Nats’ star yawns in biggest moments
HOUSTON – Think hard about the most indelible moments in World Series history: Carlton Fisk, waving a drive fair over the Green Monster. Gimpykneed Kirk Gibson fist-pumping around first base. Joe Carter touching ’em all, hands held to his head in disbelief.
Now picture Anthony Rendon stifling a yawn and delivering some of the biggest hits in postseason history.
Iconic? Made for the history reels? Maybe not.
On brand? Absolutely. Rendon spent seven years with the Nationals and managed to avoid national notoriety almost entirely, until this 2019 season in which he became an All-Star, will finish in the top five in National League MVP balloting and showed the world, through a collection of October brilliance, just how great he really is.
He’s also a World Series champion, due in large part to his late-inning magic throughout Washington’s startling 12-5 run to a championship, an effort culminating in a 6-2 victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
The crowning blow was struck by Howie Kendrick, whose two-run go-ahead home run capped his own epic month. Yet if Kendrick burst the dam, it was Rendon who weakened it, breaking Astros starter Zack Greinke’s spell on the Nationals with a one-out home run in the seventh inning.
A Houston shutout became a 2-1 margin and, as typical, it was other players basking in the limelight while Tony Two Bags made off with the loot while no one was watching.
Ace Stephen Strasburg was the World Series MVP. Kendrick struck the highlight-reel blow and earned NLCS honors. Sorenecked, wild-eyed Max Scherzer will dominate the tales of yore for decades. Rendon?
He was just stone cold in the Nationals’ five elimination games, six of his 10 extra-base hits this October coming in the seventh inning or later in those do-or-die games in the wildcard round, NLDS and this World Series.
When the Nationals’ efforts to erase a 3-2 Series deficit were imperiled by a questionable interference call in the seventh inning of Game 6, havoc reigned. The Astros smelled a momentum shift.
Rendon felt cold-blooded. “It epitomized who Anthony Rendon is when in (Game 6), when almost everybody’s losing their minds, he was yawning in the batter’s box and hit a home run two pitches later,” an admiring and beer-soaked general manager Mike Rizzo said after Game 7.
Baseball can be fueled by adrenaline, but the racing heart can be a player’s worst enemy, too.
So while Rendon is an unlikely candidate for a “Let The Kids Play” starring role, his undeniable calm is the envy of so many peers.
“He’s half-asleep,” says outfielder Adam Eaton, who had himself a fantastic postseason by scoring 11 runs in front of Rendon out of the No. 2 hole. “He’s sleeping.”
And making it look so easy. Rendon had 20 hits in 61 postseason at-bats and got on base
THOMAS B. SHEA/ USA TODAY SPORTS at a .400 clip. He was flawless afield, his easy flick of the wrists producing easy power as well as a seamless stream of 5-3 putouts on all manner of ground balls.
Never nervous.
“He’s always on the same groove, man,” says Kendrick. “He’s in slow motion all the time. I think that’s a product of him being in Houston.” Let’s explore that. Rendon had the luxury of reaching his professional pinnacle in his backyard – born and raised in the 713, schooled at Rice University, after which the Nationals drafted him sixth overall in 2011.
The Nationals prevailed in front of a gaggle of Rendon’s family members, including a large portion of the 15 to 20 cousins he grew up with in the area.
We believe them when they say Rendon hasn’t changed.
“First of all, he’s from Houston, so we all chill,” says Gabriel Rendon, 43 and the oldest of Rendon’s cousins. “We’re all cool, calm and collected from Houston.
“But he’s just got a gift with him – he’s gifted, he’s a gifted athlete and we’re happy for him as family.”
Rendon is the youngest of the bunch, and thus his demeanor leaves him vulnerable to family interpretation.
“He’s lazy,” says Jennifer Rendon, another cousin. Lazy?
One of the greatest ballplayers on the planet, a man about to pull in $225 million or so on the free agent market?
“That’s why you’ll see him yawning,” says Gabriel.
So Rendon actually possesses a lower setting than the one millions see in stadiums across America?
“He just likes to lay around,” says Jennifer. “He’s just going too much during the season that he just likes to chill in the offseason.”
That, we’d have to see. Alas, we’ll just have to settle for the Rendon in the public eye, the lifetime .290 hitter with the .859 OPS, and soon, a gaudy ring to go along with it.
This could be his last act as a National, as he and agent Scott Boras have yet to respond to a reported multiyear proposal that would pay him more than $200 million.
If this is it, what a legacy – even if far too many fans slept through it.
“It’s hard to express and describe what he means to us as a team but also as a franchise, an organization,” says Rizzo. “One of the best players we’ve had, too.
“He’s a special person. He’s a unique talent. And he’s a world champion.”