg or ren-

don, or both, would greatly alter

Washington’s financial planning.

Zimmerman could fill one of two

openings at first base. Kendrick

could fill the other and pad the

bench if the Nationals want to

compete with the American

League teams that will court the

NL Championship Series mVP as

a designated hitter. Cabrera could

be a utility infielder and pinch

hitter from both sides of the

plate. Hudson could kick-start

the construction of the bullpen

for 2020.

But rizzo will have to balance

nostalgia with practicality. He’ll

have to attack his to-do list, an-

other lengthy one, with any num-

ber of contingencies. And be-

cause of that, because of all the

Nationals don’t know, he will

have to slow down.

[email protected]

P atrick Corbin, matt Adams and

Aníbal Sánchez, in that order,

before December was through.

But with internal decisions to

sort out — the most pressing

centered on Stephen Strasburg

and Anthony rendon — the

N ationals’ plans are tethered to

retaining some of the best avail-

able players or using an influx of

money to replace them.

If they bring back Strasburg,

they would only explore depth

additions to their starting staff. If

they don’t, they could jump into

discussions for front-line pitch-

ers such as Gerrit Cole or Zack

Wheeler. Discussions with Stras-

burg are expected to move faster

than other stars. He opted out of

the remaining four years and

$100 million on his Nationals

contract Nov. 2. He is interested

in staying with Washington, ac-

cording to those close to him, but

the baseline price could be the

seven-year, $210 million deal that

max Scherzer signed with the

Nationals in January 2015.

Strasburg, 31, is coming off a

career year that ended with a

World Series mVP award. His

agent, Scott Boras, represents

Scherzer and helped construct

that contract four years ago. Bo-

ras will be in Scottsdale for the

meetings. But he has someone

stationed with Strasburg, near

his offseason home outside Wash-

ington, in case talks gain traction

in the near future. There are a lot

of clubs that need starting pitch-

ing, including two — the Los

Angeles Angels and San Diego

Padres — near Strasburg’s home-

town of San Diego. The Nationals

have already begun negotiating a

new deal. Their interest is sky

high. They know that everyone

else’s is, as well.

If they bring back rendon,

they could shift their priorities to

lower-cost additions at catcher,

first base and possibly second,

depending on what they envision

with top prospect Carter Kie-

boom. But if they don’t, it could

lead them into exploring third

baseman Josh Donaldson as a

shorter-term option. or Yasmani

Grandal, the top catcher on the

market, could make sense since

the Nationals declined a $9 mil-

lion club option for Gomes. The

offense will bring back center-

pieces in Juan Soto, Trea Turner,

gm meetings from D1

Nationals have much to do but

cannot push the pace this year

John McDonnell/the Washington Post

Houston’s Yordan alvarez was a unanimous pick as the al rookie

of the year. He had 2 7 homers and 78 RBi in 369 plate appearances.

finished with a plus-1 rating in

10:47. S tephenson was bumped to

that line with Carl Hagelin still

day-to-day because of an upper-

body injury....

The Capitals assigned defense-

man Ty ler Lewington and center

T ravis Boyd to Hershey of the

American Hockey League.

[email protected]

Coyotes 4, Capitals 3 (so)

arizona ........................... 1 200 —4

Washington ................... 0 120 —3

First PErioD

scoring: 1 , Arizona, Keller 3 (Hinostroza, Goligoski),

14:15. Penalties: Vrana, WSH, (slashing), 10:54;

Schmaltz, ARI, (hooking), 15:00.

sEConD PErioD

scoring: 2 , Arizona, Fischer 1 (Richardson), 0:10. 3,

Arizona, Grabner 6, 0:45. 4, Washington, Kuznetsov 7

(Vrana, Wilson), 8:47. Penalties: Demers, ARI, (hook-

ing), 19:31.

thirD PErioD

scoring: 5 , Washington, Kuznetsov 8 (Kempny), 2:23. 6,

Washington, Oshie 9 (Ovechkin, Carlson), 18:44. Penal-

ties: Stepan, ARI, (tripping), 5:33; Oshie, WSH, (high

sticking), 9:49.

oVErtiME

scoring: None. Penalties: None.

shootoUt

A rizona 2 (Schmaltz G, Garland G), Washington 0 (Oshie

NG, Kuznetsov NG).

shots on goaL

arizona ......................... 131363 —35

Washington ................. 12911 2— 34

Power-play opportunities: Arizona 0 of 2; Washington 0

of 3. goalies: Arizona, Raanta 2-1-2 (34 shots-31 saves).

Washington, Samsonov 5-1-0 (35-32).

WE GET

IT DONE.

MD 3 01.388.595 9

VA 571 .341.620 2

DC 202 .770.3131

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