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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 , 2021. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D
and Alex Bregman at third. All
were Astros in 2017, when that
crew was banging on trash cans
and stealing signs all the way to a
title. All are Astros now, poised to
win another championship.
How to feel about all this?
“I equate them to the steroid
guys,” one top MLB team
executive said Monday. “They’re
stained for the rest of their
careers.”
“It’s hard,” said a high-ranking
official from another team.
“They’re a super-talented team.
Did some of their guys benefit
from it? Absolutely. But at the
same time, they’ve proven that
they’re really good.”
SEE SVRLUGA ON D2Here’s what’s
unshakable about
the Houston
Astros: They
cheated the game.
And they’re back
in the World
Series. No
homespun Dusty
Baker yarn can cover that up.
This issue seems such a thing
of the past, until you realize how
much it informs the present. Go
around the infield that will take
the field at Minute Maid Park to
open Game 1 on Tuesday night in
Houston, and it is blemish after
blemish after blemish — Yuli
Gurriel at first, José Altuve at
second, Carlos Correa at shortAs the Astros return to the Fall Classic,
is it time to forgive and forget? Nah.
Barry
SvrlugaRed Wings at Capitals
Tomorrow, 7 p.m., NBCSW PlusWizards at Celtics
Tomorrow, 7:30 p.m., NBCSWBY CHELSEA JANEShouston — When people in
baseball talk about “Freddie,” no
one wonders whom they’re refer-
ring to. Few players are as identifi-
able by their first name as Freddie
Freeman.
He is the Atlanta Braves’ friend-
ly first baseman next door who
greets all arrivals with a joke or a
smile, the rare star who is so
entrenched with his franchise
that it is almost impossible to
picture him in any other uniform.
He is familiar, forthcoming and
fearlessly self-deprecating, the
kind of guy who doesn’t seem to
have an intimidating bone in his
body — until he steps into thebatter’s box. That may be the only
place where friendly Freddie Free-
man inspires abject fear, and the
Houston Astros must be ready
when they host Game 1 of the
World Series on Tuesday night.
But on June 4, steady Freddie
Freeman was frustrated. In fact,
he was fuming. He was hitting
.226. Everything he hit hard
seemed to find a glove.
Everyone tried to reassure him,
but he couldn’t really hear them.
After one particularly frustrating
game, Freeman spoke with his
SEE FREEMAN ON D2Friendly Freeman is about to get
his first taste of the World Series
World Series
Game 1: Braves at Astros
Today, 8 p .m., FoxPRO FOOTBALL
Ryan Fitzpatrick is at least two more weeks away
from returning to the Washington Football Team. D3
ON THE NBA
Grizzlies guard Ja Morant looks ready to make the leap
to stardom in his third season, Ben Golliver writes. D6HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
St. John’s remains atop The Post’s rankings ahead of
a pivotal WCAC showdown with No. 5 Good Counsel. D6MICHAEL ZARRILLI/GETTY IMAGES
Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman is a favorite of fans, teammates and foes alike — at least until he’s in the batter’s box, perhaps the only place he inspires abject fear.Yes, more Mr. Nice Guy
Korea in St. Paul, Minn., neared.
What, after all, was preventing
an unlimited career, like a rock-
and-roll legend or an evergreen
quarterback in Tampa? Consider:
Lloyd is among 17 female soccer
players to score 100 or more
international goals; since turning
30, she has scored 98 of her 134.
This year she has posted a team-
high 11 in 21 matches.
Vlatko Andonovski, the last of
Lloyd’s five national team head
coaches, said her high level of
excellence has showed “age is just
a number.”
With age also comes
perspective, and after global
travel and an insatiable
dedication to her craft, Lloyd
recognized she was missing out
on life beyond the pitch. She
wants to have a child with her
husband, Brian. She wants to
SEE ON SOCCER ON D10On Sunday night,
48 hours before
she would make
her 316th and
final appearance
for the U.S.
women’s national soccer team,
Carli Lloyd and some teammates
attended a Rolling Stones concert
in Minneapolis.
At 39, Lloyd is half Mick
Jagger’s age, a gap that, while she
marveled at the frontman, got
her thinking.
“They sort of make me feel like
I should keep playing,” she said
Monday. “Mick running down the
stage at age 78 and performing
the way he did was pretty
incredible.”
It was intended to be a joke,
but given her longevity and work
ethic, the relentless pursuit of
perfection that she said left her
“misunderstood” by the public
and those around her, there was a
trace of seriousness as her
Tuesday farewell against South
Forever fixated on greatness,
Lloyd reaches end of U.S. career
On Soccer
STEVEN
GOFF
ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Carli Lloyd will make her 316th and final appearance for the U.S. women’s national team Tuesday.South Korea at United States
Today, 8 p .m., Fox Sports 1BY SAMANTHA PELLottawa — Hats rained down
not once but twice Monday night
at Canadian Tire Centre.
Washington’s T.J. Oshie was
the first to get the honor late in
the second period afte r complet-
ing his fifth career hat trick,
much to the delight of the Capi-
tals fans in the Canadian capital.
The Ottawa Senators’ Drake
Batherson completed his own
hat trick in the third, and the
Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin nearly
joined the party late but had to
settle for two goals — his sixth
and seventh in six games this
season.
Oshie’s third goal held up as
the game-winner in Washing-
ton’s 7-5 victory. Ovechkin scored
the final goal — h is second of the
night — at 10:46 of the third to
give the Capitals some breathing
room.
“He was flying today,” Ovech-
kin said of Osh ie. “... I think
their line play very well, and it
was nice to see him get a hatty.”
Ovechkin’s latest outburst
gave him 737 career goals. He is
four shy of matching Brett Hull
for fourth on the NHL’s all-time
list.
“I think our line played good,”
Ovechkin said when asked about
his hot start. “... Obviously [Evg-
eny Kuznetsov] right now feels it,
and [Tom Wilson] is always go-
ing — and I just try to find the
open spot and put the puck in.”
Washington was up 4-1 enter-
ing the second period before the
SEE CAPITALS ON D4Hat trick
by Oshie
lifts Caps
in Ottawa
CAPITALS 7,
SENATORS 5BY AVA WALLACEnew york — After starting the
season with promising wins over
a mediocre Toronto team and a
solid Indiana group, the Washing-
ton Wizards met the bulldozer
that is the Brooklyn Nets on Mon-
day night at Barclays Center and
were leveled in a 104-90 loss, a
final score that belied Brooklyn’s
dominance.
The Nets (2-2) got 25 points
from Kevin Durant and 14 from
James Harden to hand the Wiz-
ards (2-1) their first loss as they
stare down a trying week ahead.
Over the next week, Washington
will play alternating games
against Boston (Wednesday and
Saturday) and Atlanta (Thursday
and Nov. 1), two teams that are
expected to make the playoffs.
They’ll need to right their of-
fense before then. The Wizards’
movement had been fluid to start
the season, but the ball stuck early
in Brooklyn, and Washington
coul dn’t work itself back into
rhythm. Poor spacing, settling for
jumpers and an overreliance on
isolation plays did nothing to help
slow Durant and the Nets’ capable
band of role players.
“We just got stagnant. I think a
lot of that was the switching [from
Brooklyn’s defense] — it’s given us
problems before,” Coach Wes Un-
seld Jr. said. “We kind of settled
and fell into that, playing a lot of
SEE WIZARDS ON D5Beal’s back,
but it’s not
enough at
Brooklyn
NETS 104,
WIZARDS 90