Juan Soto’s bases-clearing single helps Nationals stun Brewers 4-3 in NL Wild Card Game

By Oct 1, 2019, 11:08 PM EDT
Will Newton/Getty Images
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The Brewers got to Nationals starter Max Scherzer early, swatting a pair of home runs in the first two innings. It was a 3-1 Brewers lead well into the eighth inning, looking like another early playoff exit for the Nationals. Juan Soto, however, delivered a bases-clearing single that was aided in part from a fielding error by right fielder Trent Grisham. The hit and error gave the Nationals a 4-3 lead, one that Daniel Hudson would protect in the ninth inning to send the Nationals into the NLDS.

Yasmani Grandal opened the scoring in the first inning. After Trent Grisham drew a leadoff walk, Grandal lined a two-run homer to right field, giving starter Brandon Woodruff a lead before he even took the mound. Eric Thames added a solo homer to right-center off of Scherzer in the second inning to make it a 3-1 game.

Trea Turner put the Nationals on the board in the third, drilling a solo homer of his own to left field off of Brandon Woodruff. Woodruff gave up the lone run on two hits with no walks and three strikeouts over four innings. Scherzer was on the hook for three runs on four hits and three walks with six strikeouts across five innings of work.

Brent Suter, who took over for Woodruff in the fifth, found himself in trouble after a two-out single and a throwing error by Mike Moustakas, but found his way out of trouble. Drew Pomeranz worked a 1-2-3 sixth with two strikeouts, then came back out for the seventh and worked another 1-2-3 inning.

Meanwhile, Stephen Strasburg — who had never pitched in relief before tonight — took over for Scherzer in the sixth. He held the Brewers at bay, yielding a pair of hits with no walks and four strikeouts across three innings.

As expected, the Brewers relied on closer Josh Hader to see the team to the finish line. He found himself in hot water after hitting Michael Taylor with a pitch — it appeared, on replay, that the ball hit the bat first, but umpires did not overturn their call — and allowing a two-out bloop single to Ryan Zimmerman. Hader walked Anthony Rendon to load the bases. Juan Soto then lined a single to right field, a hit that normally would have scored two runs but the ball skipped lower than Grisham anticipated, going behind him. The go-ahead run scored and Soto was thrown out between second and third base to end the inning, but only after the damage had been done.

According to FanGraphs, Soto’s single changed the Nationals’ win probability from 22.7 percent to 83.8 percent, a staggering increase of 61.1 percent. Their win probability chart shows it all.

Hudson started the ninth, striking out Thames. Lorenzo Cain kept hope alive with a single to center field, but Orlando Arcia popped up to the catcher and Ben Gamel flied out to center field to end the game. A stunning loss for the Brewers, a stunning victory for the Nationals.

The NLDS begins on Thursday night with the Dodgers hosting the first two games against the Nationals.

Royals’ John Sherman optimistic about new ballpark, current team

Associated PressMar 29, 2023, 3:31 PM EDT
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The first thing that Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman thinks about when he wakes up each morning is how the club, stuck in what seems like an interminable rebuild, will play on that particular day.

Not where they will play four or five years down the road.

Yet given the modest expectations for a team that lost nearly 100 games a year ago, it makes sense many Royals fans are just as interested – quite possibly more so – in the plans for a downtown ballpark than whether infielder Bobby Witt Jr. can double down on his brilliant rookie season or pitcher Brady Singer can truly become a staff ace.

That’s why Sherman’s second thought probably moves to the downtown ballpark, too.

“This is a huge decision, and I look at it as maybe the most important decision we’ll make as long as we have the privilege of stewarding this team,” Sherman said before the Royals held a final workout Wednesday ahead of opening day. “I’m probably as anxious as you to get moving on that, but it’s a complicated process.”

The Royals have called Kauffman Stadium home since the sister to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, opened 50 years ago next month.

And while most stadiums are replaced because they have become outdated, the unique, space-aged look of Kauffman Stadium – built during an era in which teams trended toward impersonal, multisport concrete donuts for their homes – remains beloved by Royals fans and visitors alike.

The problem is that despite numerous renovations over the years, the very concrete holding the ballpark together has begun to crumble in places. The cost simply to repair and maintain the ballpark has become prohibitive.

So with the decision essentially made for them to build an entirely new stadium, the Royals revealed plans to build an entire development in the same mold of The Battery Atlanta, where the Braves built Truist Park, and the Ballpark Village in St. Louis, where the new Busch Stadium is merely the centerpiece of a whole entertainment district.

No site has been secured, but several of the most promising are in downtown Kansas City, where the Power & Light District along with T-Mobile Center have spearheaded a successful era of urban renewal.

Sherman has said that private funds would cover the majority of the stadium cost and the entire village, each carrying a price tag of about $1 billion.

But if any public funding will be used, as it was to build and maintain Kauffman Stadium, then it would need to be voted upon, and the earliest that it could show up on a ballot would be August.

“You look at Atlanta, they took some raw ground – they started with 85 acres – and that has been a complete home run,” said Sherman, who purchased the Royals in August 2019, shortly before the pandemic wreaked havoc on team finances.

“This is one of the reasons we want to do this: That’s helped the Braves become more competitive,” Sherman said of the vast potential for increased revenue for one of the smallest-market teams in baseball. “They have locked up and extended the core of their future, and the Braves are in a great position from a baseball standpoint.”

So perhaps the first two thoughts Sherman has each day – about performance and the future – are one and the same.

When it comes to the team itself, the Royals were largely quiet throughout the winter, though that was by design.

Rather than spending heavily on free agents that might help them win a few more games, they decided to stay the course with a promising young roster in the hopes that the development of those players would yield better results.

In fact, Sherman said, the club has been discussing extensions for some of the Royals’ foundational pieces – presumably Witt, who was fourth in voting for AL rookie of the year, and Singer, who was 10-5 with a 3.23 ERA last season.

“We’re having conversations about that as we speak,” Sherman said. “We have a number of young players that we’re trying to evaluate and we’re talking to their representatives about what might work.”

Just because the Royals’ roster largely looks the same, that doesn’t mean nothing has changed. The Royals fired longtime general manager Dayton Moore in September and moved J.J. Picollo to the role, then fired manager Mike Matheny in October and replaced him with longtime Indians and Rays coach Matt Quatraro.

Sherman said the new voices created a palpable energy in spring training that he hopes carries into the regular season.

“When we acquired the team, we had three primary objectives,” Sherman said. “One was to win more games; we’re working on that. The second was to secure the future; that’s what (the stadium) is. And the third was to do good in the community.

“But the first priority,” he said, “is really the on-field product. That’s what really lifts everything else up.”