The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

SOCCER

D.C. United plays most of its regulars in a friendly draw. D8

PRO FOOTBALL

Cowboys sign Ezekiel Elliott to six-year, $90M deal. D4

JOHN FEINSTEIN

Army-Michigan: The matchup neither coach wanted. D3

KLMNO

SPORTS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D

BY SAM FORTIER

The Washington Nationals pre-

pared to get blown out. They

trailed the New York Mets by six i n

the sixth inning Wednesday and,

despite the previous night’s epic

comeback, conceded it could stay

th at way. Aaron Barrett got up in

the bullpen. The right-handed re-

liever had endured years of sur-

gery and rehab to return to the

majors, and he rejoined the Na-

tionals on Wednesday morning.

He w ould return in a low-leverage

inning.

But then, as Max Scherzer once

said, “things were h appening.” G e-

rardo Parra walked. Andrew Ste-

venson, too. Asdrúbal Cabrera sin-

gled in a run, and Anthony Ren-

don doubled in two more to trim

the deficit to three. The crowd

perked up, Barrett sat down, and

Wander Suero was r oused.

Then the magic bottle finally

ran dry. Left-handed specialist

Luis Avilán struck out Juan Soto.

The Mets’ best r eliever, Seth Lugo,

delivered two easy innings. Lefty

Justin Wilson closed it out. The

Nationals lost, 8-4, and dropped

the series to finish their season

slate against the Mets at 7-12. It’s

their second-worst mark against

any team they have played five or

more times, and neither Manager

Dave Martinez nor his players

SEE NATIONALS ON D7

BY KAREEM COPELAND

Paul Richardson Jr., who occu-
pies the first seat inside the Wash-
ington Redskins’ locker room,
looked to his right at a row of his
fellow wide receivers. Cam Sims
sat with a towel over his head as
Kelvin Harmon dressed quietly in
the background. Trey Quinn and
Te rry McLaurin both popped in
and out.
“Yeah, these guys are hungry.
Look at them,” Richardson said,
scanning the adjacent lockers.
“They look like they’re starving
right now.... That’s why they’re
here, though.... When guys
aren’t o n the field when they want
to be on the field, they’re sup-
posed... to be bothered. And at
the same time, they’ve got to
encourage the guys that are out
there, too. That’s p art of the game.
[When] guys are hungry, their
heads [are] in the right place. I
like it.”
Richardson was the newest ad-
dition to the Redskins’ receiving
corps when he signed as a free
agent in the spring of 2018, but
just one year later, he is his posi-
tion’s elder statesman. The or-
ganization made the decision to
go young at wide receiver, and
Richardson is Washington’s only
wideout with more than two
years of experience.
Quinn will start in the slot after
being the last pick of the 2018
draft and playing just three
games as a rookie — game experi-
ence that now counts as second
most among the wide receivers
group. Third-round rookie
McLaurin will start on the outside
in place of released former first-
round pick Josh Doctson, while
fellow first-year players Harmon
and Steven Sims Jr. will have
roles. Robert Davis was a sixth-
round pick in 2017 but has yet to
be on a roster for the majority of a
season and has played only one
game. Cam Sims was a training
camp standout but will start the
season on the practice squad.
The topic of the team’s y outh at
the position already has gotten
old to this group.
SEE REDSKINS ON D5

Redskins:

Youth at

wideout is

no big deal

MIKE ROEMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

As Aaron Rodgers enters the final phase of his career, the Packers hope pairing him with Matt LaFleur pays off.

Nats find

epic rally

impossible

to repeat

METS 8,

NATIONALS 4

Exhilaration,

inspiration then

exasperation all

arrived at

Nationals Park in

just 18 hours.

Baseball i s not for

the faint of heart.

But what is?

Saddle up.

The past two days have

illustrated the constant difficult

demands, moments of

unexpected jubilation, stories of

determination a nd games of

frustration that seem to

punctuate every season. In t hree

interlocking episodes, all jammed

within a few hours, we see again

why baseball strikes its fans so

deeply, binds t hem t o it and

constantly reminds us that the

qualities of character that play

best on a diamond also work for

all of us wherever we are.

First came the Nats’ historic

comeback Tuesday n ight against

the Mets. Trailing by six runs to

start the b ottom of the ninth, t he

Nats walked o ff w inners eight

batters l ater, with an 11-10 victory

that few who saw it will ever

forget. It w as rarer than a perfect

game. It w as a comeback t hat

gave disbelief a black eye and

doubt a bloody nose.

SEE BOSWELL ON D7

In this game,

you can’t get

too high or low

in stretch run

Thomas

Boswell

BY ADAM KILGORE

IN GREEN BAY, WIS.

A

aron Rodgers can see the field like few quarterbacks

of his or any generation, and this summer something

new entered his vision: the end. Rodgers plans to

play into his 40s, following the trend a few of his high-level

contemporaries started. But football is an unkind profes-

sion, and it frequently prohibits even its best practitioners

to navigate it on their terms.

The past two seasons have cemented that point. Rodgers

last played a playoff game in January 2017, having since

watched two years of his late prime evaporate. A collarbone

injury shelved him for much of 2017. He dragged a balky

knee through the entirety o f 2018, hastening the Green Bay

Packers’ deterioration and leading to a coaching change,

the first Green Bay has undergone since Rodgers replaced

Brett Favre as starting quarterback. He turns 36 in

December.

Rodgers is entering a new phase of his career, tying his

hopes for a second Super Bowl to first-time head coach

Matt L aFleur, a 39-year-old who had been an NFL offensive

coordinator for two seasons. It also may be the start of the

final phase of Rodgers’s career, and he seems aware his

athletic mortality is approaching.

“My career is at stake every year I go out there,” Rodgers

said at t he outset of training camp. “I got to perform, or else

they’re going to find someone who can come in here and do

it just as well for less. Every great player I’ve been around

here has either finished up someplace else or had a

disappointing end to their time here. I’d like to not be one

of those, but I’m realistic enough to realize it’s h appened to

a lot of my close friends.”

As a franchise, Green Bay has for years been structured

SEE RODGERS ON D5

Ve ste d veteran

Aaron Rodgers’s title window is closing. Will pairing him with a new coach keep it open?

Relative inexperience

won’t be used as excuse

Nationals at Braves

Today, 7 p.m., MASN

Redskins at Eagles
Sunday, 1 p.m., Fox

Packers at Bears | Today, 8:30 p.m., NBC

BY CHUCK CULPEPPER

new york — So Rafael Nadal
and three mutinous kids will form
the U.S. Open men’s semifinals.
It’s a tennis emperor and three
tennis tadpoles who operate in a
world hostile toward them. They
might even realize the number of
men running around on Earth
with an age under 30 and any
Grand Slam title stands at zero.
Five rounds have shaken out
124 male players, the 124th being
the admirable Argentine rabbit
Diego Schwartzman, who fell
Wednesday night to Nadal, 6-4,
7-5, 6-2. That left only these peo-
ple: second-ranked Nadal, No. 5
Daniil Medvedev, No. 25 Matteo
Berrettini and then Grigor Dim-

itrov, whose No. 78 ranking actu-

ally belies his longtime prowess

and speaks of a harrowing mid-

year slump.

Number of Grand Slam semifi-

nal berths for this crew: Medve-

dev one (this one), Berrettini one

(this one), Dimitrov three (count-

ing this)... and Nadal 33 (count-

ing this).

If Nadal doesn’t reap a

19th Grand Slam title, which

would move him one shy of Roger

Federer’s 20, then somebody else

will reap a first.

As i t stands, the widely beloved

Spaniard from Mallorca has

played four matches here, with

one walkover. He has gone

through No. 30 John Millman,

No. 170 Hyeon Chung (a 2018

Australian Open semifinalist on

the mend and rebound), No. 23

Marin Cilic and No. 21 Schwartz-

man. Only Cilic took a set, and

that on a night Nadal decorated

with enough implausible shots

that Tiger Woods kept bolting up

from his seat.

He will run across next Berret-

tini, 23, the second Italian man in

two years to reach a Grand Slam

semifinal after none did it for 40,

and after Berrettini fought

through a five-set bout with Gael

Monfils that felt like 15 rounds, he

went and called Nadal “the great-

est fighter ever in this sport.” He

SEE US OPEN ON D3

Nadal tops Schwartzman in three sets

U.S. Open: Women’s semifinals

Today, 7 p.m., ESPN

ELSA/GETTY IMAGES

Rafael Nadal is one step closer to winning his 19th Grand Slam

championship, which would leave him one behind Roger Federer.

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