The Phillies never posted a winning season in five years with Klentak at the helm, finishing one game out of a playoff spot in 2020.
Phillies general manager Matt Klentak is stepping down from his role after five seasons leading Philadelphia's front office, the team announced Saturday. Klentak will be reassigned to a new role within the organization.
“I have stated publicly that winning is what matters, not just in Philadelphia but in all cities and in all sports,” managing partner John Middleton said. “While Matt made many significant contributions to the organization, we did not accomplish our goal of playing baseball in October. Consequently, we have mutually agreed to allow new leadership to head Baseball Operations.”
“While I am disappointed that we failed to reach our ultimate goal, I am nevertheless very proud of the progress that this organization made over the last five years and of the people who worked so hard to make it happen,” Klentak said. “I am grateful for all of the support that I received along the way from Phillies ownership, friends and colleagues, and our loyal Phillies fans.”
Klentak, 40, took over the role in October 2015 after serving as assistant general manager for the Los Angeles Angels. The Phillies never finished above .500 in any of his five seasons at the helm, posting a 28-32 record in 2020 and falling one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild-card spot.
Among the notable moves the Phillies made under Klentak's stewardship are the $330 million deal to land Bryce Harper in free agency and his trade acquisition of catcher J.T. Realmuto. This year's team was undone by its bullpen, which posted a league-worst 7.06 ERA. The Phillies have not made the playoffs or posted a winning season since 2011.
'The arts' is often viewed as a pursuit of intellectuals, something removed from everyday life. Yet the pandemic has shown us it is in fact omnipresent.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has released a new video from the hospital in which he says he's starting to feel better and hopes to "be back soon."
In the four-minute video, Trump says
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The total, more than 5000 cases higher than the previous 24 daily record, comes as conservatives prepare to challenge Boris Johnson's coronavirus restrictions.
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'The arts' is often viewed as a pursuit of intellectuals, something removed from everyday life. Yet the pandemic has shown us it is in fact omnipresent.
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When the final whistle blew at a rain-swept Elland Road, with the managers soaked from head to toe, Marcelo Bielsa went over to Pep Guardiola and placed both hands on his shoulders.
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After multiple arrests on Melbourne's beaches, police have warned they will "not hesitate" to arrest those who continue to flout COVID-19 rules by gathering in public.
Premier Mark McGowan is expected to announce more than a million WA household will receive a $600 credit on their electricity account before their next bill.
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After multiple arrests on Melbourne's beaches, police have warned they will "not hesitate" to arrest those who continue to flout COVID-19 rules by gathering in public.
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Richmond captain Trent Cotchin says the Tigers must exercise more restraint when they "play on the edge", blaming ill-discipline for his side's qualifying final loss to Brisbane on Friday night.
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Nathan Buckley says his side is physically cherry ripe and ready to take on Geelong in next Saturday's semi-final at the Gabba. And that includes ruckman Brodie Grundy.
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Opposition leader Liza Harvey has dismissed opinion polling suggesting she could lose her seat of Scarborough and has unveiled plans to increase apprentice numbers.
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WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Donald Trump, suffering from the coronavirus, was taken by helicopter from the White House to a nearby military hospital Friday afternoon, where he was expected to rema
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Temperatures are set to steadily rise across the long weekend, but a potential southerly buster is expected to bring cooler temperatures, rain and maybe storms.
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Wake Forest takes on visiting Campbell, which is closing out an abbreviated fall slate, in a non-league game Friday night at Truist Field in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Wake Forest (0-2) could use a jolt of confidence after a rough opening stretch.
"We're getting better," Demon Deacons coach Dave Clawson said. "I think we have the makings of a good football team, but this team is a work in progress and we'll get there."
This will mark the first football game in the state of North Carolina with increased attendance guidelines. State restrictions are allowing up to 7 percent of stadium capacity beginning this weekend.
"We are excited to play in front of Deacon Nation again, even if it is a limited capacity," Clawson said. "We can't wait to feel that energy and support starting with our game against Campbell."
This will be the first meeting between the programs.
Campbell (0-3), a member of the Football Championship Subdivision's Big South Conference, is playing four games as part of a fall season after the Big South opted to hold its main competition in the spring. So it's four road assignments for the Camels, including the final two in their home state.
Campbell has lost to Georgia Southern (27-26); to Coastal Carolina (43-21); and to Appalachian State (52-21). There would have been a week off before its final game, but like so many other things this season, changes were necessary.
"It's prepping us for when we get in the playoffs because that's where we're going (in the future)," said Camels coach Mike Minter, a former standout with the NFL's Carolina Panthers. "Now it shows us you have four weeks, you have to get ready every single day. ... What I'm looking for is how do we put it all together?"
By playing this schedule across a period of a month, the exposure for the Camels has been beneficial. Twice, their games have been on national television.
"I think that is the biggest plus," Minter said of the ability to promote the program and university.
Campbell wasn't on the original schedule for Wake Forest. But when non-league foe Old Dominion decided it wouldn't play a fall schedule, the Demon Deacons sought another opponent.
The Campbell-Wake Forest matchup was pegged for Oct. 9. It was moved up a week when Wake Forest had its matchup with Notre Dame postponed from the scheduled date of Sept. 26 because of coronavirus issues connected to the Notre Dame team.
The adjustment avoided back-to-back weeks with no games for Wake Forest. And instead of facing then-No. 7 Notre Dame in their third game, it also might reduce the chance that the Demon Deacons are saddled with their first 0-3 start since dropping their first seven games in 2000 in the final season under coach Jim Caldwell.
Wake Forest running back Kenneth Walker rushed for three touchdowns in the Sept. 19 loss at North Carolina State. Glitches in the passing attack have held the Demon Deacons back.
"We need to make some plays on the outside," Clawson said. "We've dropped probably five or six deep balls in two weeks. At certain point, you've got to go make those plays."
Yony Gonzales could be in line to make his LA Galaxy debut on Saturday, after head coach Barros Schelotto confirmed the winger will feature against San Jose Earthquakes.
Gonzales signed on loan from Portuguese giants Benfica in August, though has not yet made his first MLS appearance.
However, Schelotto will be have the Colombian available for selection in an all-California clash between the bottom two sides in the Western Conference.
"He will be ready with us, we'll decide how many minutes he's ready for," Gonzales told reporters.
"We need to think about the Wednesday game as well, he has to be ready for Portland Timbers too. He's ready, he's going to do very well with us.
"He's the kind of player that we need. He can play out wide or up top. The best thing is that we have options, we have a lot of games coming out so everyone has to be ready."
While the Galaxy are on a three-match losing run, San Jose ended a nine-game winless streak as they came from behind to beat Los Angeles FC 2-1 on Sunday.
Experienced defender Robert Salinas came on from the bench to score San Jose's 80th-minute equaliser and start the comeback, and the 34-year-old pinned the Quakes' poor run on a congested fixture list.
"I mean, the amount of games we've had is something I've never seen in my career. And so, energy levels, it's difficult to maintain," he said.
"It's difficult to get yourself up every three days for another game when you're sore and bruised."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
San Jose Earthquakes – Cristian Espinosa
Salinas and Chris Wondolowski snatched the goals to lift San Jose against LAFC, but their efforts were teed up by Espinosa, who has registered five assists in total in 2020.
LA Galaxy – Cristian Pavon
In what has been a disappointing campaign for the Galaxy, Argentine winger Pavon has been a bright spark. He has six goals in all, though the most recent of his strikes came in a Los Angeles derby win over LAFC on September 7.
KEY OPTA FACTS
•San Jose earned a scoreless draw against the Galaxy in the last meeting between the sides, also at Earthquakes Stadium.
•The Galaxy have collected four points in two meetings with San Jose this season after losing both meetings between the sides in the 2019 season.
•Two of the Earthquakes' three wins this season have come after trailing in the 80th minute.
•The Galaxy have lost three straight matches, scoring just once, after a six-match unbeaten run (W4 D2) that saw them score 12 times.
•Despite their comeback win on Sunday, San Jose's 39 goals conceded after 14 matches are still four more than any other team at this stage of a season in MLS history.
•The Galaxy have collected just two points (W0 D2 L5) in the seven matches in which Javier Hernandez has played this season while they have earned 13 points (W4 D1 L1) in the six matches he has missed.
He's not the first Aussie writer gazumped by Hollywood after coming up with a hot original idea. But Dave Warner's new crime novel shows he's back with a bang.
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Solomon Lew may look to garner support from minority Myer shareholders to topple the department store's management after formally requesting its shareholder register on Friday.
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Iconic all-you-can-eat chain Sizzler will fry its final cheese toast in November after parent company Collins Foods announced it was pulling the plug on the brand.
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Atlanta advanced to the NLDS after sweeping the Reds in the wild-card round for the franchise's first postseason series win since 2001.
Hours after shutting out the Reds for the second straight game to win the wild-card series, the Atlanta Braves announced the team will host fans at Truist Park for a watch party during the NLDS.
The park will have some concessions open, with pods of up to six people, according to ESPN's Kiley McDaniel. Pods will be at least 16 feet apart, and fans will have to wear masks at all times when not eating or drinking.
The team's decision comes a day after MLB announced it would allow fans in attendance during the NLCS and World Series, which will both be held at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The league will make 11,500 tickets available for each game, which will go on sale on Oct. 6.
The Braves knocked out the Reds thanks to their pitching staff, which held Cincinnati scoreless through 22 innings to secure the franchise's first postseason series win since 2001. Atlanta will face either the Marlins or Cubs in the NLDS, which will take place in Houston and begin on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
According to the memo that was distributed to clubs, as obtained by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, in addition to daily PCR testing, all players and tier one and tier two individuals must also receive a daily POC test and test negative before entering the facility and taking part in daily activities. The testing includes PCR and POC tests on game days.
All meetings must occur virtually, gloves should be worn on-field by players except quarterbacks and team weight rooms will be limited to no more than 10 players at any time, among other enhanced precautions for teams exposed to the coronavirus.
Additionally, PPE/face masks must be worn on the practice field by all players and staff at all times.
The Braves are youthful, dynamic and have the arms to play deep into October. It all starts with 22-year-old rookie Ian Anderson, who pairs perfectly with ace Max Fried.
This would be a good time to start taking seriously the Atlanta Braves, the team MLB designated as the matinee team the past two days (noon starts) that had lost 10 consecutive postseason series since 2001. In two days, even against one of the worst-hitting clubs of all time, the Braves redefined themselves as much more than a team that can mash.
Thanks to homegrown starting pitchers Max Fried and Ian Anderson turning into the modern day Mathewson and McGinnity, and a deep bullpen behind them, Atlanta served notice it has the arms to do more than just get out of the first round for the first time since the roster included Julio Franco, who was born when Tris Speaker (born 1888) was still alive.
“I remember Bobby [Cox] told me one time, ‘You need to grow your own,’” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
Anderson, 22, is the difference-maker, capable of reshaping what you thought you knew about this postseason the way rookie Michael Wacha of the Cardinals did in 2013. Anderson is so young he was three years old the last time the Braves won a postseason series. He is so young one of his early baseball memories is watching his dad in their suburban Albany, N.Y., home get excited about their favorite team, the Red Sox, winning the 2004 World Series. He is younger than Google.
But Wednesday at Truist Park in Atlanta this is what mattered most about his youthfulness: he became the third youngest starting pitcher to throw shutout ball in a clinching win. Only Bret Saberhagen, 21, in the 1985 World Series, and Wacha, 22, in the 2013 National League Championship Series, did so at a younger age.
Wacha was 43 days younger than Anderson. Wacha had thrown 64 2/3 innings entering that postseason before emerging on the national radar to help carry St. Louis to the World Series. Anderson had thrown half as many innings, starting just six games prior to Thursday's. Anderson has a similarly impressive fastball-changeup combination, but he has a better curveball, better command and a less stressful delivery.
Despite his youth, Anderson has an old soul way about him on the mound. He is as calm as the deepest lake on a windless day. “I always try not to show the other team anything when I’m out there,” he said.
Even more impressive is how he commands all three pitches, all of which are plus pitches.
“He’s got great stuff and he’s also got the command to go with it,” Braves outfielder Adam Duvall said. “He can throw three pitches for a strike. He doesn’t have to throw the fastball to get ahead.”
No better example of Anderson’s combination of stuff and guile existed than an at-bat against Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart in the second inning, when the game hung precariously in the balance. Anderson had just walked Freddy Galvis to load the bases with two outs. He had gone away from his changeup in the inning. Pitching coach Rick Kranitz visited the mound.
“Stick with your strength,” Kranitz told him.
Anderson did not adopt a changeup until 2018 in High A. He quickly gained a feel for the pitch. By last season it had become what he called “my go-to pitch.” He throws the changeup between 87-90 mph, with uncannily similar arm speed and release as his fastball. Only great changeups can be thrown in the strike zone and still fool hitters. Anderson throws a great changeup.
Properly reminded, Anderson returned to his strength. He threw Barnhart three consecutive changeups. The results: swing and miss, swing and miss, groundout to end the inning. He cruised from there.
Anderson threw six innings before Snitker saw a pocket of lefties coming up in the seventh in a 1-0 game and turned the game over to Will Smith. The bullpen neatly closed out the 5-0 win. That is the leverage-aware kind of managing you must do in the postseason, which Cubs rookie manager David Ross missed Tuesday against Miami. In part because Ross felt hamstrung by the awful three-batter minimum rule–the first all-out assault on strategy in the game’s history–Ross let starter Kyle Hendricks face a lefty late in the game with more than 100 pitches. Corey Dickerson burned him with a three-run homer. It was the first time in 294 consecutive postseason starts that a manager lost a game with his starting pitcher in the seventh inning or later–since the Cubs beat Johnny Cueto in the 2016 NLDS.
Snitker has the kind of deep bullpen with nasty stuff to be the proactive manager today’s playoff baseball demands. You simply cannot lose games with tiring starting pitchers.
Thanks to deep staffs, the overall postseason batting average after Atlanta’s win Wednesday dropped to .217. Thirty-nine percent of all outs were strikeouts.
A team like the Reds just did not have enough quality at-bats to survive the pitching the Braves threw at them. Cincinnati went home from the playoffs without scoring a run in 22 innings, a postseason record.
All the talk about the Reds being a “dangerous” draw because of their starting pitching was overstated. Cincinnati just didn’t hit well enough. The Reds batted .212, the second-lowest average of all time, behind only the 1906 deadball White Sox, who hit .210, went 68-85 and featured Lena Blackburne, the .174-hitting shortstop who became famous around the game by fashioning the mud mixture used to rub up MLB baseballs. The Reds hit .199 against winning teams. One-ninety-nine.
Four years ago, the Reds and Braves were in another kind of competition. The Reds held the No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft. Right behind them were the Braves, who were in the middle of a three-year run in which they lost 90 games or more. The Phillies, at No. 1, took high school outfielder Mickey Moniak. Cincinnati took Nick Senzel, a college position player.
Not many experts rated Anderson among the top five talents in the draft. He didn’t throw nearly as hard as high school pitchers such as Riley Pint. Anderson, at 6-foot-3, weighed only 170 pounds. He endured an oblique strain and pneumonia in his senior season at Shenendehowa High in the cold spring typical along the Mohawk River in upstate New York. His fastball sat around 90-91. On a good day he touched 93. He did show an outstanding curveball.
The Braves saw something else that didn’t turn up in the radar gun readings or the spin rate metrics. They saw poise, maturity, and a polished delivery. They were on him since the previous summer, when he pitched for Team USA. They kept talking about how he reminded them of Mike Mussina. They rated him as the top pitcher available. Taking him at No. 3, and keeping him away from his Vanderbilt commitment, they signed him for $4 million–$1.5 million below slot.
Anderson has filled out and gained velocity the way smart scouts prefer: he grew into it, rather than throwing in the high 90s before the body fully matures, stressing tendons. On Wednesday he hit 96.8 mph, the fastest pitch he has thrown in his young career. There is more in that tank.
“I’m coming to expect it,” Snitker said after watching a 21-year-old rookie with six career starts throw shutout ball in a postseason clincher and do it with the calm of a jewel cutter. “I guess that’s great.”
Occasionally Snitker would take a peek down the bench between innings to see how the kid was holding up in what was another squeaky-tight game with no margin for error. He saw the usual signals from Anderson: nothing.
“I looked at him sitting there and he doesn’t look his age,” Snitker said, “like he’s out there on the sandlot playing ball.”
The next time Anderson takes the ball it will be in Houston on Wednesday against either the Cubs or Marlins in Game 2 of the NLDS. He will follow Fried again. Fried is 26, the seventh overall pick in 2012, also drafted out of high school, when he weighed 165 pounds and threw 92 mph on his good days. Homegrown, the two of them shut out the Reds over 13 playoff innings. Like McGinnity following Mathewson, they are brothers in arms–and zeroes.
An emergency declaration was made about 8.45am and encompasses the Morayfield shopping centre complex. Members of the public are urged to avoid the area.
Victoria's daily COVID-19 case tally is back in the single digits with seven new cases recorded on Friday, as health authorities identify more high-risk exposure sites linked to the Chadstone Shopping Centre outbreak.
Iconic all-you-can-eat chain Sizzler will fry its final cheese toast in November after parent company Collins Foods announced it was pulling the plug on the brand.
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An emergency declaration was made about 8.45am and encompasses the Morayfield shopping centre complex. Members of the public are urged to avoid the area.
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The online giant has for the first time revealed the number of coronavirus infections in its workforce, a disclosure sought by labour advocates who have criticised the COVID-19 response by the world's largest online retailer.
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Eight artists were given $10,000 each and told to make a five-minute film in lockdown. From one mum’s surprise tale to Western Sydney’s Spice Girls, these are their stories.
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Australia's 'technology not taxes' clean energy policy could deliver positive results but it won't drive industry take up and faces stiff international competition, experts say.
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TAIPEI - For some Hong Kong protesters, stripped of their passports and facing criminal charges, a perilous 600km sea journey to Taiwan is their only hope of escape. For Taiwan, which has promised assistance to the people of Hong Kong but is wary of antagonising China, this brings a dilemma. People began fleeing to Taiwan from the early months of the Hong Kong protests last year, mostly legally by air, sometimes by fishing boat, said activists in Taipei who have helped Hong Kong residents obtain visas. Numbering a few hundred, they included people who took part in the pro-democracy protests, as well as clergy, social workers and others who offered care and support to protesters. This year, coronavirus-related travel restrictions and China's new national security law, which was imposed on Hong Kong on June 30 and handed the police and Chinese security agents sweeping powers, have narrowed the protesters' options to leave and sharply reduced the numbers fleeing to Taiwan to a few dozen. The most desperate are taking their chances by sea.
The Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves needed four hours, 39 minutes to score one run in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. That's baseball in 2020.
A baseball game was scheduled for Truist Park in Atlanta Wednesday and a Bingo game broke out, or so it seemed if you’re the type who needs constant action. The Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves needed four hours, 39 minutes to score one run in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. Thirty-seven batters struck out—as many whiffs in one afternoon as in the entire 1990 World Series, the last time Cincinnati played in the Fall Classic.
A ball was put in play on average once every five minutes, 21 seconds, or the entire album version of Midnight Train to Georgia with another 43 seconds to spare.
And yet … let Braves starting pitcher Max Fried provide the proper clinical review of what transpired:
“It was a doozy.”
Here are the scores of the first eight postseason games this year: 4-1, 4-1, 3-1, 12-3, 3-1, 1-0, 5-1, 5-3. After a season in which batting average hit an all-time low in the DH era and walks, strikeouts and homers accounted for an all-time record 36% of all turns at-bat, you were expecting something else with seasons on the line?
Some runs will shake loose once we get to the five consecutive games in the Division Series and seven straight games in the League Championship Series. But with No. 1 and 2 starters and rested bullpens, the Wild Card Series is a swing-and-miss festival—46% of the batters Wednesday in Atlanta did not put the ball in play.
My kingdom for a single, which Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman provided in the 13th inning—Bingo!—to give Atlanta its 1-0 doozy of a win.
Freeman is a good place to start to explain what is going on. If you truly want to understand why so few balls are hit into play, you must understand Freeman’s day. He faced four pitchers in six plate appearances. Their 2020 rates of strikeouts per nine innings were 12.3, 12.1, 9.4 and 12.8. He saw 29 pitches, only eight of which were fastballs, and those rare fastballs averaged 96 miles per hour.
At one point Freeman grabbed his tablet, which is pre-loaded with information on pitchers, and compared it to radar readings he was seeing on the scoreboard.
“Everyone was throwing three or four miles per hour harder than they normally throw, even on our side,” Freeman said. “It’s postseason baseball.”
Back in the old days when the New York Yankees were winning championships, their hitters would talk about running up the pitch count of the starting pitcher to dip quickly into bullpens, exposing sinker-slider middlemen tossing 89 mph. These days you can drill down as deep as you want into the bullpen and you will not find any relief from extreme velocity and spin. Everyone has closer’s stuff. The soft-tossing sinker-slider guy is virtually extinct.
The last of eight Braves pitchers Wednesday, A. J. Minter, was throwing 98-mph fastballs and 86-mph cutters. The last of six Reds pitchers, Amir Garrett, has one of the nastiest sliders in baseball.
“That guy kills lefties,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said.
Reds manager David Bell summoned Garrett to get Freeman with runners on first and third and one out in the 13th. There was no doubt about how Garrett was going to attack Freeman: a barrage of sliders.
Here is how nasty Garrett’s slider is on left-handed hitters. Since Sept. 10, 2019, Garrett had thrown 102 sliders to lefties. Nobody got a hit off one. Not one. They were 0-for-21 against the pitch. Over the past two seasons lefties hit .084 against the Garrett slider.
Decreasing Freeman’s chances further, shadows covered the hitting area while the hitting background was bathed in sunshine on the cloudless day—the worst possible hitting environment. The ballpark lights were on but offered little help.
“You know you’ve been playing a long time,” Freeman said, “when you have a noon game and they turn the lights on.”
Bell ordered a five-man infield. Freeman looked for something even a little bit up in the zone to hit a sacrifice fly into the two-man outfield. Garrett’s fourth straight slider obliged. With an abbreviated stroke that fit the situation—just put the ball in play—Freeman served a single into centerfield for a run that was 96 batters in the making.
“This is what it’s all about in the postseason,” Freeman said. “The numbers I saw on the iPad show pitchers are throwing even harder. They have a little extra in the tank.”
The Reds’ staff led the world in strikeouts. Trevor Bauer, when he wasn’t mocking the Tomahawk chant of Braves fans or asking people to please pay attention to him (Freeman: “We noticed everything he did. That’s okay.”) was positively brilliant in how he used his variety of pitches, especially some of the nastiest breaking stuff in the game. Raisel Iglesias hit 99 mph. Michael Lorenzen was throwing 94-mph cutters.
It’s never been more difficult to be a hitter. Freeman’s day proved it, getting whipsawed from Bauer to Iglesias to Lorenzen to Garrett.
You can mock the strikeouts all you want. You can yearn for hitters who control the bat the way Tony Gwynn did. But you have to pay attention to the depth and quality of pitching, especially in the postseason, when pitchers use fewer setup pitches and rely more on their “kill” pitch.
It sounded odd to hear a 26-year-old pitcher give the game a high compliment by calling it a “doozy,” which The Farmer’s Almanac says derived from “daisy” about 100 years ago. But Fried happened to be right.
Tension can be as exhilarating as action. The game was packed with tension, especially as the Reds kept making outs on the bases when they weren’t leaving runners out there. Both pitching staffs made a tremendous amount of clutch pitches. This was an extreme version of baseball in 2020: one great arm after another keeping the ball out of play while building drama. There is more to come.
[allAfrica] Analyses by researchers at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Accord) warn that Covid-19 has provoked responses that violate human rights, slow effective responses to the pandemic and, ultimately, threaten peace.
Melbourne's Myer Christmas windows are officially back on, a month after it was announced the 65-year-old tradition had to be scrapped due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Melbourne's Myer Christmas windows are officially back on, a month after it was announced the 65-year-old tradition had to be scrapped due to COVID-19 restrictions.
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In 1963 Walter Charles Gibson received a telex at his office in the Nicholas Building, Flinders Lane. To his delight, it was an invitation from China to attend a trade fair in Beijing.
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Former Port Adelaide player Jack Watts is slated to appear in court over a car crash in Adelaide's western suburbs on Sunday, just days after announcing his retirement.
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The South African Rugby Union did not hold back in a statement confirming they would explore their options in Europe rather than take part in Super Rugby.
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NEW DELHI - India is investigating imports of copper tubes and pipes from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, to determine whether producers in these countries were receiving unfair subsidies, the government said. The investigation by India's Directorate General of Trade Remedies, the investigative arm of the commerce ministry, could result in these imports facing countervailing duties, said a government circular posted on Friday (Sept 25). The probe covers imports shipped between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020. "The Authority has also received the import data of customs of the subject goods during the past four years which indicate increased imports mainly from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam collectively account for more than 90 per cent of total imports of subject goods," the circular said. Thailand's commerce ministry said it would wait to what action India might take but expected little impact as Thai exports of such products were small.
NEW DELHI - Human rights group Amnesty International stopped its work in India on Tuesday (Sept 29) saying the government had frozen its bank accounts in the latest action against it for speaking out about rights violations. The group said it had laid off staff after facing a crackdown over the past two years over allegations of financial wrongdoing that it said were baseless. “This is latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organisations by the government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations,” Amnesty said in a statement. Its bank accounts were frozen on Sept 10, it said. Amnesty had highlighted rights violations in recent months in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region as well as what it said was a lack of police accountability during riots in Delhi in February, and the government had sought to punish it, it said. The interior ministry said human rights were no excuse for breaking the law, and that Amnesty had channelled large amounts of money to four entities in India in contravention of laws governing foreign financing. It did not name the organisations.
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI, India - A woman from the lowest rung of India’s caste system died on Tuesday weeks after authorities said she was raped by a group of men, triggering protests in New Delhi with hundreds gathering at the hospital where her body lay. Her case was the latest in a string of gruesome crimes against women in India that have given it the dismal reputation of being one of the worst places in the world to be female. Every 15 minutes on average, a woman in India is reported raped, according to 2018 government data released this year. “There is next to no protection for women. Criminals are openly committing crimes,” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a leader of the opposition Congress party, said on Twitter. The 19-year-old victim, belonging to the Dalit community, was attacked and raped Sept 14 at a field near her home in Hathras district, 100 km (62-mile) from Delhi, authorities said. Police have arrested four men in connection with the crime. On Monday, the woman was brought from a hospital in Uttar Pradesh state to New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, where she died while undergoing treatment, authorities said.
TAIPEI - Britain's charity regulator said on Tuesday (Sept 29) it was investigating a British bird conservation group that cut ties with a Taiwanese counterpart because it refused to promise in writing not to use terms that represent the island as independent of China. China has increased pressure on international groups and companies to refer to democratically ruled Taiwan as part of China rather than simply as "Taiwan" - to the anger of Taiwan's government and many of its people. According to correspondence published last week, the Cambridge-based BirdLife International was concerned that Taiwan's Chinese Wild Bird Federation, since renamed the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation (TWBF), was bent on asserting Taiwan's formal independence, contravening the UN protocols that BirdLife adheres to. The TWBF for its part has said that, as an apolitical conservation group, it cannot sign any documents about Taiwan's political status. In an e-mailed statement, Britain's Charity Commission said BirdLife itself had submitted an incident report.
Raiders players were seen on video without masks during the indoor charity event while talking with guests, who also weren’t wearing masks.
LAS VEGAS — Several Las Vegas Raiders players attended a charity event held by teammate Darren Waller that might have violated league rules for the coronavirus pandemic.
The Darren Waller Foundation held a fundraising event at a country club just outside Las Vegas on Monday to help young people overcome drug and alcohol addiction.
Players were seen on video without masks during the indoor event while talking and mingling with guests, who also weren’t wearing masks.
Among the players in attendance were quarterbacks Derek Carr and Nathan Peterman, tight ends Jason Witten and Foster Moreau, and Waller.
Rules from the NFL and NFLPA limit what players are allowed to do away from the facility this season to try to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Among the banned activities are music concerts or entertainment events, house gatherings of more than 15 people without everyone wearing masks or attending an indoor night club with more than 10 people in the club.
The Raiders, the NFL and a representative from Waller’s foundation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The event came the night before the NFL announced that the Tennessee Titans and Minnesota Vikings had to suspend in-person activities because three Titans players and five personnel tested positive for the coronavirus following a game between the teams on Sunday.
This is the latest possible infraction of the COVID-19 protocols by the Raiders early this season. A person familiar with the punishments said coach Jon Gruden was fined $100,000 and the team fined $250,000 because he failed to wear his mask properly on the sideline during a Week 2 game against the New Orleans Saints.
The team is also being investigated for allowing an unauthorized team employee in the locker room after the Saints game.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the league hadn’t made any announcement.
Gruden also said after the Saints game that he had the coronavirus in July and stressed that the team is taking it seriously.
A report by the Queensland Auditor-General this week found grants swung towards Labor-held seats in one program with inadequate record-keeping across the board.
An urgent trip to the bathroom for Tottenham's Eric Dier led to the surreal sight of the defender running off the pitch, with coach Jose Mourinho chasing after him.
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A report by the Queensland Auditor-General this week found grants swung towards Labor-held seats in one program with inadequate record-keeping across the board.
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An investigation into the impact of mental illnesses on a 2018 spike in killings committed by people with mental health issues has found had their medical situations been adequately appreciated, a more rigorous treatment approach could have been implemented that may have changed the outcome.
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Jurgen Klopp hit back at television pundit and former Manchester United captain Roy Keane on Monday after the Irishman described the Premier League champions' defending in a 3-1 win over Arsenal.
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The Bank of Queensland has increased its provision for loan impairments as it braces for higher unemployment, property price falls and a longer recession.
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MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday partial coronavirus restrictions in and around the capital region will be extended for another month until Oct. 31 to keep the spread of Covid-19 in check. The Philippines reported 3,073 new Covid-19 cases and 37 fatalities that day, taking its total count to 307,288 cases - the highest in Southeast Asia - with 5,381 deaths. Members of the government’s coronavirus task force said they could not afford to be complacent even as they would like the economy to continue to move forward. In a late-night televised address, Duterte also appealed to the country’s top telecommunication firms to “do a better job” with public schools set to reopen with virtual classes on Oct 5. Preparations for the resumption of classes have been hit by problems including access, availability and speed of data services. Duterte said in July he would not allow face-to-face classes until a vaccine becomes available.
The Bank of Queensland has increased its provision for loan impairments as it braces for higher unemployment, property price falls and a longer recession.
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The New Zealand Prime Minister has indicated that the trans-Tasman bubble could work if Australia was committed to shutting out any localised outbreaks.
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The government has clarified that the suggestion by the Minister of Tourism to reduce the quarantine period for tourists entering Thailand to seven days was yet to be considered. Currently tourists are having to spend 14 days in quarantine. Traisuree Taisaranakul, deputy government spokesperson, said that Tourism Ministrr Pipat Ratchakitprakarn's proposal to reduce quarantine for tourists to seven days was not being considered as of now, and measures to ease restrictions would be implemented only when the situation gets better. The Special Tourist Visa scheme will be discussed by a meeting of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration on September 28, chaired by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha. Dr Thira Woratanarat, from the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, expressed his concern in a Facebook post. He said global virus cases now averaged 350,000 per day, a million every three days.
Senate transport committee chairwoman,Susan McDonald, is seeking a sweeping inquiry into commercial developments around Australia's airports amid ongoing safety concerns.
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Hong Kong, September 28 (ANI): American diplomats will have to obtain approval from Beijing's Foreign Ministry then only they will be allowed to meet with the Hong Kong government officials or personn
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Washington [US], September 28 (ANI): As opposed to China's earlier claims that it does not "intend to pursue militarisation" of the Spratly Islands, Beijing has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles, exp
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