They’re back! Grevers, Beisel return for another worlds
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Matt Grevers and Elizabeth Beisel have been through this before. Many times, in fact. But they’re still walking around the deck of the glittering Duna Arena looking a bit wide-eyed, as if they can’t quite believe they’re here for another world championships. That’s understandable. Grevers thought his career was over last summer. Beisel figured she was all done last month.
Yet here they are, in this elegant European capital, serving as captains of the mighty U.S. team.
“Having one more opportunity to do it means more than anything,” Beisel said. “This is more exciting than when I made my first team.”
Grevers is one of the great backstrokers in America’s long, proud history in that event, a fourtime Olympic gold medalist and back-to-back 100-meter champion at the 2008 Beijing Games and four years later in London. He didn’t even get to Rio. Grevers stunningly finished third in the U.S. Olympic trials , a finish that left him pondering retirement from full-time swimming. His wife was pregnant with their first child — daughter Skylar Lea was born in November — and it looked like a new generation led by Ryan Murphy had passed him by.
“It was tough,” the 32-year-old Grevers said. “You convince yourself that you’re going to make it. That’s the only outcome you see in the race. Then you see a 3 next to your name when you really want to see 1 or 2. It took me a long time to recover. I think it was minor depression.”
Beisel is only 24 but this will be her final major competition before retirement. She specializes in the grueling 400 individual medley, capturing silver at the 2012 London Games in addition to bronze in the 200 backstroke.
After a more than decadelong career on the national team, her body is starting to wear down. Beisel only finished sixth in the 400 IM at Rio last summer, and it looked like her last crack at the world championships had faded away when she touched third a few weeks ago at the national championships in Indianapolis, far behind winner Leah Smith and more than 1 1/2 seconds behind apparent runner-up Ella Eastin.
But Eastin was disqualified for a violation on the backstroke leg.
Beisel was heading to Budapest.
“Ella should be here,” Beisel said. “She deserves to be here.”
Now, after admitting that her spot on the team is “a fluke,” she wants to close her career in style.
No one is more appreciative of the chance.
“This is best point I’ve ever been at,” Beisel said, talking more about her mental state than her speed in the water. “I took a very long break from swimming (after Rio). It made me appreciate what I had. This was something I had taken for granted for a few years. I was making trips year after year. I don’t want to say it becomes stale, but it becomes the norm. The circumstances of making the team this time made me appreciate what I have on Team USA. I love this life. This is the best life I will ever get representing Team USA.”
Struggling to cope after the Olympic trials, Grevers realized that swimming was the only possible salve for his wound.
Instead of retiring, he returned to the water with a vengeance.
“This is therapy for me in a way,” Grevers said. “As long as I can keep making the team, stay relevant, I want to keep going.”
For Beisel, there are no such thoughts about carrying on.
She was ready to pass the torch to Eastin in Indianapolis, but caught a huge break.
Now, Beisel is ready to savor what will likely be the final 400 IM of her career.
The time doesn’t really matter.
“I know this is the last one, no matter what happens,” Beisel said. “I’m just very grateful to be here. I’ll do the best I can.”
PHOENIX — The newest additions to the Washington bullpen came through when called upon to help deliver a victory to their new team.
Sean Doolittle stranded the potential tying run by escaping a jam for his second save for Washington, and Ryan Madson tossed a scoreless eighth inning as the Nationals held off the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3 on Saturday night.
“The game can really speed up on you once you start getting guys on base,” said Doolittle, who with Madson arrived in a trade with Oakland earlier in the week. “The crowd and the energy of the stadium can kind of take over and ... you have to be mindful enough to step off the mound, slow the game down a bit, kind of press reset.”
Bryce Harper homered and drove in two runs, and starting pitcher Tanner Roark struck out a seasonhigh 11. Roark (8-6) gave up two runs and three hits in seven innings for the NL East-leading Nationals.
“Curveball felt good. Just keep the hitter guessing,” Roark said.
Harper hit his 25th home run on a full-count offspeed pitch from Anthony Banda (0-1), who lost in his major league debut.
Chris Iannetta hit a twoout RBI double in the bottom half, but the Nationals opened a 4-1 lead with a three-run sixth.
Harper hit a run-scoring double and scored on Ryan Zimmerman’s double, and Anthony Rendon beat out an RBI single that sent Zimmerman home.
“They had a young guy out there that throws the ball really hard, has good command. He’s going to be really good in the next couple of years for sure,” Harper said of Banda. “Just got him this time and got a few runs up there.”
A.J. Pollock tripled in the bottom half and scored on Jake Lamb’s groundout, and Arizona reliever Jorge De La Rosa got out of bases-loaded trouble in the seventh when he struck out Harper and Zimmerman.
Doolittle, acquired from Oakland last weekend, walked Lamb leading off the ninth. Iannetta hit a broken-bat grounder to third, and Rendon’s throw to second went into right field for an error that put runners on the corners.
Paul Goldschmidt hit a sacrifice fly, Chris Owings flied out and Doolittle struck out Ketel Marte for his second save with the Nationals.
“Madson’s been great for us. Doolittle ... he never panics. It was great to see. It’s a lot of fun to have a back end like that,” Harper said.
Banda allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings, struck out five and walked none. He was optioned back to Triple-A Reno after the game.
“I felt confident. I threw the ball in the zone and kept attacking hitters,” Banda said. “I made a couple of mistakes, Harper and the middle of the lineup.”
OUT STRETCHING
Brian Goodwin, who had three hits, was thrown out at third base trying to stretch a third-inning double, with right fielder David Peralta throwing to second baseman Owings, who made the relay.
RECORD BOOK
Zimmerman’s 361st double made him the Montreal/Washington career leader, one ahead of Tim Wallach.
GOLDY’S ‘DAY OFF’
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo gave Goldschmidt a day off from the starting lineup, but the All-Star pinch hit in the ninth. “He went to the AllStar Game and didn’t get the four days off that everybody else had,” Lovullo said. “He always wants to be in there. It was one of those decisions that I had to make where I said take the day off and be ready for a Sunday day game.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: OF J.D. Martinez remains day to day with a bruised hand, which is feeling better, Lovullo said.
Nationals: Washington could be without two outfielders on Sunday, as Chris Heisey injured his groin on his sixth-inning triple. Manager Dusty Baker said the team might need to make a roster move, since OF Ryan Raburn, who was in the original lineup but was removed, is going on the bereavement list and leaving the team on Sunday. Raburn pinch hit in the ninth and grounded out, then stayed in the game as a defensive replacement.
UP NEXT
Nationals: RHP Stephen Strasburg (10-3) faces Arizona on Sunday. He is coming off a four-hit, 11-strikeout performance in a win over Cincinnati.
Diamondbacks: LHP Robbie Ray (9-4) faces the team that originally drafted him in 2010. Ray is 0-3 with a 6.48 ERA in three starts against Washington.