As compensation for losing his job as a closer
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Herrera joined the Washington Nationals on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after being traded from the last-place Kansas City Royals for three minor leaguers.
A two-time All-Star, Herrera had 14 saves and a 1.05 ERA this season. Washington already has a closer, Sean Doolittle, so Herrera will be entering the game earlier than usual for now.
”I explained it to him and I think he gets it,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. ”The way I explain it to all these guys is, `When you come in the game think of it as you’re closing that inning, cause that’s a big moment. So we need you either the sixth, the seventh, the eighth
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That’s just fine with Herrera.
”Whatever inning I may get called upon, I just focus on getting that one hitter out,” the right-hander said through an interpreter.
With 14 saves and one win, Herrera had a hand in more than two-thirds of Kansas City’s 22 victories this season. But the Royals were going nowhere, which is precisely why they dished off their best reliever for a trio of prospects: 21-year-old outfielder Blake Perkins, 23-year-old infielder Kelvin Gutierrez and 17-year-old pitcher Yohanse Morel.
Herrera won a World Series ring with Kansas City in 2015. Now he’s got a shot at earning one with the Nationals, who started the day 3 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East.
”The one thing I have seen about this team for the past few years is they’re always in the battle and the fight for the playoffs,” Herrera said. ”There is great chemistry here. I’m just ready to join the team and help any way I can.”
There will likely come a time when Herrera is asked to do what he does best, which is to get the final out in a tight game.
”I did tell him that Doolittle is our closer and he’s been very good at it, but you’ll get a chance to close every now and then
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Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo made the deal because he knows you can’t have too many good pitchers working the back end of a ballgame.
”We wanted a guy who had been through the wars before, that’s established and that was pitching extremely well,” Rizzo said. ”Kelvin fit all those criteria.”
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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — It was 8,015 days between playoff wins in Winnipeg and the city’s rabid fan base is hoping they’ll only have to wait 48 hours for the next one.
The Jets defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Wednesday night, earning their first win in franchise history and a 1-0 series lead. The two teams will be back at it on Friday night at Bell MTS Place.
The last time Winnipeg hockey fans witnessed a home victory was a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at the old Winnipeg Arena on April 21, 1996. The Jets lost that first-round series 4-2 and then packed up for the Arizona desert, where they were reborn as the Phoenix Coyotes.
Wednesday’s tilt was a predictably physical affair, with 70 hits being thrown, nearly double the average of 39 from the teams’ regular-season games. The biggest
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Some of them also wore white face paint while others were decked out with white hair extensions or wigs, but whatever their accessories, they successfully re-enacted the “White Out,” which first gained popularity back in the mid-1980s with the original franchise.
Jets captain Blake Wheeler said in a press scrum after practice on Thursday that it wasn’t surprising that bad blood would be spilled so early in the series. Wheeler, of course, fought his own teammate
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“That’s kind of the way it looks in the playoffs. The first period’s a bit helter-skelter and guys are laying the wood a little bit. The second period was more physical. Buff had a huge hit. They had some guys make some big hits. That’s the way it’s going to be,” Wheeler said.
The recipient of several of those hits, Winnipeg forward Mathieu Perreault left the game in the second period and will be a game-time decision Friday for coach Paul Maurice.
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, who guided the Anaheim Ducks to a four-game sweep of the Jets in 2015, said with Devan Dubnyk withstanding a barrage of rubber in net, they had a chance to win when they took a brief 2-1 lead early in the third period.
“You can’t give 29 (Patrik Laine) a chance right down the slot to score on a turnover. You’re looking for disaster there,” Boudreau told a media scrum. “He deked our player, we didn’t hold the middle and he got to come right down Main Street. And when he does that, he’s shooting the puck. When he shoots the puck
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If Perreault is unable to answer the bell, it’s expected rookie Jack Roslovic will step into the lineup.
Winnipeg will also be without defensemen Toby Enstrom, Dmitry Kulikov and center Matt Hendricks.
The biggest name in the Wild’s sick bay is workhorse defenseman Ryan Suter, who is out indefinitely with a broken fibula.
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