The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Cardinals take down Giants
Arizona back Chase Edmonds steals show as Saquon Barkley returns for Big Blue
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The game was billed as the return of Saquon Barkley to the New York Giants’ lineup and the matchup of firstround rookie quarterbacks Kyler Murray and Daniel Jones. It had an unexpected star: Arizona Cardinals backup running back Chase Edmonds.
Edmonds rushed for career highs of 126 yards and three touchdowns and the Cardinals’ defense sacked Jones eight times and forced three turnovers in a 2721 victory Sunday. “Extremely stoked today,” said Edmonds, a Pennsylvania native who rewrote the rushing records at Fordham University in New York City. “Coming back here, being a smallschool guy, I obviously had a chip on my shoulder. Obviously, Saquon was coming back. I knew it was going to be an electric atmosphere.
“I just wanted to go out here and show people and make a name for myself.”
Edmonds did in carrying a careerhigh 27 times with starter David Johnson banged up. It helped the Cardinals (331) win their third straight for the first time since 2015 and sent the Giants (25) to their third straight loss in the game played in rain that grew in intensity from the second quarter on.
“I’m fired up for the guys who have been here and been through some tougher seasons,” Cardinals firstyear coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “They all know what’s been said about this team. We started out with some tough losses. They stuck together and continued to fight and continued to get better. We know we have a long way to go, but there is great leadership in that locker room.”
Edmonds also showed the Cardinals grit. He vomited into a sideline garbage can after scoring on his second 20yard touchdown run in the first quarter and never backed down, adding a 22yard TD run in the third quarter.
His previous rushing high was 68 yards against Cincinnati two weeks ago. The secondyear back had 24 carries total in the first six games.
The Cardinals defense also got four sacks and a
CARDINALS 27 GIANTS 21
for free agency, and closer Aroldis Chapman can opt of the final two seasons and $30 million of his contract and go free.
Winning their first AL East title since 2012 and finishing the regular season with 103 wins despite 30 players going on the injured list left little satisfaction to a team that finished a full calendar decade without a World Series appearance for the first time since the 1910s.
“It’s not a successful season because we’re not just playing to get 103 wins and then just sleep,” Gregorius said. “We want to play to get to the World Series and win it, and that’s what we played the whole year for.”
Gregorius said his preference is to remain in the Bronx, but the Yankees might not be able to afford him. Their payroll was baseball’s secondhighest this year behind Boston, and New York might prefer to reallocate Gregorius’ salary for pitching rather than make a longterm commitment to a shortstop who turns 30 in February. Gleyber Torres could be shifted to shortstop and DJ LeMahieu, New York’s best allaround player in his first season with the Yankees, could take over at second, where he won three Gold Gloves with Colorado.
New York navigated through this year despite losing ace Luis Severino to a spring training lat muscle injury that sidelined him until September.
Domingo German emerged to go 184 until a lateseason domestic violence incident led Major League Baseball to put him on administrative leave. James Paxton struggled in the first half, rediscovered his breaking ball in the second half and went 156, and Masahiro Tanaka (119) had a puzzling loss of effectiveness with his splitter.
J.A. Happ (128) was mostly disappointing and CC Sabathia (58) spent four stints on the injured list in his final season. With no other good options, the Yankees used Chad Green as an opener 15 times.
Much like Sabathia and A.J. Burnett were added to Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain in 2009, the Yankees could use a frontend injection to lessen the load of a bullpen that despite rest in September tired against the Astros. Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, Green and Chapman all faltered just enough that New York could not overcome an offense outscored 2221 over the six games.
While the Yankees led the major leagues with 943 runs during the regular season, were second in homers with 306 and topped batting with runners in scoring position at .294, they were .171 (6 for 35) with RISP against the Astros, stranded 42 runners, scored 15 of their runs on homers and struck out 64 times.
“I think we’re a better team this year than we were last year,” Boone said. “And we’ll work very hard in the winter in every phase, from the front office and the decisions we make with what players we bring in, what players we lose.”