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Black Holes As We Know Them May Not Exist Livescience.comWhen Vladimir Guerrero Jr. arrives at spring training next season, the Blue Jays expect their big-name third baseman to report in “overall better condition” than he was in this year.
The 20-year-old, listed as six-foot-two and 250 pounds by Major League Baseball, recently announced his intention to work out diligently over the winter. His conditioning was also mentioned as an off-season priority by Ross Atkins at the general manager’s end-of-season availability on Tuesday.
It was the main topic at Guerrero’s exit interview with Atkins and manager Charlie Montoyo, who say improvements in that area will help every aspect of his game.
“We think that that priority will help him with his ability to play 162 (games), his ability to be a better overall defender and his ability to be a better overall offensive player,” Atkins said.
The GM wouldn’t offer a target weight for Guerrero come February, but said he hopes it’s “significantly less than he reported at last year.”
“It’s not as much about the actual number as it is about his overall body composition and the overall range of motion and the overall strength,” Atkins added.
The Jays have drawn up a plan for Guerrero’s off-season regimen. The infielder has previously said he wasn’t sure how he would split his off-season time, between his native Dominican Republic and the Jays’ Florida complex. Atkins said the more time Guerrero spends with the team, the better.
“He’s going to spend significant time with us,” he said.
What kind of shape Guerrero is in will factor into his future at the hot corner, where he committed 17 errors in 123 games. Atkins said he hasn’t spoken with Guerrero about a switch from third to first base, and reiterated that the club is “committed to giving him this off-season to do everything he can to put his best foot forward there.” His progress, the GM said, will be monitored month-to-month.
The Jays expected Guerrero to experience fatigue in his first big-league season, and Atkins said that was a factor in giving the rookie rest days. The GM also said that Guerrero deserves credit for acknowledging that his conditioning needs work.
“I think when you wake up and perform at such an elite level, reflection’s less necessary,” Atkins said. “He just didn’t perform at the same level that he had over the course of his minor league career and amateur career and felt differently, so reflection occurred and maturity occurred.”
Guerrero arrived in late April with rookie of the year potential. He fell short of those lofty expectations with a .272/.339/.433 slashline, 15 home runs and 69 RBIs.
Atkins said facing better pitching is always a factor, but praised the 20-year-old’s ability to put the ball in play and the fight off tough pitches: “I think the bar was set very high for him publicly, and what we feel that he accomplished is very positive in the grand scheme of things.”
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WASHINGTON — After all the heartache and close calls, all the early exits, maybe it makes sense that a 20-year-old kid who never had been to the post-season, Juan Soto, would help the Washington Nationals finally advance.
And maybe, just maybe, it makes sense that it would be this particular edition of the Nationals, a club that went from 12 games under .500 in May to playoff participant, that demonstrated the necessary never-give-up fortitude when things looked bleak.
Soto delivered a bases-loaded single against Milwaukee closer Josh Hader that scored three runs with two outs in the eighth inning, thanks in part to an error by rookie outfielder Trent Grisham, and the Nationals came back to beat the Brewers 4-3 in the NL wild-card game Tuesday night.
"We started off horrible, as we all know, and we vowed that we wouldn’t quit," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said, talking about the year as a whole but sounding like he could have meant this particular evening. "I told the boys, ‘I promise you, stay with it, don’t quit, this will turn around.’ And it did. And here we are today."
The Nationals carry a nine-game winning streak into their best-of-five NL Division Series against the league-best Dodgers.
Game 1 is Thursday in Los Angeles, and some in the sellout crowd of 42,993 chanted "Beat LA! Beat LA!" as members of the Nationals began their celebration on the infield with family members.
That included Soto’s father leaping onto his back and tackling him amid the excitement.
The Nationals, who moved to Washington from Montreal before the 2005 season, had been 0-3 in winner-take-all post-season games — all NLDS Game 5 losses at home, by a grand total of four runs. Indeed, eight of their past nine playoff losses had been by one run apiece.
This time, it went the other way.
"We’ve been here a bunch of times. Never kind of broke through," said Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals’ first draft pick back in 2005, so someone who has been through all the disappointment. "Finally caught a break tonight."
It was Zimmerman’s broken-bat bloop single as a pinch hitter that helped load the bases in the eighth off Hader, who took the loss.
Hader hit another pinch hitter, Michael A. Taylor, a ruling that stood up when the Brewers challenged, according to Major League Baseball, because there wasn’t "clear and convincing evidence to overturn the call."
Said Hader: "Definitely looked like it got the bat, but it also got his hand."
Hader, who had 37 saves this season, also walked Anthony Rendon, filling the bags and bringing Soto to the plate.
What was Soto thinking right then?
"Just get a base hit up the middle," he said, "and try to help to tie the game."
The runner-up for 2018 NL Rookie of the Year did more than that. Soto ripped a 96 mph fastball to right, and the ball skipped under Grisham’s glove for an error. That allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate and Soto to get to second, then turn for third.
"Right guy, right spot," winning pitcher Stephen Strasburg said about Soto.
Eventually, Soto was caught in a rundown to end the inning, but that didn’t matter: He had turned a 3-1 deficit into a lead, and so he clapped his hands, then pounded his chest and high-fived third base coach Bob Henley, before shouting "Let’s go!" and its Spanish equivalent, "Vamonos!"
"The inning was an ugly inning," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "Crazy things happen."
Grisham, who has appeared in only 51 games in the majors and took over in right after reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich was lost for the season three weeks ago with a broken kneecap, said the ball "came in with a little topspin, took a funny hop."
His teammates tried to console a tearful Grisham with a series of hugs in the clubhouse afterward.
"It’s going to sting," he said.
After Max Scherzer fell behind 3-0 by giving up homers to Yasmani Grandal in the first and Eric Thames in the second, Strasburg replaced him in the sixth and threw three scoreless innings to earn the win in the first relief appearance of his major league career, regular season or playoffs.
Daniel Hudson pitched the ninth for the save, getting Ben Gamel to fly out to the warning track in centre with a man on to end it.
"Hats off for us to for continuing to fight, because we know if we could keep it close we could have a chance at the end," said Trea Turner, who got Washington within 3-1 with a solo shot off Brandon Woodruff in the third.
It wasn’t until the eighth, though, that the Nationals would push more runs across. Just the sort of dramatic turnaround they pulled off this season, going from 19-31 in May to playoff team.
And now it continues.
"Kind of sums up our season, the way this game went," Zimmerman said. "We’ll take it and we’ll move on."
TRAINER’S ROOM
Brewers: OFs Ryan Braun (calf) and Lorenzo Cain (ankle) were in the starting lineup despite late-season injuries. They came into Tuesday a combined 0 for 29 with 12 Ks against Scherzer and went 0 for 4 while he was in the game.
Nationals: C Kurt Suzuki, who missed most of September because of a bothersome right elbow, played nine innings Tuesday.
ODD FOURTH
The fourth inning was bizarre. Fire alarms — false alarms, thankfully, the Nationals eventually said — rang out. The public address system went completely silent for several minutes, so the Racing Presidents mascot race in the middle of the inning went on without the usual play-by-play, and the initial two Nationals batters in the bottom half went to the plate without any walk-up music or announcement of their names.
UP NEXT
Left-hander Patrick Corbin will start Game 1 for the Nationals against the Dodgers, who eliminated Washington in Game 5 of their 2016 NLDS. LA won the teams’ season series this year 4-2.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers insisted they might have been winless through three weeks, but they were far from hopeless. They stressed the process of finding an identity with franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger out for the season with an elbow injury would take time and a collective effort from all involved.
An effort that looked an awful lot like what they put together during a 27-3 pounding of Cincinnati on Monday night.
Mason Rudolph threw for 229 yards and two scores. Running back, part-time wide receiver and occasional wildcat quarterback Jaylen Samuels accounted for 134 yards of total offence and a 2-yard touchdown run. James Conner emerged from an early funk to run for 42 yards and catch eight passes for 83 yards and a score. The defence sacked Andy Dalton eight times and held the Bengals scoreless over the final 51 minutes.
It wasn't perfect. But it was a start. One that helped the Steelers (1-3) avoid their second 0-4 start in 51 years and reaffirmed their belief that they can find a way forward without Roethlisberger.
"It's huge," Samuels said. "Coming in 0-3 and coming back, getting a divisional game, that's huge. We've just got to build off this game."
With Pittsburgh's running game going nowhere through three weeks, running backs coach Eddie Faulkner suggested to offensive co-ordinator Randy Fichtner that it might be time to dust off the wildcat. Samuels ran it frequently during his college career at N.C. State, and the Bengals (0-4) certainly looked caught off guard when Samuels lined up in the shotgun and started distributing the ball like a point guard. Sometimes he'd hand it off to Conner. Others he'd "throw" a "pop" pass to a teammate running in motion in front of him. Still others he opted to keep it himself, including on his third-quarter touchdown in which he strolled into the end zone after the Bengals bit on a fake handoff.
"We knew if we could get a lot of guys going sideways, it was going to mess them up a little bit so that's what we did," Samuels said. "It was working. ... We were picking up five, six yards every play. They couldn't stop it."
Samuels ran for 26 yards on 10 carries, caught eight passes for 57 more and was credited with three completions for 31 yards. Conner had 14 touches for 125 yards in all, including a 21-yard sprint through the Cincinnati defence in the second quarter that gave the Steelers a lead they never came close to squandering while beating the Bengals for the ninth straight time.
WOE AND 4
Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor became the second first-year coach to drop his first four games with the Bengals. Sam Wyche started 0-5 in 1984 but helped his team rebound to an 8-8 finish. Taylor's task of getting Cincinnati back to respectability will be far harder if he can't figure out a way to protect Dalton.
"To be quite honest, it starts with me," Taylor said. "I've got to make sure the standard is higher than what it is right now, because I haven't done a good enough job."
The eight sacks Dalton endured were a career-high for the nine-year veteran, who also threw an end zone interception in the fourth quarter and was strip-sacked by Pittsburgh's outside linebacker Bud Dupree in the second quarter. T.J. Watt fell on the ball and the Steelers were off and running. Dalton finished 21 of 37 for 171 yards, stressing he felt "fine" physically and that he's not panicking.
"Everybody is going to stick together," Dalton said. "We have from the beginning, regardless of the circumstances of these games, we've stuck together. And so I don't expect that to change."
Tyler Boyd, elevated to the No. 1 receiver while A.J. Green recovers from ankle surgery, was held to three receptions for 33 yards on the same field where he starred in college at Pitt.
"Personally I hate being embarrassed," Boyd said. "At the end of the day, I can take the losing. But when you go out there and get embarrassed, Monday night, prime time . I got too much pride to go out there and showcase what we showcased. It was just awful overall."
RUDOLPH ROLLS
Rudolph was uneven at best in his first career start last week in San Francisco after being thrust into the gig for the rest of the season while Roethlisberger rehabs from elbow surgery. Rudolph was considerably sharper against Cincinnati, though he wasn't asked to do much other than find the closest open man —usually Conner or Samuels — and keep the sticks moving. He completed 24 of 28 passes, the only deep shot a 43-yard strike to Diontae Johnson in the third quarter that broke it open.
"Our message all week was stack one (win) and then start stacking more," said Rudolph, who was awarded the game ball by head coach Mike Tomlin.
INJURIES
Bengals: WR John Ross III left in the third quarter with a right-shoulder injury. ... LT Cordy Glenn missed his fourth straight game while recovering from a concussion and Cincinnati's protection problems continued. The Bengals have now surrendered 19 sacks through four games.
Steelers: TE Vance McDonald sat out with a right shoulder injury. Nick Vannett, acquired in a trade with Seattle last week, started and caught two passes for 28 yards.
UP NEXT
Bengals: Host Arizona next Sunday. The Cardinals won the last meeting, 34-31, in 2015.
Steelers: Welcome AFC North rival Baltimore to Pittsburgh on Sunday. The teams split the season series last year, both winning at home.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock told TSN on Tuesday that the team will have a captain for the season-opening game against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.
The Maple Leafs had been expected to name a captain for this season, though Babcock declined to give a timeline other than "before Christmas" last week.
The team spent the past three seasons without a captain after trading Dion Phaneuf to the Ottawa Senators in 2016. Prior to Phaneuf receiving the “C” in 2011, Mats Sundin served as captain from 1997-2008.
Watch Babcock's one-on-one with TSN's James Duthie on the TSN Hockey: Season Preview Special presented by Tim Hortons across the TSN Network and on TSN Direct and the TSN App tonight at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt.
