D4 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 , 2019
steady diet of sliders induced
weak contact at best, and he de-
parted having retired seven in a
row.
Meanwhile, Corbin recaptured
his brilliance. His slider fell off
and his fastball hummed, and he
became the workhorse he has
been almost all season. The lefty
retired 21 of the next 23 hitters,
delivering the seven innings the
Nationals expect from their start-
ers, but he never received the
absolution he wanted.
“Pat, other than the first in-
ning, was really good,” Martinez
said. “We just couldn’t get noth-
ing going.”
In the seventh, the Orioles
opened the bullpen door. Their
relievers, after the trade deadline,
finally overtook the Nationals for
the worst ERA in the majors. The
starter had found a groove, but
this looked like the perfect oppor-
tunity for the Nationals’ offense to
recapture its stride. But, just as
with Brooks, four relievers over
the next three innings underlined
the ultimate truth of Tuesday
night at Nationals Park, the one
that worries the Nationals if they
end up in the wild-card game:
Numbers don’t matter.
[email protected]HOW THEY SCORED
ORIOLES FIRST
Hanser Alberto singles. Trey Mancini hit by pitch. Han-
ser Alberto to second. Anthony Santander doubles,
Trey Mancini to third, Hanser Alberto scores. Renato
Nunez lines out. Jonathan Villar out on a sacrifice fly,
Trey Mancini scores. Pedro Severino flies out.
Orioles 2, Nationals 0Orioles 2, Nationals 0
BALTIMORE ABRH BI BB SO AVG
Alberto 3b ...................... 4 1 2 0 0 0 .316
Mancini rf....................... 3 1 0 0 0 2 .271
Santander lf ................... 4 0 1 1 0 1 .285
Nunez 1b ........................ 4 0 0 0 0 1 .248
Givens p ......................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Villar 2b.......................... 3 0 0 1 0 2 .275
Severino c ...................... 3 0 1 0 0 0 .248
Wilkerson cf................... 3 0 0 0 0 2 .221
Martin ss........................ 3 0 0 0 0 2 .192
Brooks p ......................... 2 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Bleier p........................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Castro p.......................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Stewart ph ..................... 1 0 1 0 0 0 .276
Harvey p......................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
Davis 1b ......................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .173
TOTALS 30 2 5 2 0 10 —
WASHINGTON ABRH BI BB SO AVG
Turner ss........................ 4 0 2 0 0 0 .302
Eaton rf .......................... 4 0 0 0 0 2 .288
Rendon 3b ...................... 2 0 0 0 2 1 .327
Soto lf ............................ 3 0 0 0 1 2 .288
Cabrera 2b...................... 4 0 0 0 0 2 .313
Adams 1b ....................... 3 0 0 0 0 1 .241
Robles cf ........................ 4 0 2 0 0 1 .251
Gomes c ......................... 3 0 0 0 0 0 .217
Kendrick ph .................... 1 0 0 0 0 1 .328
Corbin p .......................... 2 0 0 0 0 1 .074
Suero p ........................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Parra ph ......................... 1 0 0 0 0 0 .264
Rodney p ........................ 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---
TOTALS 31 0 4 0 3 11 —
BALTIMORE.................. 200 000 000 — 2 5 0
WASHINGTON.............. 000 000 000 — 0 4 0
LOB: Baltimore 3, Washington 8. 2B: Santander (17).
3B: Turner (5). RBI: Santander (39), Villar (61). SB: Tur-
ner (29). SF: Villar. DP: Washington 1 (Cabrera, Ad-
ams).
BALTIMORE IPHR ER BB SO NP ERA
Brooks ......................... 6 200 16 98 6.81
Bleier ........................ 0.2 100 01 15 5.67
Castro ....................... 0.1 000 00 3 4.64
Harvey ......................... 1 100 22 33 0.00
Givens ......................... 1 000 02 11 4.18
WASHINGTON IPHR ER BB SO NP ERA
Corbin .......................... 7 422 0 9 104 3.15
Suero ........................... 1 100 01 13 4.66
Rodney ......................... 1 000 00 9 3.48
WP: Brooks, (2-4); LP: Corbin, (10-6); S: Givens, (11).
Inherited runners-scored: Castro 1-0. HBP: Corbin
(Mancini), Brooks (Adams). T: 2:52. A: 24,946 (41,313).career games with the Nationals,
Kieboom has hit .232 with two
home runs and 13 RBI.
The Nationals have kept
Kieboom at Class AA
Harrisburg, just in case he is
needed on short notice. They
have also scaled back his starts
to keep him healthy, figuring an
injured emergency catcher
doesn’t do them much good.
Kieboom will almost certainly
be a call-up once rosters expand
to 40 players in September.
And now he will have a few
days with the club before then, a
good chance to get re-acclimated
before jumping back into the
mix.
— Jesse Doughertycomfortable using Kurt Suzuki
or Yan Gomes as a pinch hitter.
Gomes caught Patrick Corbin on
Tuesday night, making Suzuki a
right-handed threat off the
bench. Kieboom would have
been used as end-of-the-bench
insurance if Suzuki hit and
Gomes needed to leave the
game.
The 28-year-old Kieboom
has no major league
appearances this season after
serving as the team’s backup
catcher for the second half of
2018.
He made his major league
debut in 2016, appearing in one
game, an October contest
against the Miami Marlins. In 53The 29-year-old looked as if he
might be in trouble in the first
when Trea Turner smacked a
leadoff single and stole second.
Then, in a sequence that would
come to define a baffling night,
Brooks struck out Eaton, Anthony
Rendon and Juan Soto with his
mid-80s slider.
The Nationals’ bats mounted
two chances against Brooks. Vic-
tor Robles dropped down a bunt
to reach in the second, and Ren-
don walked and made a heads-up
base running play to go from first
to third on a grounder in the
fourth. Yan Gomes grounded out
to end the former chance and
Robles popped out to douse the
latter, but that was it. Brooks’ssurprising fashion, 3-1, at the To-
ronto Blue Jays. The Nationals’
loss meant they squandered a
chance to gain ground in the
division, remaining 5^1 / 2 games
back with 31 to go. The loss reem-
phasized to Corbin why the Na-
tionals need to push as hard as
they can for the NL East crown.
“Winning your division is so
important,” he said. “If you got
one game, anything can happen.”
The salt in the Nationals’
wound was that this loss came to
Baltimore, which entered Tues-
day at 43-88 and on pace for one
of the worst seasons in major
league history. The Orioles were
42 games out of the American
League East lead and were statis-
tically eliminated from the play-
off hunt Friday. Their pitching
staff set the record for home runs
allowed in a season (259) last
week — with more than a month
left.
Tuesday’s starter, Aaron
Brooks, embodied the club. The
journeyman right-hander with a
career 6.97 ERA — which masked
an even worse mark with Balti-
more this season of 8.07 — was
here, as much as anything else,
because someone needs to eat the
innings left in a lost season.
The Oakland Athletics desig-
nated Brooks for assignment in
July, and the Orioles, desperate
for starters, grabbed him. The
organization stretched the con-
verted reliever back into a starter,
and he made a mid-July start
against the Nationals at Camden
Yards in which he allowed two
hits and one run in 2^2 / 3 innings.
The Orioles have rolled with him
since. In his next six starts, Brooks
allowed three or more runs five
times and never made it past the
fifth inning.
These Nationals, the team with
the red-hot offense, the team that
just marched into Chicago and
swept the Cubs, the team that
quashed its most direct competi-
tion for the top spot in the NL
wild-card race by racking up 23
runs in three games, looked be-
wildered. And they made Brooks
look unhittable for six innings.
The Nationals praised the
righty’s pitch mix, trust in his
slider during hitters’ counts and
the ability to keep barrels off his
fastball. No one understood why
Brooks remained effective better
than Adam Eaton, whose hot
streak cooled when he struck out
with runners in scoring position
with less than two outs in the first
and eighth innings.
“[Brooks] had us guessing a
little bit,” he said. “We kept trying
to make an adjustment [to the
off-speed], and then we’d have an
at-bat where we saw four heaters.
He kind of kept us off-balance all
night.”
NATIONALS FROM D1
Strickland’s wife, Shelley, gave
birth to their second daughter
Monday. Hunter Strickland left
the team after a sweep of the
Cubs in Chicago and made it just
in time to welcome Brylee Drew
Strickland into the world.
Strickland’s short absence will
leave the Nationals’ bullpen with
seven arms, with Erick Fedde
serving as a long man. Because
the Nationals were off Monday
and will be again Thursday after
two games with the Orioles,
their relievers should not be too
taxed this week. Washington has
called up a third catcher before
this season — Kieboom in mid-
July and Raudy Read later in the
month — so it can be moreExcerpted from
washingtonpost.com/nationals
Kieboom called up
to replace Strickland
The Washington Nationals
shuffled their roster Tuesday
afternoon, calling up catcher
Spencer Kieboom and placing
reliever Hunter Strickland on
the paternity list.
Kieboom joined the Nationals
in Washington on Tuesday
morning, according to a person
with knowledge of the situation,
and was activated before the
night’s matchup with the
Baltimore Orioles.
“offensive efficiency plays” — the
kind he has built the Nats to excel
at.
“It kills me to strike out twice,”
Adam Eaton said after fanning in
the first inning with Trea Turner
on second base and no outs, then
in the eighth with Turner on third
and one out.
This is the style that the Nats
have chosen — with similarities to
1959, including a No. 2 hitter who
makes contact and bunts — and
they still have plenty of power
hitters. It doesn’t always work,
but the Nats are betting the
previous 80 games are the rule,
and Tuesday is the exception.
There is nothing fluky about
what we’ve watched from the
Nats for almost half a year. What’s
remarkable is that the Nats have
done so much with the second-
worst bullpen in baseball. They
have had only one win from Max
Scherzer since the end of June.
Now Sean Doolittle is on the
injured list.
So how good are these Nats?
And how good will they be if ace
Mad Max and closer Obi-Sean are
soon pitching at their normal
level again?
No one knows yet. Not even the
Nats. Their evolution toward
playing the game the way
Martinez and Rizzo want is far
from complete. But everything
they have done since the All-Star
Game shows their direction —
and shows how different they are
from much of the majors.
Since the break and entering
Tuesday, the Nats led the NL in
runs and were third in the majors.
How? They were first in the
majors in drawing walks, and
they had done it while being the
second-toughest team to strike
out. They led everybody in on-
base percentage. You can use
shifts against them, but do so at
your peril because Turner, Eaton,
Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto and
Howie Kendrick frequently use
the opposite field.
The Nats have led the majors in
stolen bases all season, rejecting a
trend: Never risk an out — and a
chance to swing for the fences —
to thieve one measly base. Only
one team has had a higher batting
average since the break than the
Nats’ .285. Come on; who cares
about batting average anymore?
What haven’t the Nats done
particularly well since the break?
They were only 12th in the majors
in home runs. For the whole
season, the Nats were 15th in
homers, yet — what’s this? —
Washington only trailed the
mighty Los Angeles Dodgers in
runs per game in the NL, by a
minuscule 5.42 to 5.37.
“We’re very well balanced.
Baseball hasn’t come back yet [to
what it’s always been], but it will,”
Martinez said. “There’s more to
baseball than home runs.”
Martinez has preached to his
players to “stay in the middle of
the field” — don’t try to jerk every
pitch out of the ballpark by
pulling it. “Stay inside the ball,”
he’ll add, meaning don’t roll your
wrists over too quickly and pull
weak groundballs that often turn
into double plays.
Make no mistake: The Nats
love homers. (Did you think
they’re dancing because they’re
depressed?) They enteredBOSWELL FROM D1Tuesday on pace for 233, which
for a century would have been the
second-highest total behind the
1961 Yankees of Mickey Mantle
and Roger Maris, who slugged- But what was once mighty is
now the mundane median.
The Nats have constructed a
team that values every skill and,
even while embracing much of
the analytics movement, wants to
create an attack with multiple
prongs that can be adjusted for
the situation and opponent.
“We once had a lot of high-
strikeout players here who had
power,” Rizzo said, mentioning
several who didn’t fare well in
October against high-velocity
hurlers. “What you’re seeing now
is a somewhat different way to
construct our roster, and Davey is
managing the way that’s dictated
by the roster he has.
“Go down our lineup — Turner,
Eaton, Rendon, Soto and
Kendrick are all ‘hitters,’ not just
sluggers. [Brian] Dozier draws a
lot of walks,” and from there Rizzo
went right on down the lineup to
Gerardo Parra, Asdrúbal Cabrera
and others.
Many teams try to stack power
at the top of the lineup. A dozen
teams are on pace to have at least
60 homers from the top two spots,
and the Minnesota Twins entered
Tuesday with 70. The Nats,
usually with Turner and Eaton
there, have only 32; just five
teams have fewer, and some of
them are trying to lose.
“Baseball is always going to go
back to being baseball — for the
rest of time,” said Turner, who was
joking. “A lot of teams are going to
go for all the home runs. But
there’s so much more to the game:
getting on base, not striking out,
working a walk, running the
bases well.
“We’ve got a lot of baseball
players in here.... If Adam knows
I can’t steal a base [against a
certain pitcher], he may bunt. If I
can steal, he’ll take a pitch for me
to run. If we’re facing a left-
hander, maybe Tony and me [who
both hit right-handed] have to do
more, even though Juan has equal
splits.”
Turner shrugged and grinned.
“We can mash,” he concluded, “or
we can manufacture.”
Over those 80 games, did the
Nats perhaps nudge the game
back a bit toward its rich past? Or
will their success fade while the
least imaginative of all effective
strategies — swing hard in case
you hit it — holds sway?
One advantage of building a
power-heavy offense is that one or
two injuries don’t damage
“chemistry” much because
synchronicity has little to do with
it. The Yankees have had a
historic number of injuries but
just put in more boppers, some
obscure, and their march to 300
homers continues. When the Nats
lose a crucial leadoff man in
Turner, then see Rendon, Soto,
Kendrick and Ryan Zimmerman
go on the IL, too, their offense can
disappear in a hurry.
But with their offensive players
healthy, the Nats are on their
hottest streak since baseball
returned to Washington — now
54-27, a hair better than the 55-28
run that closed the 2014 season.
Will it last? Vital September
information is coming. But let’s
not be quick to discount success
— 80 games is a ton of data.
What we already know is that
the Nats are one of the few teams
in the majors that has tried to
blend a traditional, all-around
vision of the sport with new
analytic insights that, to a degree,
have dulled the game’s appeal.
Can it work? If it does, it won’t
just be followers of the Nationals
who are grateful.
[email protected]
For more by Thomas Boswell, visit
washingtonpost.com/boswell.Nats’ o≠ense goes dormant in shutout loss to Orioles
BY GENE WANG
blacksburg, va. — Even before
he officially committed to Virginia
Tech, linebacker Dax Hollifield re-
calls having connected with
Hokies defensive coordinator Bud
Foster in ways far more meaning-
ful than mere football instruction.
Their relationship, Hollifield
said, has been similar to that of
family, in large part compelling
the four-star recruit to attend Vir-
ginia Tech instead of pursuing op-
portunities at, among other
schools, Florida State, South Caro-
lina and Stanford.
“Coach Foster is like a father to
me,” Hollifield said. “He’s the rea-
son I made the best decision of my
life. I really owe everything to him
at this point.”
The sophomore is hardly alone
in his glowing admiration of Fos-
ter, who announced Aug. 1 he
would be retiring at the end of this
season, his 33rd with the Hokies.
Other notable members of the de-
fense also have spoken at length
about Foster’s influence on them
as much off the field as on it.
So this season, which begins for
the Hokies on Saturday at Boston
College, comes with an assign-
ment that to the defensive regu-
lars is as significant as extending
the program’s streak of bowl ap-
pearances to 27 or beating archri-
val Virginia for a 16th straight
time: Send Foster out in style.
“We’re focused on the season,
and if anything, that little piece of
information will add fuel to our
fire,” said defensive end Zion De-
bose, a redshirt sophomore. “Just
fuel us more, make us want to go
out there and play harder, not just
for the program but also for Bud
now that we know this is going to
be it.”
Foster has not addressed his
decision publicly since initially re-
vealing he would be retiring, but
the longest-tenured assistant in
major college football vowed that
day he would not allow his immi-
nent departure to become a dis-
traction in the Hokies’ bid to climb
back into contention for the ACC
Coastal Division title.
Virginia Tech is coming off a 6-7
season in which a patchwork de-
fense buckled under the weight of
injuries and inexperience, con-tributing to the Hokies’ first losing
record since 1992, three years be-
fore then-coach Frank Beamer ele-
vated Foster to co-defensive coor-
dinator. The defense allowed 31
points per game (85th in the Foot-
ball Bowl Subdivision), 6.4 yards
per play (115th) and 5.5 yards per
rushing attempt (122nd).
“Whatever greatness is, I’m go-
ing to push them as hard as I can,”
Foster said. “I’m going to give
them every ounce of energy that I
have, and I’m going to expect thatin return. And that’s really what it
comes down to. Our focus is on
this team and their season.”
Foster’s looming retirement
has left Hokies Coach Justin Fu-
ente with the unenviable task of
hiring someone to replace one of
the most accomplished assistants
in the history of college football.
It’s uncharted territory for Fu-
ente, who admitted he is unsure
how to go about the process of
seeking a new defensive coordina-
tor while overseeing day-to-day
operations during the season.
Still, Fuente reiterated no mat-
ter the manner in which he de-
cides to conduct the search, it
won’t interfere with game-day
preparations on the part of either
the coaching staff or players.
“We did not do it to manipulate
our players’ emotions, first and
foremost,” Fuente said about an-
nouncing Foster’s decision at the
beginning of training camp.
“What we did was to be honest and
open. What our kids now have is a
unique opportunity. Usually when
a large event like this happens, you
don’t know about it until the end.
Sometimes it’s too late for you toeven do anything about it.
“That’s certainly not the case
here.”
The Hokies return seven defen-
sive players who started at least 10
games in 2018, a collateral benefit
of the rash of injuries last season
that forced Foster to limit the com-
plexity of his coverage schemes
and reduce blitzing to stabilize the
back end.
The defensive playbook, Foster
indicated, is expanding this sea-
son, particularly among a skilled
group of linebackers, the strength
of the front seven. They will re-
ceive additional opportunities to
pressure the quarterback, provid-
ing reinforcements behind less-
experienced defensive ends.
The projected rotation this year
includes Dubose, redshirt junior
Emmanuel Belmar and redshirt
sophomores Nathan Proctor and
TyJuan Garbutt.
“We all have something to
prove,” Garbutt said, adding Fos-
ter would pull him out of class
when he began recruiting him as a
high school sophomore, “obvious-
ly not to miss work, but he wants
me to know he cares for me, morethan just, like, football stuff.”
Virginia Tech managed just 24
sacks last season, marking the sec-
ond time in 10 years it had fewer
than 30. In Foster’s previous 21
years, the Hokies averaged 39.6
sacks, ranking in the top 15 nation-
ally five times and in the top seven
three times.
The loss of defensive end Hous-
hun Gaines, who was to be a red-
shirt senior this year, also adds an
element of uncertainty.
Gaines was Virginia Tech’s lead-
er in sacks (4^1 / 2 ) when he tore his
ACL on Nov. 10 in a humbling
52-22 loss at Pittsburgh. In addi-
tion, his mother died unexpected-
ly in October. Gaines is not listed
on the Hokies’ roster heading into
this season.
“I had a lot of motivation com-
ing into this season already,” Holli-
field said. “[Foster’s pending re-
tirement] just gives me a little
extra. This is it. It’s one last ride.
It’s all or nothing. I go 100 percent
already, but now I’m definitely go-
ing to give everything I’ve got this
year no matter what because he
deserves it.”
[email protected]Hokies motivated for rebound season to give retiring Foster proper send-o≠
VIRGINIA TECH 2019 SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time
Saturday at Boston College 4
Sept. 7 Old Dominion Noon
Sept. 14 Furman Noon
Sept. 27 Duke 7
Oct. 5 at Miami TBA
Oct. 12 Rhode Island TBA
Oct. 19 North Carolina TBA
Nov. 2 at Notre Dame 2:30
Nov. 9 Wake Forest TBA
Nov. 16 at Georgia TechTBA
Nov. 23 Pittsburgh TBA
Nov. 29 at Virginia TBA
Dec. 7 ACC championship*TBA
*- in Charlotte, if Hokies qualifyTHOMAS BOSWELLNationals
don’t rely
on long ball
to succeed
NATIONALS NOTES
NATIONALS ON DECK
vs. Baltimore OriolesToday 7:05 MASN,
MASN2
vs. Miami MarlinsFriday 7:05MASN2
Saturday 7:05 MASN2
Sunday 1:35 MASN2
vs. New York MetsMonday 1:05 MASN
Tuesday 7:05 MASN
Sept. 4 1:05 YouTubeRadio: WJFK (106.7 FM)JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST
The Orioles’ Hanser Alberto just beats out a throw to Nationals first baseman Matt Adams on a bunt.