MONDAY, AUGUST 26 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D3
gered a loud roar from the home
fans. It felt like an old script for the
Nationals, the bullpen wilting
again and the rest of the team
collapsing under its weight.
But this one didn’t end the
same way.
“They feel like they’re never out
of any game, and that’s the atti-
tude we have,” Martinez said. “I
can tell you now, the attitude I
instill is: ‘This game is not over
until the last out. Keep playing
hard. Anything can happen.’ ”
You may recall what happened
here last August, in the twilight of
a lost season, even if you would
much rather forget. The Nationals
led by three runs in the ninth.
Ryan Madson was on the mound.
David Bote was at the plate. The
Nationals were hanging by a
thread at the bottom of the pen-
nant race. They were alive, just
barely, if you twisted the math a
certain way, until one swing de-
cided they weren’t.
Bote lifted a two-out, two-
strike, walk-off grand slam into
the chilled, late-summer air. The
Cubs danced onto the field in
shocked celebration. The Nation-
als walked away dazed, deeper
back in a race that wouldn’t tilt
their way. When the year was later
dissected, with perspective only
offered by time, that night looked
like the end of a run that never
began. It soon became another
reason to sell, first Daniel Murphy,
then Matt Adams, then Madson
and Gio Gonzalez before the
month was out. It stung in so
many ways.
But there was no end in sight at
Wrigley Field on Sunday. There
was just a sweep and a beginning,
or something of the sort, for a
team that keeps finding ways to
outdo itself. That’s the difference a
year can make. That’s how the
Nationals left Chicago this time
around.
[email protected]to move four games ahead of the
Cubs atop the National League
wild-card standings. And while
the past few weeks have included
some easier victories — against
the San Francisco Giants, the Cin-
cinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh
Pirates before coming here — this
was a statement sweep for the
Nationals.
They are 73-57 and a season-
best 16 games over .500 and have
the majors’ best record since
May 24. The Cubs entered the
series with the fourth-best record
at home, 44-19, and had dropped
only one series at Wrigley before
this one. They are contending to
win the NL Central. They are a
good club, by more than one meas-
ure, and have added critical pieces
throughout the season.
But the Nationals spent three
days picking them apart, one in-
ning at a time, with the rally in the
11th inning providing an exclama-
tion point. Offense was the con-
stant for the Nationals all week-
end. Aníbal Sánchez threw
81 / 3 dominant innings Friday, even
after they arrived in Chicago at
1 a.m. the night before. Their bull-
pen covered 14 outs without al-
lowing a run Saturday. And on
Sunday, at the tail end of a seven-
day, seven-game road swing, their
relievers faltered, and the Nation-
als gutted it out anyway.
“Our pitchers are going to pick
us up a lot of times in games when
we score no runs or maybe one
run,” Rendon said. “But it’s our job
as hitters, as position players, to
pick up our pitchers as well. It’s
not necessarily one-sided.”
Long before extra innings and
long before that wild pitch put
Washington ahead for good, a
tight game dissolved into an even
tighter finish. Rendon nudged the
Nationals ahead with a solo home
run in the fourth. Addison Russell
answered in the fifth with a solo
shot of his own, and that’s how it
went for the rest of the afternoon.
Stephen Strasburg struck out
10 on a season-high 113 pitches. He
also stranded two runners in his
sixth and final frame, taming an
inning that could have gone side-
ways and giving the Nationals a
chance to push back in front. And
they did, scoring three runs in the
seventh before their relievers
couldn’t keep the ball in the park.
The wind was blowing in, but it
didn’t matter. Hunter Strickland
got two outs in the seventh, then
fell behind Victor Caratini and
served up a fastball that he lifted
just inside the right field foul pole.
Fernando Rodney got two outs in
the eighth, then fell behind Kyle
Schwarber and served up a fast-
ball that wound up in the left field
seats. That tied the score and trig-NATIONALS FROM D111 yards after a muffed punt (by
Miami), and two telltale
possessions such as these:
Miami rode a ghastly
interception (thrown by Florida)
to a spot 25 yards from
cementing the game with
13 minutes left and a 20-17 lead,
yet sabotaged itself with
disturbing strategic timidity, yet
followed that with a successful
fake field goal, yet saw that
successful fake imperiled by a
holding penalty, yet saw that
holding penalty relieved by an
out-of-bounds, unnecessary-
roughness penalty (on Florida),
yet wound up trying another
field goal, from 27 yards, which it
missed.
You really should have seen it.
Or not.
Then, after another ghastly
interception (thrown by Florida),
Miami sat 25 yards from victory
with four minutes left and a 24-
20 deficit, then went backward
32 yards, then faced fourth and
34, then gained rescue from a
pass interference penalty (on
Florida), then wound up with a
closing snap (by Miami) that
clunked and caromed off
quarterback Jarren Williams,
who gamely retrieved it and
hurled it rightward to the
ground as if to create a fitting
finishing piece of explanatory
art.
You really should have seen it.
Or not.
At least, back early in the
second quarter, Florida had
fumbled a handoff exchange (of
course) from the Miami 7-yard
line, enabling Miami to debut its
2019 turnover chain, which
turned out to be a mighty beast
of jewelry with a “305”
celebrating Miami’s area code
and as garish as all, well, Miami.
Everyone agreed college
football might not belong in
soupy August, and then came the
wee hours when Arizona of the
Pac-12 had the guts to go to
Hawaii, a program both second-
tier and good. So the Pac-12
christened another voyage with
a 45-38 loss that had Khalil
Tate’s 30-yard scramble to the 1-
yard line as time expired.
Whether that means it’s time to
stop thinking all that much
about the Pac-12, Florida vs.
Miami showed it’s already time
to stop thinking all that much
about the old state of Florida
except for UCF, unless Florida
State rustles from the crypt,
which isn’t forecast. That’s all
while September has yet even to
awaken.
[email protected]fresh memory of the slapstick
game Florida and Miami played
Saturday night, such a mess that
poll voters would show both
chutzpah and acumen if they
note Florida’s 24-20 win yet dock
it all the way off the chart.
As the game and the season
began, given the era in which we
dwell, Florida vs. Miami looked
to forge only two national
meanings. It would help
determine what Florida’s record
will become after eight games
when, for its ninth, on Nov. 2, it
will head for Jacksonville and its
inevitable manhandling by
Georgia. And it would help
gauge whether Miami might
have the wherewithal to get to
the ACC title game Dec. 7 in
Charlotte for its inevitable
manhandling by Clemson.
Happy new year.
Florida came off a 41-15 win
over a bummed-out Michigan on
Dec. 29 in a Peach Bowl in which
Florida did not belong (Kentucky
did), and Miami came off a 35-3
loss to Wisconsin on Dec. 27 in a
Pinstripe Bowl in which Miami
did not belong (as doesn’t
anyone who goes all the way to
the Bronx to spend an entire
night getting six first downs).
Soon, Miami Coach Mark Richt
retired earlier than expected,
after which Manny Diaz, having
left Miami as defensive
coordinator for Temple as head
coach Dec. 13, returned to Miami
as head coach Dec. 30, closing a
17-day tenure notable as slightly
longer than lunch.
Here’s what appeared to
happen Saturday: Florida and
Miami, both clearly afraid of
UCF since their future
nonconference schedules do not
include UCF, both traveled to
Orlando. They dared not go too
close to UCF’s stadium, as that
would be too frightening, so they
agreed to meet up about
18 humid miles away in the
stadium where interlopers alight
each year for a Citrus Bowl. Still,
both sides clearly shuddered at
the thought of UCF nearby with
its 25-1 mark the past two
seasons, its ransacking of
Auburn and its near-success
against LSU even after a
catastrophic quarterback injury
— so they spilled mistakes all
over the rug.
Very few games have all of a
combined 23 penalties for
225 yards, a team (Miami)
committing two holding
penalties on one play, a team
(Miami) taking 10 sad-sack
sacks, a go-ahead drive (by
Florida) of three plays andIn a lonely game
on a vast
mainland, Florida
and Miami played
college football
Saturday night,
calling to mind a
quirk. As college football nears
its 150th birthday Nov. 6, those
of us afflicted with the sport
don’t really think much anymore
about the state of Florida, except
for a team (UCF) we never used
to think about. It’s almost as if
the seas went ahead, finished
their anticipated rise, took the
whole state underwater and left
only UCF shouting from an
inflatable flamingo.
It’s also as if the map has
shrunk, the way we think about
fewer and fewer teams, with two
(Alabama and Clemson) having
met each other in four straight
playoffs and three title games
and with one major conference
(the Pac-12) present in only two
of five playoffs and barely so in
four yawning years. Somehow, a
Saturday with only two Football
Bowl Subdivision games
reinforced the thought that
nowadays, we think about
northwest South Carolina
(Clemson), and western
Alabama (Alabama) and eastern
Georgia (Georgia) and
sometimes Oklahoma or Ohio
State or Notre Dame, but kids,
there was a day — there were
lots of days — when following
college football meant following
Florida for far more than weird
news items.
From 1983 to 2013, the
triumvirate of Florida State,
Miami and Florida hogged
11 national titles with at least
three each and appeared six
other times in games either
ballyhooed as title games or
lavishly resented as title games.
They also loathed one another
with a fanatical hotness in every
possible direction, adding to the
allure.
That persists, but now we’ve
got a preseason Associated Press
poll with Florida tucked at No. 8
and Florida State and Miami
missing near the end of a decade
in which the three combined to
finish in the top five only twice
(Florida State in 2013 and 2014).
Last year ended with Florida at
No. 7 and Florida State and
Miami unranked. The year
before ended with Miami at
No. 13 and Florida and Florida
State unranked. Florida’s 10-3
finish last year counted as
surprise, when historically it’s a
surprise that it could be a
surprise. And now we’ve got the
Florida teams (except UCF) irrelevant
On
Football
CHUCK
CULPEPPER
Nationals’ winning streak reaches five
NATIONALS ON DECK
vs. Baltimore OriolesTomorrow 7:05 MASN,
MASN 2
Wednesday 7:05 MASN,
MASN 2vs. Miami Marlins
Friday 7:05 MASN 2
Saturday 7:05 MASN 2
Sunday 1:35 MASN 2vs. New York Mets
Sept. 2 1:05 MASN
Sept. 3 7:05 MASN
Sept. 4 1:05 YouTubeRadio: WJFK (106.7 FM)BY NATHAN RUIZ
baltimore — Coming off a
winless road trip, the Baltimore
Orioles returned to Camden
Yards in need of a bright spot.
Instead, Jonathan Villar provid-
ed an inferno.
Villar’s fifth home run of the
seven-game homestand helped
the Orioles to an 8-3 victory over
the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday at
Camden Yards. It was his career-
high 20th of the season, making
him the franchise’s first player
with at least 20 homers and
20 steals since Manny Machado
had 35 and 20 in 2015.
Villar achieved the feat by
homering in each of the past
three games. With 31 left, he said
he isn’t finished yet.
“You never know,” he said.
“Maybe I’ll make it to 30-30.”
He needs 10 home runs and
two steals for the Orioles’ first30-30 season; in his past
30 games, he has nine home runs
and 11 steals. But he was far from
the only offensive contributor
Sunday as the Orioles (43-88)
earned a series split with the
Rays and their first winning
homestand (4-3) of the season.
Anthony Santander’s 5-for-5
day included a seventh-inning
home run. Renato Núñez and DJ
Stewart had three hits apiece.
The trio combined to go 11 for 13
with a home run, two doubles,
four runs and six RBI.
Manager Brandon Hyde has
praised Santander, who raised
his batting average to .286,
throughout the season.
“I just like Tony’s overall
game,” Hyde said. “I think he’s got
a chance to be a really good
player.”
Sunday’s outburst came in
front of an announced crowd of
13,287 and backed Dylan Bundy,
who held the Rays (76-56) to
three runs (two earned) in five
innings.
Sunday was the last day of
Players’ Weekend, which meantit was the last day Núñez got to
have “Rey,” Spanish for “king,”
and a crown emoji on the back of
his jersey. He savored it one last
time, getting the Orioles on the
board with the last of the team’s
three straight two-out singles in
the first. He capitalized with two
outs again in the third, doubling
to push across two runs and then
scoring on Stewart’s single.
“It seemed like every time I
came back in the dugout, they
were putting another run on the
board,” Bundy said.
Stewart capped a strong home-
stand. He added a double in the
fifth, coming inches shy of his
first home run, and made a
couple of impressive plays in
right field. Stewart finished 11 for
24 during the homestand.
After Santander’s infield sin-
gle in the eighth inning, Chris
Davis flied out to right as a pinch
hitter for Núñez, who felt tight-
ness in his left hamstring while
running the bases during the
seventh. He is expected to be fine,
Hyde said.
— Baltimore SunVillar’s power surge continues for O’s
ORIOLES 8,
RAYS 3KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Juan Soto’s RBI single in the seventh padded the Nationals’ lead, but bullpen woes led to extra innings.BY CHUCK CULPEPPER
new york — While yet to strike
even one two-ounce tennis ball at
a U.S. Open that will rustle to life
Monday, Serena Williams has
added yet another distinction to
her astounding collection. Some-
how, all the way right up next to
2020, she will serve as the loudest
story at this loudest Grand Slam,
the last of the decade.
However her narrative unfolds
here, it will prove louder than that
of Wimbledon champion Simona
Halep or French Open champion
Ashleigh Barty, louder than that
of defending U.S. Open and Aus-
tralian Open champion (and No. 1
player) Naomi Osaka, louder than
that of the once-impossible num-
bers chase atop the men’s game.
Somehow, that’s all true
20 years after a Martina Hingis
backhand whirred long and a
17-year-old girl in yellow — Wil-
liams — put her left hand to her
chest in obvious disbelief at the
first Grand Slam title toward 23.
It’s true even in 2019, when
eighth-ranked Williams has
played just 24 matches (while the
rest of the top 20 has averaged
almost 43), has withdrawn from
two matches, has withdrawn be-
fore two other matches and has
had a frustrated cry at the final in
Toronto before reminding the
audience, “I’m not a crier.”
This is not because she returns
to the theater of her ruckus with a
chair umpire during the final last
year that loosed one of those —
oh, no — national discussions. It’s
all because she remains on 23
with the clock ticking and Marga-
ret Court forever just up there at
- And it’s partly because the
fiendish draw cooked up a first-
round match Monday night be-
tween Williams and Maria
Sharapova, a continuation of a
non-rivalry often identified as a
rivalry.
If her body cooperates at going-
on-38, Williams will play
Sharapova, 32, for the first time at
the U.S. Open after four meetings
at the Australian Open, two at
Wimbledon and one at the French
Open. She will aim to run her
record against the five-time
Grand Slam champion to 20-2,
heightening even the mountain
of evidence that, back in 2004
when her record stood at 1-2, she
must have gotten plenty ticked
off. Since the end of the first set of
a 2005 Australian Open semifi-
nal, Williams has won 36 of their
38 sets together.
Yet with Williams in 2019, you
always need to back it all up to the
part about her body cooperating.
Her season has been such that
fans and other onlookers will
watch this U.S. Open with an
overarching question: Can she
hang on to just enough firmness
to endure the seven matches to a
historic Saturday night?
For much of a heady summer, it
seemed she could. She found her
way to another Wimbledon final,
a feat even with her six victims
ranked 161st, 133rd, 17th, 31st,
55th and 54th. She lost that to a
masterful Halep, but she followed
that by reaching the Toronto final,
besting Osaka along the way in
their first meeting since Osaka’s
romp in the 2018 U.S. Open final.
Then, trailing 3-1 in the first set
against 19-year-old marvel Bian-
ca Andreescu, Williams asked for
a medical timeout. Then she
retired.
Later, after Andreescu won
much renown and Williams’s fan-
dom for walking over and consol-
ing Williams, Williams told re-
porters, “My whole back just com-
pletely spasmed [in the semifinal
match] to a point where I couldn’t
sleep and I couldn’t really move,
so I was just trying to figure out
how you play a match when you
have no rotation.”
She said such spasms usually
subside, so here we are, wonder-
ing whether a seventh U.S. Open
title can loom two weeks ahead to
accompany her seven Wimble-
dons, her seven Australian Opens
and her three French Opens.
Tennis history, legacy and ce-
lebrity add up to more noise than
even No. 1 Osaka, the charming
21-year-old defending champion
who will start off against
84th-ranked Anna Blinkova of
Russia. Curiously, Osaka still hasnot lost any quarterfinal, semifi-
nal or final in her hit-or-miss path
through her first 14 Grand Slams.
Williams’s try still adds up to
more noise than No. 2 Barty and
her unusual path from tennis to
cricket and back to tennis. It still
adds up to more than the pres-
ence of Coco Gauff, the 15-year-
old Floridian sensation ranked
140th and debuting in the big
draw opposite No. 72 Anastasia
Potapova of Russia.
A 37-year-old Williams pursu-
ing a major record while biology
sustains its everlasting rudeness
outpaces even the implausible
Federer-Nadal-Djokovic trio. Af-
ter Roger Federer spent June and
July of 2009 catching and then
passing Pete Sampras’s seemingly
celestial record of 14 Grand Slam
titles, the numbers looked like
this: Federer 15, Rafael Nadal six,
Novak Djokovic one.
By the end of 2014, they looked
like this: Federer 17, Nadal 14,
Djokovic seven.
Now they look like this: Feder-
er 20, Nadal 18, Djokovic 16.
In one of those matters in
sports that can’t really be happen-
ing yet is, those three have
claimed the past 11 Grand Slams
and 32 of the 39 this decade, such
that no one projects anyone else
winning. For a hot player, there’s
23-year-old Daniil Medvedev,
who upon the hard courts has
reached the final in Washington,
the final in Montreal, the trophy
in suburban Cincinnati and a
No. 5 ranking behind No. 1 Djok-
ovic, No. 2 Nadal, No. 3 Federer
and No. 4 Dominic Thiem.
All the hot players of recent
years never seem to dislodge the
32-year-old (Djokovic), the
33-year-old (Nadal) and the
38-year-old (Federer) at the top,
with Nadal having won a
12th French title and Djokovic
and Federer having played a rous-
ing Wimbledon final that Djok-
ovic won by the storybook score of
13-12 in the fifth set.
To out-loud all of that, it takes
quite somebody, yet quite some-
body does exist. She’s 37, going on
38.
[email protected]Williams will bring the noise
At the U.S. Open, her pursuit of Slam history drowns out everything else
Nationals 7, Cubs 5 (11)
WASHINGTON ABRH BI BB SO AVG
Turner ss........................ 5 1 2 0 1 0 .300
Robles cf ........................ 6 1 1 0 0 1 .249
Rendon 3b ...................... 5 2 4 2 1 0 .329
Soto lf ............................ 6 1 3 1 0 0 .290
Cabrera 1b-2b ................ 4 0 2 2 1 1 .341
Suzuki c.......................... 5 0 0 0 0 2 .264
Dozier 2b ........................ 5 0 0 0 0 0 .230
Hudson p ........................ 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Parra rf........................... 5 0 0 0 0 1 .266
Strasburg p .................... 2 0 1 0 0 1 .164
Eaton ph......................... 0 1 0 0 1 0 .291
Strickland p.................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Adams ph ....................... 1 0 0 0 0 0 .244
Rodney p ........................ 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Suero p ........................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Kendrick 1b .................... 1 1 1 0 0 0 .330
TOTALS 45 7 14 5 4 6 —
CHICAGO ABRH BI BB SO AVG
Heyward cf..................... 4 1 1 0 0 1 .265
Castellanos rf ................ 5 0 1 0 0 1 .375
Bryant 3b ....................... 5 0 1 1 0 2 .281
Baez ss........................... 4 1 0 0 1 2 .281
Schwarber lf .................. 5 1 2 2 0 2 .225
Lucroy c .......................... 3 0 0 0 0 1 .276
Kintzler p ....................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Kemp ph ......................... 1 0 0 0 0 1 .167
Kimbrel p........................ 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Cishek p.......................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Chatwood p .................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .188
Bote ph........................... 1 0 0 0 0 0 .257
Russell 2b ...................... 5 1 1 1 0 1 .238
Happ 1b .......................... 3 0 0 0 1 1 .227
Hamels p ........................ 2 0 0 0 0 2 .088
Phelps p ......................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Wick p ............................ 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Ryan p ............................ 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Caratini c........................ 1 1 1 1 1 0 .252
TOTALS 39 5 7 5 3 14 —
WASHINGTON.......000 101 300 02 — 7 14 0
CHICAGO................000 011 120 00 — 5 7 0
LOB: Washington 9, Chicago 5. 2B: Soto (21), Turner
(27). HR: Rendon (29), off Hamels; Russell (7), off
Strasburg; Caratini (7), off Strickland; Schwarber (30),
off Rodney. RBI: Rendon 2 (104), Soto (86), Cabrera 2
(16), Russell (17), Bryant (64), Caratini (24), Schwar-
ber 2 (69). SB: Robles 2 (23), Turner (28).
DP: Washington 1 (Turner, Dozier, Cabrera); Chicago 2
(Baez, Russell, Happ; Russell, Baez, Happ).
WASHINGTON IPHR ER BB SO NP ERA
Strasburg..................... 6 522110113 3.63
Strickland .................... 1 1110018 1.64
Rodney ......................... 1 1221118 3.66
Suero ........................... 1 0001122 4.74
Hudson ........................ 2 0000229 1.46
CHICAGO IPHR ER BB SO NP ERA
Hamels......................... 5 7221397 3.73
Phelps .......................... 1 0000011 2.57
Wick ............................ .2 1332024 3.43
Ryan ............................. 0 2000011 3.17
Kintzler ..................... 1.1 0000113 2.36
Kimbrel ........................ 1 1001125 4.96
Cishek .......................... 1 0000114 3.31
Chatwood .................... 1 3220020 4.31
WP: Hudson (1-0); LP: Chatwood (5-2).
Ryan pitched to 2 batters in the 7th
Inherited runners-scored: Phelps 2-1, Ryan 3-3, Kintzler
2-0. HBP: Strasburg (Heyward). WP: Strasburg, Chat-
wood.
T: 4:35. A: 40,518 (41,649).HOW THEY SCORED
NATIONALS FOURTH
Rendon homers. Soto singles. Cabrera flies out. Suzuki
strikes out swinging. Dozier flies out.
Nationals 1, Cubs 0
CUBS FIFTH
Schwarber strikes out swinging. Lucroy grounds out.
Russell homers. Happ walks. Hamels strikes out swing-
ing.
Nationals 1, Cubs 1
NATIONALS SIXTH
Soto doubles. Cabrera singles, Soto to third. Suzuki
grounds out, Cabrera out at second, Soto scores. Dozier
pops out.
Nationals 2, Cubs 1
CUBS SIXTH
Heyward hit by pitch. Castellanos singles, Heyward to
third. Bryant singles, Castellanos to second, Heyward
scores. Baez strikes out swinging. Schwarber flies out.
Lucroy strikes out swinging.
Nationals 2, Cubs 2
NATIONALS SEVENTH
Parra flies out. Eaton pinch-hitting for Strasburg.
Eaton walks. Turner flies out. Robles singles, Eaton to
third. Rendon walks. Soto singles, Rendon to second,
Robles to third, Adam Eaton scores. Cabrera singles,
Soto to third, Rendon scores, Robles scores. Suzuki
strikes out swinging.
Nationals 5, Cubs 2
CUBS SEVENTH
Russell lines out. Happ grounds out. Caratini homers.
Heyward flies out.
Nationals 5, Cubs 3
CUBS EIGHTH
Castellanos lines out. Bryant pops out. Baez walks.
Schwarber homers, Baez scores. Kemp pinch-hitting for
Kintzler. Kemp strikes out swinging.
Nationals 5, Cubs 5
NATIONALS ELEVENTH
Kendrick singles. Turner doubles, Kendrick to third.
Robles grounds out. With Rendon batting, Kendrick
scores on a wild pitch. Rendon singles, Turner scores.
Soto grounds out, Rendon out at second.
Nationals 7, Cubs 5