D4 eZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAy, MARCH 2 , 2020
ASSOCIATED PRESSNew York mets ace Jacob de-
Grom took on two nemeses in his
first outing of spring training — a
bout of nerves and the Washing-
ton Nationals.
The two-time r eigning National
League Cy Young winner got the
best of both S unday.
“A nytime I take the mound, I’m
nervous,” deGrom said after
throwing three scoreless innings
in a 3-1 win in Port St. L ucie, fla.
“It felt good to get out there in a
real game feel, people in the
stands, another team. [ The jitters]
go a way when I start warming up.”
DeGrom cruised on just
33 pitches, striking out two and
allowing one hit. He breezed
through an easy first against Trea
Turner, ryan Zimmerman and
Starlin Castro, getting three outs
on s even pitches — a ll strikes.
l YAnKEEs: New York star
Aaron Judge is scheduled to have
additional tests monday as the
team tries to pinpoint the c ause o f
soreness i n his r ight s houlder.
Judge underwent an m rI exam
Saturday, which w as negative. The
right fielder has been receiving
treatment in Tampa.
l rED soX: It was just a bat-
ting practice session, but for C hris
Sale, it was p rogress.
Even after finishing with a fast-
ball that a Class AAA prospect w ho
batted .204 last year managed to
hit o ver the fence, S ale and Boston
were pleased.
“I thought he looked good,”
pitching c oach Dave Bush s aid. “It
was an important step in progres-
sion through the spring. It was a
full pregame routine with long
toss and time in the bullpen and
then 15 p itches o n the m ound.”
The previous time Sale faced
hitters was A ug. 13. T he left-hand-
er was put on the injured list after
that with e lbow inflammation. He
will start this season on the IL
after reporting to camp with
pneumonia, setting him back by
about two weeks.
l rAngErs: Te xas newcomer
Corey Kluber faced hitters for the
first time since a line drive broke
his pitching arm last season with
Cleveland, working three innings
and allowing two runs on two hits
and two walks and striking our
four in a 8-6 w in o ver the D odgers.
“The way I would judge a spring
training start is how well I’m able
to execute pitches, get the ball
where I want, avoid hard contact,
which I think I did pretty well for
the m ost part a side from the h ome
run,” K luber said.
l Astros: Sidelined since
having To mmy John surgery in
November 2018, Lance mcCullers
started a spring training game
against St. Louis and faced three
batters. He retired leadoff man
Kolten Wong on a soft comeback-
er, gave up a double to Paul DeJong
and fanned Paul Goldschmidt
with an 84-mph curve.
“out of the 16 pitches I threw,
really only maybe one o r two that I
didn’t execute the way I was hop-
ing to pre-pitch,” mcCullers said.
“really happy with just the way I
felt overall and just being out
there with the g uys.”SPRING TRAINING NOTESDeGrom
breezes
through his
first outing
situations,” Scherzer said. “He
knows how to relate to young
guys and be an assertive veteran.
He’s been one of my favorite
teammates to play with because
he’s so personable.”
Part of Kendrick’s job, as he
approaches his 15th major
league season, is to honestly
assess how he’s feeling and let
manager Dave martinez know
when he should take the day off
— which is often. But even on
those days when he’s sitting back
waiting for a pinch-hit at-bat, his
eyes will be watching, and his
mouth will be chirping. more
than anyone, Kendrick keeps the
Nationals in line. find an
analytic that pins down that
value.
“There’s no statistic for that,”
Eaton said. “The twirlybirds
upstairs can’t say why that’s good
or how that affects the team. But
it affects the clubhouse
mentality. If you don’t have
somebody who’s doing that, the
whole clubhouse can go in
different directions.”
Instead, this clubhouse goes in
a single direction: the one Howie
Kendrick points it in.
[email protected]For more by Barry svrluga, visit
washingtonpost.com/svrluga.wasn’t really having a great time.... It was draining mentally.
When you have a mental drain
on you in this game, it gets
tough.”
After the 2016 season, he was
dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies.
By that point, he was 32 — a
veteran. The Phillies had a bunch
of younger players. His role
transitioned — not as much on
the field but in the clubhouse.
“It was a new side of baseball
for me,” Kendrick said. “It kind of
opened my eyes to, like, ‘man,
I’ve been around long enough. I
probably have a little more to
give than just playing the game.’ ”
Now he is giving it to the
Nationals. Kendrick is quick to
point out that he is not the
clubhouse’s sole policeman, and
his teammates — so many of
them veterans themselves —
agree that leadership is a shared
responsibility for this club. But
there’s a reason rizzo says two
things: Kendrick’s ruptured
Achilles’ tendon in 2018 was the
most significant factor in
derailing that season because
Kendrick was away from the
team; and whenever Kendrick
retires from playing, he can have
some sort of job in baseball
operations with rizzo’s team.
“He knows how to handle all
comes with all the games played
and games watched, with all the
stories collected and told years
later. Kendrick might not say
anything when he walks in the
clubhouse. Somehow you know
he’s there.
“He’s got a panache about
him,” said mike rizzo, the
general manager who traded for
him in 2017, signed him to a two-
year deal in 2018, then brought
him back after october’s heroics.
“He’s got an elegance about him.
He’s a tough SoB between the
lines. He’s got some street smarts
in him. But he’s got this air of
dignity and elegance to him
that’s hard to put your finger on
— but it matters. You can’t fake
it.”
To hear Kendrick tell it, all
that is learned behavior. He
began his career with the Los
Angeles Angels, and he watched
how To rii Hunter, Albert Pujols
and Vladimir Guerrero set
examples for teammates. After
the 2014 season, he was traded to
the Dodgers, with whom he re-
signed a year later. At that point,
he started to transition to a
platoon role — against his will.
He not only didn’t lead. He
nearly crumbled.
“I was about ready to be done
with baseball,” Kendrick said. “Iclubhouse will tell you Kendrick
is essential long before he picks
up a bat or glove.
“Just watch him run his
sprints in spring training,” Eaton
said. “When you get 10, 12 years
in, sometimes it’s like, ‘Spring
training, we’ll just go through
the motions.’ Not the case.”
His rookie year was 2006. He
has played in 1,596 regular
season games and 50 more in the
playoffs. Among his teammates,
only ryan Zimmerman has been
in the majors longer and played
more. He was the mVP of the
National League Championship
Series. And yet here’s his
philosophy:
“You can’t tell guys to do
something that you don’t do,”
Kendrick said.
So he doesn’t. But that doesn’t
mean he doesn’t ask things of
people. He can. And he will.
“He’ll call anybody out,” Eaton
said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Zim
or me or one of the young guys.
Some people, I think, on the
outside would see it as not the
greatest, because he’s always
kind of chirping at people. But he
keeps everyone attentive to what
they’re doing. And he does it as
well as anybody, so you can’t ever
call him out.”
Some of this is natural and3 6-year-old Kendrick brought
last year were impressive: a
.344 average and .966 on-base-
plus-slugging percentage, which
ranked sixth in the National
League among players with at
least 350 plate appearances.
Throw in 17 homers and the
signature moments of the
postseason, and this could be a
discussion about maintaining
baseball skills at an advanced
age.
“I’m not an everyday guy
anymore, and I’m not afraid to
say that,” Kendrick said. “I’m not
afraid to tell anybody that. If I
play every day, I’ll break down.”
But there’s more to what
Kendrick brings than his
willingness to accept — and
thrive in — a limited role. It gets
at the areas of baseball that can’t
be quantified, which just happen
to be the areas at which the Nats
feel they excelled last season. He
fosters chemistry. He provides
leadership.
Put your finger on what those
qualities mean in baseball. There
is no ball to share as there is in
basketball. There are no
coordinated movements to the
level of a football offensive line.
And yet people in the Nats’
sVrlugA from D1
BARRY SVRLUGA
K endrick’s mere presence has powerful impact on Nats’ clubhouse
ASSOCIATED PRESSGreg Williams Jr. drained his
seventh three-pointer from right
in front of the St. John’s bench,
springing delirious teammates
onto the court as he bounded into
their arms during a timeout.
With an out-of-character shoot-
ing display from all over the gym,
the red Storm handed No. 10
Creighton a t horough beating t hat
was h ard to see coming.
Williams, a sophomore guard,
scored a career-high 21 points as
St. John’s s lowed down the s treak-
ing Bluejays in a 91-71 r out Sunday
in New York that marked its most
lopsided win over a top-10 oppo-
nent in 28 years.
“St. John’s was terrific,” Creigh-
ton Coach Greg mcDermott said.
“When you get outscored by 30 on
the three-point line in somebody
else’s b uilding, i t’s hard to win.”
rasheem Dunn had 19 points
and a career-high 10 assists for the
red Storm (15-14, 4-12 Big East),
which s topped a three-game skid.
one of the worst three-point
shooting teams in the country,
St. John’s w ent a season-best 1 4 for
22 (64 percent) from l ong range.
Damien Jefferson equaled a ca-
reer best with 20 points for the
Bluejays (22-7, 11-5), who had won
five straight and n ine of 1 0.
l oHIo stAtE 77, MICHI-
gAn 63: Duane Washington Jr.
tied his career high w ith 20 points
as the No. 23 Buckeyes defeated
the No. 19 Wolverines in Colum-
bus, ohio.
CJ Walker added 15 points for
ohio State (20-9, 10-8 Big Te n).
franz Wagner scored 18 points
and grabbed 10 rebounds for
michigan ( 19-10, 9 -9).
l stAnForD 72, ColorA-
Do 64: Bryce Wills scored
19 points, including a key layup in
the f inal minute, t o help the Cardi-
nal knock off the No. 21 Buffaloes
in Stanford, C alif.
oscar da Silva chipped in
16 points for Stanford (20-9, 10-7
Pac-12). Tyler Bey scored 17 points
for C olorado (21-9, 1 0-7).
l Houston 68, CInCInnA-
tI 55: marcus Sasser scored
21 points and Nate Hinton had 16
as the No. 25 Cougars beat the
visiting Bearcats.
Houston (22-7, 12-4) moved i nto
a tie atop the American Athletic
Conference with Tulsa, one game
ahead o f Cincinnati (18-10, 11-5).gamecocks win 23rd straight
mikiah Herbert Harrigan
scored 20 points to lead the No. 1
South Carolina women to their
program-record 23rd consecutive
win and a 16-0 SEC season with a
60-52 victory over No. 12 Te xas
A&m i n Columbia, S .C.
The Gamecocks (29-1) were
ahead 34-28 early in the third
quarter before going on a 14-3
surge to take control. Te xas A&m
(22-7, 10-6) lost its second straight.
l orEgon 92, WAsHIng-
ton 56: ruthy Hebard scored
24 points, and Satou Sabally add-
ed 20 to lead the N o. 3 Ducks (28-2,
17-1 Pac-12) in a r out o f the Huskies
(13-16, 5-13) in Eugene, o re.
l stAnForD 5 5, ArIZonA
stAtE 44: francesca Belibi had
18 points and nine rebounds to
boost t he No. 4 Cardinal (25-5, 14-4
Pac-12) past the No. 24 Sun Devils
(2 0-10, 10-8) in Te mpe, A riz.
l uClA 77, utAH 54: J apreece
Dean had 16 points and eight as-
sists to spark the No. 9 Bruins
(25-4, 14-4 Pac-12) past the Utes
(13-16, 6-12) in Los Angeles.
l MIssIssIPPI stAtE 84,
MIssIssIPPI 59: freshman Ali-
yah matharu (mcNamara) scored
24 points as the No. 10 Bulldogs
(25-5, 13-3 SEC) cruised past the
rebels (7-22, 0-16) in oxford, miss.NATIONAL COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP
Red Storm blows out No. 10 Bluejays
St. JoHN’S 91,
CREIGHtoN 71FROM NEWS SERVICES
AND STAFF REPORTSTa ylor mikesell scored
22 points as the No. 7 maryland
women routed minnesota, 99-44,
on Sunday in minneapolis to
claim a share of the Big Te n title.
The Te rrapins (25-4, 16-2), who
have won the Big Te n champion-
ship five times in their six seasons
in the conference, shared the
crown with No. 14 Northwestern
but secured the No. 1 seed in the
conference tournament.
Ashley owusu had 17 points,
Kaila Charles added 15 and Steph-
anie Jones and Shakira Austin
each pitched in 13 for the Te rps,
who finished the regular season
on a 14-game winning streak.
After a double bye, they will open
the Big Te n tournament against
No. 8 seed michigan State or No. 9
seed Purdue in the quarterfinals
at noon friday in Indianapolis.
The Te rps had a 54-16 edge in
points in the paint Sunday as they
posted their most lopsided win in
Big Te n play. maryland also had
24 steals and forced 35 turnovers,
both season highs.
“We recruit very talented play-
ers who can put the ball in the
basket,” Coach Brenda frese said,
“[but] this is just a special teamd efensively.”
Sara Scalia had 10 points for
the Golden Gophers (15-14, 5-13),
who suffered their most lopsided
loss in nearly 34 years.
l nortH CArolInA stAtE
75 , VIrgInIA 64: Kayla Jones
scored 16 points as the No. 8
Wolfpack made its first 13 three-
point attempts during a w in over
the Cavaliers in Charlottesville.
North Carolina State (25-4,
14-4 ACC) was 12 for 12 from
beyond the arc as it took a 46-32
halftime lead.
Amandine To i led the Cavaliers
(13-16, 8-10) with 13 points. Vir-
ginia, the No. 9 seed in the confer-
ence tournament, will face No. 8
seed Syracuse in the second
round at 2 p.m. Thursday in
Greensboro, N.C.
l louIsVIllE 70, VIrgIn-
IA tECH 53: Jazmine Jones
scored 18 points to lead the No. 5
Cardinals (27-3, 16-2 ACC) to a
win over the visiting Hokies.
Virginia Te ch (21-8, 11-7) didn’t
score for the first 5:40. An 8-0 run
let the Hokies cut their deficit to
26-18, but they got no closer.Elizabeth Kitley led the Hokies
with 17 p oints. Virginia Te ch is the
No. 5 seed in the ACC tourna-
ment; it will face No. 12 seed
North Carolina or No. 13 seed
Wake forest in the second round
at 11 a.m. Thursday.
l CrEIgHton 95,
gEorgEtoWn 78: In omaha,
Jaylyn A gnew had 43 points to set
Creighton’s s ingle-game record as
the Bluejays (19-10, 11-7 Big East)
routed the Hoyas.
Ta ylor Barnes had 24 p oints for
Georgetown (5-24, 2-16). The Big
East tournament begins friday in
Chicago, and the Hoyas will be
the No. 9 or No. 10 seed after
finishing tied with Xavier. The
Hoyas will face No. 7 seed Villano-
va or No. 8 seed Providence; the
matchups will be announced
monday.Virginia tech men fall again
Jordan Nwora had 20 points as
the No. 11 Louisville men grabbed
sole possession of first place in
the ACC with a 68-52 victory over
visiting Virginia Te ch.
The Cardinals (24-6, 15-4) took
a half-game lead over No. 6 flori-
da State. Jalen Cone scored
15 points for the Hokies (15-14,
6-12), who lost their fourth in a
row and their ninth in 10 games.AREA COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUPTerps women grab Big Ten title again
MARyLAND 99,
MINNESotA 44ing clubhouse crowded with
young players.
“It was a little bit disappoint-
ing,” Sharp said of not being pro-
tected by the Nationals. But he
smiled and added, “I’m here with
this opportunity and trying to
make the most of it.”
How Sharp performs this sea-
son does not put pressure on
Braymer. The Nationals are slow-
playing the left-hander and ex-
pect him to start the season in the
minors. He struggled last season
when he was promoted to
Class AAA fresno — the Pacific
Coast League is notoriously diffi-
cult for pitchers — but settled
down in his final four starts.
This spring, he has made a
good first impression on manager
Dave martinez. He possesses
traits martinez values — aggres-
siveness, smarts in sequencing
and location — and has showed
them despite somewhat rocky re-
sults. The manager wants
Braymer to keep developing his
change-up and stay stretched out
wherever he starts the regular
season. If need be, martinez envi-
sions him as a potential left-hand-
ed option in the bullpen.
“He’s one of those young kids
who we see a bright future for
here,” martinez said. “He’s going
to get a look.”
from here, the two prospects’
paths might finally diverge. Sharp
will be in the majors as Braymer
continues working to get there.
But through this process, despite
the divisive reactions, they mir-
rored one another one last time.
Each of them received a call that
they had just made the largest
stride yet toward what they had
been chasing for years. They
weren’t together anymore, but
they were doing the same thing,
celebrating their next best chance
to make the dream come true.
[email protected]game. Sharp relies on his change-
up, his best pitch, to induce
groundballs. If he can maintain
success there and continue devel-
oping his slider, he could become
one of the pieces the marlins are
looking for in their spring train-— b ut he left t he option open long
term.
Early in the season, mattingly
wants to use Sharp as “a different
look” for opponents accustomed
to the fireballing relievers who
are so prevalent in the modernfinished 57-105 last season with
the majors’ 20th-worst team ErA
(4.74). manager Don mattingly
admitted it would be difficult for
Sharp to remain a starter out of
camp — “it’s really tough to get [a
rule 5 pitcher] into your rotation”Academy before Braymer was
taken in the 18th round and
Sharp in the 22nd.
“I didn’t look at it as he got
added and didn’t make room for
me,” said Sharp, who texted
Braymer when Braymer was add-
ed to the roster. “That was one of
his biggest highlights in baseball,
so I congratulated him. That
doesn’t mess my stuff up.”
Braymer is less active online
and hadn’t seen as much of the
reaction, but he wasn’t surprised
Nationals fans were attached to
Sharp. He knew the Detroit-area
native was vocal about support-
ing his local community, and he
understood firsthand how charis-
matic Sharp could be. They often
unintentionally mirrored one an-
other while ascending the minor
league system and leaned on each
other to celebrate successes and
to weather rough stretches.
“Both of us being low-round
picks and beating the odds and
rising through the ranks together
was fun,” said Braymer, who later
fired off a congratulatory text of
his own. He was disappointed at
his friend’s departure but under-
stood the “awesome” opportunity
with miami.
This year, the marlins must
fast-track Sharp to the majors
and give him a chance to stick.
The rule 5 draft stipulates he
must remain on miami’s 26-man
roster all season or be offered
back to Washington for $50,000.
This process leapfrogs Sharp over
the hurdles that remain for
Braymer: the Nationals’ veteran
rotation, deep fifth-starter com-
petition and pitchers recently
drafted with high picks, such as
Jackson rutledge, Tim Cate and
mason Denaburg.
Better than a roster spot, Sharp
has upward mobility. T he marlins
nAtIonAls from D1
Nationals’ roster move split p air’s path to majors
JonAtHAn newton/tHe wAsHIngton Post
As Ben Braymer, above, works his way to the nationals, sterling sharp is likely to be with the Marlins.