time to go find a trainer and work
hard to strengthen his body in the
months before camp.
Early in his career he didn’t
always work hard in the weeks
between offseason workouts and
training camp. But as his body
broke down, he realized he need-
ed to spend time inside gyms if he
wanted a good start to the season.
His first year really working in
June was 2015, which was, of
course, his best season. This was
SEE REDSKINS ON D6will be his opportunity to show
the rest of the league what people
saw in Richmond this summer.
“Yeah, I’m feeling good,” he
said as he walked off the practice
fields at the team’s headquarters
earlier in the week. “This is one of
the healthiest offseasons I’ve ever
had, and it’s been great.”
Without the hurting, Reed was
able to do something this spring
that he hadn’t been able to do in
recent years: work hard with
trainers. In the past, he always
was recovering from something
— a pulled hamstring, a broken
toe, toe surgery — so there wasn’tthe way to think about it most
optimistically: Scherzer’s return
not only could help every fifth
day, but maybe it could help the
Nats’ bugaboo — that clench-
your-teeth eighth inning — every
single day.
Mike Rizzo, the general
manager who constructed the
Nats team to which Scherzer
returns Thursday, has a favorite
saying: “With starting pitching,
anything’s possible. Without
starting pitching, nothing is.”
That applies right now. With
Scherzer reinserted into the Nats’
SEE SVRLUGA ON D3had 87 catches for 952 yards and
11 touchdowns and it seemed he
was on the verge of being a huge
star.
The past two months have been
different, however. The Reed of
the past two months is more like
the Reed of that 2015 season,
running free, twirling around de-
fenders and leaping high for pass-
es. He expects to play for the first
time this preseason in Thursday’s
game at Atlanta. This is the tradi-
tional practice game for teams’
veterans, their one chance to
work at regular season speed
against another team. For Reed, itWashington’s starting strong
safety, hadn’t seen from Reed in
years.
“He’s got his pep back in his
step,” Collins said this week.
Perhaps the Redskins’ most im-
pressive player this summer is the
one who is often considered their
best playmaker — when healthy.
Reed’s name has carried that ca-
veat his whole career. If all parts
of Reed’s body feel well, there are
few better pass-catching tight
ends in the NFL. The problem is
that Reed has rarely been healthy,
especially in the years after his
breakout season in 2015, when heBY LES CARPENTERLandon Collins noticed im-
mediately this summer. Some-
thing was different about Jordan
Reed.
For four seasons as a safety for
the New York Giants, Collins
helped defend Reed, the Wash-
ington Redskins’ best pass catch-
er. And in the last two of those
years, it was easy for Collins to see
that Reed wasn’t right. Then
came this summer and training
camp, and from the first day in
Richmond, Reed burst down the
field with speed that Collins, now
BY EMILY GIAMBALVOD.C. United began Wednesday
night’s game without urgency or
cohesion, and the rivalry match
against the New York Red Bulls
quickly turned in the visitors’
favor. It seemed to be the early
stages of a self-inflicted disaster
thanks to a poor performance
and a 24th-minute red card for
captain Wayne Rooney. But just
before halftime, United earned a
reprieve when New York had a
man sent off, too.
The burst of hope that ener-
gized Audi Field was warranted;
United’s Ola Kamara scored in
the 55th minute to tie the match.
United’s play already had im-
proved as the game progressed
deeper into the first half, and
that continued in the second.
But New York converted a con-
troversial penalty in the 59th
minute and held on to win, 2-1.
“It’s the wrong call,” United
Coach Ben Olsen said of the
decision that led to the go-ahead
goal. “So what do I tell my guys in
there that work their asses off for
80 minutes and gave everything?
One message is 80 minutes ain’t
good enough, and you’ve got to
play every minute and not put
yourself in that spot by having a
better start. But after that, I was
extremely proud of the effort and
the fight.”
Kamara, United’s newly ac-
quired Norwegian forward, had
equalized from outside the pen-
alty box, a bending strike that
showcased his ability as a proven
goal scorer in MLS. The tie was
short-lived because Daniel Royer
converted his disputed penalty
kick four minutes later. Officials
ruled that United midfielder Lu-
cas Rodríguez tripped Michael
Murillo in the box, a call that
prompted the crowd to chant for
a video review and throw objects
onto the field.
“Big, big moment in the
game,” Olsen said. “And I
thought he got it wrong.”
But Royer’s shot that sent D.C.
goalkeeper Bill Hamid the wrong
way counted all the same, put-
ting New York ahead and extend-
ing what has been a lopsided
rivalry in recent years. United
had a handful of chances late in
the game, including an opportu-
nity in stoppage time, but
couldn’t break through.
SEE UNITED ON D6
Yes, the easy
solution for the
Washington
Nationals would
be for Max
Scherzer to
reintroduce
himself to the
pennant race by
pitching not only the first
through seventh innings
Thursday night but the eighth as
well, just as Stephen Strasburg
wanted to do Tuesday. As the
three-time Cy Young winner
prepares to make just his second
start in nearly seven weeks, here’s
KLMNO
SPORTS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D
Scherzer’s return aids bullpen
even when he’s not pitching
Barry
Svrluga
BY JESSE DOUGHERTYpittsburgh — The Washington
Nationals’ offense took a short
break, caught its breath and went
right back to harming baseballs at
PNC Park on Wednesday.
It has become recent routine for
the Nationals, putting up crooked
numbers, then more crooked
numbers, then sprinting past op-
ponents with their bats in hand.This one was an 11-1 win over the
Pittsburgh Pirates, giving the Na-
tionals eight victories in their past
10 games and maybe easing the
sting of Tuesday’s late-inning loss.
The offense supported eight score-
less innings from starter Patrick
Corbin. It also helped keep Wash-
ington alone atop the National
League wild-card standings.
The Nationals’ best solution for
a rickety bullpen — a bullpen with-
out closer Sean Doolittle at the
SEE NATIONALS ON D3After vanishing for one game,
Nationals’ o≠ense roars to life
Reed is healthy again, and the Redskins need him to stay that way
Penalty call,
Rooney’s
red card
doom D.C.
Preseason: Redskins at Falcons
Today, 7:30 p.m., WRC-4, NBCSWD.C. United at Union
Sat., 7:30 p.m., FloFC (streaming)
RED BULLS 2,
D.C. UNITED 1PRO FOOTBALL
District’s new XFL team,
which starts play in 2020,
unveils its name and logo
in leaguewide reveal. D2BASEBALL
Orioles match a dubious
record but still manage to
earn their second straight
win against the Royals. D3SOCCER
After a lengthy rain delay,
Spirit can’t break through
on its home field in a 0-0
draw against Utah. D5Football always has been a BY ERIC ADELSON IN IMMOKALEE, FLA.
safe haven in this tiny farming
community, an island of pure
Americana for families trying to
make it in America. After each
week’s work in the fields is done
— an effort that helps produce a
significant chunk of the nation’s
produce — the whistles and
thuds of Friday night high school
games take over.
“Football is its own drug,”
Immokalee High Coach Rodelin
Anthony says. “It’s a way to numb
the pain [of ] a lot of these kids’
issues, whether educational,
emotional or immigration. For a
couple hours, I forget immigra-
tion is real.”
But this fall, that window of
escape in this tucked-away com-
munity is narrower than ever.
Just a couple of weeks beforefootball practice began, multiple
media outlets and several resi-
dents reported Immigration and
Customs Enforcement vehicles
in the area. Images of unmarked
cars were shared on social media
feeds as warnings. Many mem-
bers of the large migrant popula-
tion stayed in their homes for
hours or even days.
“You could hear the dogs, the
chickens,” says Danny Gonzalez,
president of the town’s Chamber
of Commerce. “You could not
hear a single soul walking. You
could hear no commotion, no
traffic. All day Saturday and
Sunday. A ghost town in that part
of the area. It was pretty bad.”
Whether the perceived threat
that weekend was real or imag-
ined — ICE declined to comment
SEE FLORIDA ON D12FRIDAY NIGHTS AND FEAR
In a small Florida farming town, the thrill of football season has been replaced by dread of ICE raids
PHOTOS BY EVE EDELHEIT FOR THE WASHINGTON POST“What if you’re out, you forget your license, you forget
your identification?” says Immokalee’s Woudlin Pierre,
who was born in the United States but still worries.Nationals at Pirates
Today, 7:05 p.m., MASNNATIONALS 11,
PIRATES 1KEITH SRAKOCIC/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nationals starter Patrick Corbin had the right stuff Wednesday,
giving up just three hits and fanning four in eight scoreless innings.