NATIONALS BLAST ASTROS TO GO UP 2-0
Head to Washington with 2-0 World Series lead
Adam Eaton paraded around the bases pointing to the Houston crowd after a late home run as the Nationals won their eighth in a row. They’ve won 18 of 20 overall dating back to the regular season, with the last two over AL Cy Young Award favorites Gerrit Cole and Verlan- der.
Game 3 is Friday night when Anibal Sanchez opposes Houston’s Zack Greinke in the first World Series game in the nation’s capital since 1933.
The 31-year-old Strasburg had waited years for this chance. Back in 2012, he was two years removed from Tommy John surgery when Nationals brass decided protecting his elbow was more important than pitching him in the playoffs, so he was shut down late in a season full of promise.
Making his Series debut, Strasburg allowed a two-run homer to Alex Bregman in the first before throwing five shutout innings to improve 4-0 this postseason. He allowed seven hits and struck out seven.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez was asked what’s allowed Strasburg to be so good this postseason.
“One, he has the confidence to do it and two, he’s become a premier pitcher, a big-game pitcher,” Martinez said. ”He doesn’t get rattled.”
Verlander, so good in the regular season, fell to 0-5 in six World Series starts. He gave up seven hits and four runs, and was lifted after walking a batter following Suzuki’s home run.
Verlander led the majors with 21 wins this season and struck out a career-high 300 to reach 3,000 in his career. He has a World Series ring, MVP and Cy Young Award trophies, and three no-hitters on his resume.
He struck out six to become the career leader in postseason Ks with 202 — another impressive statistic on a stellar resume that’s still missing that elusive World Series win.
The Nationals’ dominance against Houston’s best pitchers turned the underdog into a heavy favorite to win the title. Only three of the previous 25 teams to lose the first two games at home under the 2-3-2 format have come back to win the Series. No one has done it since the 1996 Yankees.
“I wish I was a betting man, but I’m not,” Martinez said. “I don’t really believe in that stuff. We’re here because the boys never gave up.”
The Astros insist the tough start hasn’t dampened their confidence.
“We have a really good team,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Clearly, the Nats have outplayed us — bottom line. They came into our building and played two really good games. We’re going to have to try to sleep off the latter third of this game.”
Who’s going to fill Shamorie Ponds’ role as do-everything lead guard after the talented shooter bolted for the pros? Who’s going to snag boards the Red Storm struggled to corral a year ago? And for the love of Lou Carnesecca, who’s even eligible to suit up for coach Mike Anderson, the new guy helming hoops on Utopia Parkway?
These are just a few of the unknowns facing a St. John’s team that has about as many unresolved questions as the opening chapter to an Agatha Christie novel.
St. John’s has a pair of transfers — junior guard Rasheem Dunn and sophomore forward Ian Steere— in waiver limbo as the NCAA decides their eligibility fate.
“I just leave everything in God’s hands,” Dunn said at Media Day Tuesday.
He’s hoping to get the OK to play after he sat out last season at Cleveland State as a transfer. A Brooklyn native who played high school ball with Ponds, Dunn suited up for two years at St. Francis Brooklyn before transferring to join the Vikings.
Dunn averaged more than 15 points per game back in 2017-18 and could add some punch to the backcourt alongside senior guard Mustapha Heron. If he makes it to the court.
Steere transferred from N.C. State, where he was lightly used, but his 6-foot-9 frame could prove useful to a squad that badly needs height.
What’s clear amid the uncertainty: St. John’s will be running this year. And running. And running.
The Red Storm played at one of the swiftest tempos in the country last year under coach Chris Mullin, averaging 15.4 seconds per possession, the 12th quickest mark in the country. But Anderson may dial things up further. The new coach brings a reputation for a breakneck approach.
Tuesday, he cracked jokes about sending his players to the bathroom to puke with unforgiving conditioning drills.
“We’re going to play a lot faster than we did last year,” senior guard Justin Cole said Tuesday. “We get more into our secondary break, more than last year. Last year, if there’s no break, we’d slow it down and run a set. This year, everything’s just fluid.”
Continuity offense, crushing defense is the game plan. The Red Storm plan to press full-court a majority of the time. It’ll be an old-school look in the new-school Big East.
Heron, who scored 14.6 points per game last year, figures to represent the spine of the team, along with junior swingman LJ Figueroa, who stuffed stat sheets last winter (14.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg).
But there’s a reason why the coaches’ preseason poll has St. John’s ninth in the ten-team conference. Ponds is a major loss for a team that didn’t boast much depth to begin with.
And Anderson said depth is crucial for his team given the way he wants it to play. Running players ragged requires emptying the bench.
“Depth is going to be really, really important on our basketball team. We’re going to have probably six to seven starters,” Anderson said. “I don’t know who they’re going to be right now, they’re all kind of jockeying for a position. But I’ll just say one of the more important pieces to our team is going to be our bench.”
He told the Daily News earlier in the offseason that his primary assessment from the summer was that “there’s work to be done.”
With the season now just two weeks away, the clock is ticking. St. John’s will square off against Division II Queens College on Oct. 30 in an exhibition before the Nov. 6 season opener against Mercer. Then, fans will find out who’s playing, and if the team is ready to run.
And if the team even has enough players to run.
“I think,” Heron said, “we’ll all surprise everybody that will be watching us.”