THURSDAY,OCTOBER24,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO B15
Major League Baseball will speak with the
Astros to determine whether the commis-
sioner’s office or the club will handle any
decision after an investigation into the
conduct of Houston assistant general
manager Brandon Taubman.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said be-
fore World Series Game 2 on Wednesday
that MLB investigators were at work in
their probe.
“I think that there will be a conversa-
tion with the club at the end of the in-
vestigation and as is often the case, we’ll
make a decision working with the club as
to how who should handle it, as opposed
to exactly what the outcome is,” Manfred
said. “At the end of the day, he is an As-
tros employee.”
Taubman has apologized for using lan-
guage that was “unprofessional and inap-
propriate” in the Houston clubhouse after
the Astros’ pennant-winning victory over
the New York Yankees last weekend.
Sports Illustrated reported he repeatedly
yelled toward a group of female reporters
about closer Roberto Osuna, who was sus-
pended for 75 games last year for violating
MLB’s domestic-violence policy before be-
ing traded from Toronto to the Astros.
Taubman shouted “Thank God we got
Osuna!” according to SI, which said he
made similar remarks several times,
punctuating them with a profanity.
Manfred wasn’t sure how long the in-
vestigation will need.
“You want to make sure you get all the
facts,” he said. “You want to be as thor-
ough as you possibly can, understand the
whole situation. But once you get there,
you want to get it behind you.”
Manfred said what occurred in the
clubhouse was of more concern to him
than the Astros’ response, which was ini-
tially to call the SI report “misleading and
completely irresponsible.”
The team said SI had tried to “fabricate
a story where one does not exist” and
maintained Taubman’s comments
weren’t directed at reporters.“I’m really concerned at this point
about the underlying substance of the sit-
uation and what the atmosphere was,
how it came to be,” Manfred said. “We
pride ourselves on providing an inclusive,
harassment free environment in all of the
various aspects of our business. I think it’s
a core value for baseball.
“And I think that we have to be tre-
mendously concerned whenever we have
an incident that attracts this much atten-
tion.”
Astros manager AJ Hinch said Tuesday
that “we all need to be better across the
board, in the industry” and repeated his
concern before Game 2.
“I feel responsible for the clubhouse. I
feel responsible for everything that goes
on down here,” Hinch said.ASTROS HAVE FAITH IN BREGMANThe chants of “M-V-P!, M-V-P!” still break
out from the crowd each time Alex Breg-
man comes to the plate at home for the
Houston Astros.
After Bregman struck out three times
while going 0 for 4 with a walk in Game 1
of the World Series, including two strike-
outs with runners on base in a 5-4 loss to
Washington, the third baseman was 3 for
22 (.136) with one RBI since the start of
the AL Championship Series.
“It’s rare to see him kind of mentally
frustrated, but yet if anyone is equipped
to figure it out, it’s Alex Bregman,” man-
ager AJ Hinch said Wednesday.
Bregman has continued to get on base,
with seven walks in six ALCS games
against the New York Yankees, but he had
only one extra-base hit in that span. Hisonly homer this postseason was in Game
2 of the AL Division Series against Tampa
Bay, after hitting .296 with 41 homers and
112 RBIs in the regular season.
“He’s incredibly accountable to himself
and he takes a lot of responsibility for our
club, for our offence,” Hinch said. “He’s
Alex Bregman, he wants to be perfect, he
has high standards for himself.”GAME 3 STARTERSRight-hander Anibal Sanchez will start
Game 3 on Friday night when the Nation-
als play their first World Series home
game.
Washington manager Dave Martinez
isn’t saying yet if Patrick Corbin, who was
14-7 in the regular season, will be the
Game 4 starter on Saturday night. Corbin
threw a scoreless inning in Game 1, his
fourth relief appearance this postseason.
“I talked to Corbin a little bit. He’s go-
ing to go throw today and we’ll see how
he feels after he plays catch,” Martinez
said before Game 2. “These guys, they’re
all in. And this is based on a conversation
I have with them every day.”
Sanchez has allowed one run in 12^2 ⁄ 3 in-
nings in two postseason starts. He had 7^2 ⁄ 3
scoreless innings against St. Louis in
Game 1 of the NL Championship Series on
Oct. 11.
Corbin was the winning pitcher in the
pennant-clinching 7-4 win over the Cardi-
nals on Oct. 15, when he gave up all four
runs in five innings.
Zack Greinke is Houston’s starter for
Game 3.THE ASSOCIATEDPRESSMLBtospeakwithAstrosaboutTaubmanoutburst
RONALDBLUMHOUSTON
HoustonAstrosassistantGMBrandon
Taubmanisunderfireafteritwasreported
hedirectedanexpletive-ladencelebrationof
pitcherRobertoOsunaatfemalereporters
aftertheteam’sALCSwin.Osunawas
suspendedfor75gameslastyearfor
violatingMLB’sdomestic-violencepolicy.
MICHAEL CIAGLO/THE ASSOCIATEDPRESSCominginhot
TheWashingtonNationals’AdamEatonscoresonatwo-RBIdoublehitbyAnthonyRendonduringGame2oftheWorld
SeriesagainsttheAstrosinHoustononWednesday.Forthegamestory,visitourwebsite GLOBESPORTS.COMMATT SLOCUM/ASSOCIATEDPRESS[NATIONALSVS.ASTROS]J
oe Thornton’s eyes lit up
when the conversation pivot-
ed to Ralph Krueger.
“Just a fantastic guy,” the vet-
eran centre said. “Just a phenom-
enal guy to be around.”
The two go back 15 years to
when Thornton was riding out
the first NHL lockout playing in
Davos, Switzerland, and Krueger
was head coach of the country’s
national team.
“You can feel it ... he just has
this presence,” Thornton added.
“You want to be around a guy
like that.
“Whatever it is, he has it.”
What Krueger has right now is
the Buffalo Sabres atop the NHL
standings at 8-1-1 after Tuesday’s
4-3 overtime victory against
Thornton’s San Jose Sharks.
Hired as the franchise’s 19th
coach in May to replace Phil
Housley, the 60-year-old has im-
plemented an up-tempo, offen-
sive brand his players have
latched onto early.
Krueger is open to new ideas
and wants feedback.
“He’s definitely respected the
guys in the room and our opin-
ions,” said Sabres captain Jack Ei-
chel, who leads the team with 14
points. “It’s just the overall con-
nection. He’s done so much to
get us to buy into what he’s say-
ing ... it’s his delivery, it’s his
message, it’s the energy he
brings. He’s such a positive per-
son.
“When you’re around that, it
makes you want to be better for
him. He just does a really good
job of bringing out the best in
people.”
Getting a message across
when you’re winning, of course,
doesn’t hurt either.
“This helps to confirm that we
have a plan that can work,”
Krueger said before the San Jose
game. “Nothing ever replaces
winning.”
But the majority of these
Sabres have seen a run like this
before. Buffalo led the NHL with
a 17-6-2 record on Nov. 27, 2018,
after a 10-game winning streakbefore losing 41 of its next 57
games to miss the playoffs for
the eighth straight season.
That’s why the players aren’t
getting ahead of themselves, but
also aren’t concerned about a po-
tential collapse with Krueger at
the helm.
“We’ve grown up a little bit,”
Eichel said.
“I don’t think we’re guarded at
all. You can learn a lot from last
year, but I don’t think we’re wor-
ried about that.”
With a long, eclectic résumé,
Krueger isn’t afraid to work out-
side the box.
“We don’t really operate on
anything traditional here,” said
the native of Steinbach, Man.
“We’re trying to operate on what
we think is best for the Buffalo
Sabres today, and then tomor-
row, and then the next day.
“I’m not really interested in
norms and that kind of decision-
making.”
Sabres goalie Carter Hutton,
who’s 6-0-0 with two shutouts, a
.943 save percentage and a 1.65
goals-against average, said thisseason simply feels different.
Buffalo’s 10-game winning run in
2018-19 was largely a mirage,
with seven of those victories
coming after regulation, includ-
ing three in a shootout.
“We weren’t playing the right
way,” Hutton said. “It’s more
about our structure than any-
thing. Last year we just didn’t
have that ... that’s what we’re
trying to find.”
Sabres general manager Jason
Botterill has liked what he’s seen
so far under Krueger, and the
roster’s willingness to jump on
board.
“Ralph has brought in a clear
message and has done a great
job in communicating with our
group,” Botterill said. “But I also
think our players have been very
open to it.”
Krueger’s journey back to the
NHL has been well-documented.
He had a cup of coffee behind
the Edmonton Oilers’ bench in
the lockout-shortened 2012-13
season, but has largely seen his
professional success come out-
side North America.He was a mainstay with the
Swiss program, led Team Europe
to a surprise second-place finish
at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey
and has spent the past five years
running Southampton of the En-
glish Premier League.
“When he talks, guys are going
to listen no matter what he’s
talking about, whether it’s hock-
ey or life,” Sabres centre Sam Re-
inhart said. “We’ve really been
enjoying our time with him so
far and doing what we can to
learn.
“He’s done a good job of get-
ting everyone on the same page.”
But Eichel cautioned it re-
mains a work in progress.
“We’re continuing to get closer
as a group off the ice and contin-
uing to learn more about our-
selves as a team on the ice,” he
said. “It’s a process. It’s not one
that’s going to be done tomor-
row or next month.
“We’re just trying to continue
to evolve the whole year and be-
come the best team we can be.”THE CANADIANPRESSKrueger’sSabrestakingtheirhotstartinstride
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