miaowang123: flubbed a backhand to waste the last of five

flubbed a backhand to waste the last of five

25 Mar 2020 at 02:09

MIAMI -- Giancarlo Stanton led the Miami Marlins to a victory with his bat and his glove. Garrett Celek Super Bowl Jersey . Stanton hit two home runs and made a spectacular diving catch in right field to help the Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 on Monday night. "He was definitely trying to take that game over not only with his bat, but with his glove," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. Stantons 13th multihomer game established a franchise career record and he tied Hanley Ramirez for second place on the clubs home run list with 148. Stanton hit a two-run homer in the first and a solo shot in the third to give him 31 on the season and five in his last five games. "Just feeling better and having better at-bats and pitch selection is a little better," Stanton said of his recent surge. Marlins starter Tom Koehler (8-9) allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings. Steve Cishek escaped the ninth to record his 30th save in 33 chances. With two outs, Cishek allowed an RBI triple by Kolten Wong and an RBI single by Matt Holliday, allowing the Cardinals to pull within 6-5. Cishek struck out Matt Adams to end the game. Jon Jay hit a two-run homer, Holliday had four hits, and Shelby Miller (8-9) allowed five runs in five innings for the Cardinals, who have lost three of four. "We had plenty of hits, they just had bigger ones," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. Stantons diving catch to his left on the warning track took a hit away from Wong in the fifth inning. "I was more trying to protect myself and slide on grass as opposed to dirt and make sure I secure it at the same time," Stanton said. The catch prompted the home crowd into giving him a standing ovation, with two homers already to his credit. "That was really cool that they appreciate things like that," Stanton said. Koehler and the Marlins also benefited from key defensive plays by Jordany Valdespin, Christian Yelich, and Adeiny Hechavarria. "I dont think Ive had that many top-notch plays in a course of a season, that was unbelievable," Koehler said. "If you watch SportsCenter tonight, theres no reason why we shouldnt have all 10 (top plays)." The Cardinals were 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position. The Marlins led 3-0 after Stantons homers, but the Cardinals tied it with three runs in the fourth. "I made some pitches, but when it came down to the best hitter on their team I threw two of the worst pitches Ive probably thrown all night," Miller said. Hechavarria and Yelich drove in runs in the bottom of the inning to put the Marlins up 5-3. TRAINERS ROOM Marlins hard-throwing right-hander Carter Capps, who has been out since May 25 with a right elbow sprain, could make his return to the team as early as September. "Hes feeling good and from what Ive heard, everything is going great, hes feeling great," Redmond said. UP NEXT Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright (14-6, 2.28) will take the mound Tuesday against Marlins right-hander Jarred Cosart (0-1, 6.75). Wainwright will be making his first start against the Marlins in four years and Cosart will be making his return to the mound after being scratched from his last start with a sore left oblique. CISHEK IN RARE COMPANY Cishek became only the third pitcher in Marlins history to record back-to-back 30-save seasons, joining Juan Carlos Oviedo (2010-11) and Robb Nenn (1996-97). JAY SHOWING POWER Jay has hit two home runs in his last three games after going homerless in his previous 93 games. The Miami native was able to hit his third homer of the season in front of a number of friends and family members in attendance. "Its always fun to come back home, but Im here trying to win some games," Jay said. Tarvarius Moore Super Bowl Jersey . Patrick Deslisle-Houde and David Rose each scored in the second to give the fourth-seeded Redmen a 3-1 lead after Jean-Philippe Mathieu scored in the first. Colin Kaepernick Super Bowl Jersey .com) - Longtime Senators star Daniel Alfredsson returned to Ottawa on Thursday to officially announce his retirement.NEW YORK -- Right from the start, Roger Federer looked very little like, well, the Roger Federer who routinely reached the final weekend at Grand Slam tournaments. In the opening game of his fourth-round match at the U.S. Open, the owner of 17 major titles got passed at the net twice, sailed a backhand long, then missed two forehands to get broken. In the second game, the man who has spent more weeks ranked No. 1 than anyone else dumped a backhand into the net, then shanked two other backhands several feet wide. No longer the dominant presence he once was, Federer lost in the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows for the first time in a decade, surprisingly beaten 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4 by 19th-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain on Monday night. "I kind of self-destructed, which is very disappointing," said Federer, who made 43 unforced errors and managed to convert only 2 of 16 break points. "It was a frustrating performance." Only the latest in a series. This caps a poor-by-his-standards Grand Slam season for Federer, whose record trophy collection includes five from the U.S. Open. He exited in the semifinals at the Australian Open in January, the quarter-finals at the French Open in early June, and the second round of Wimbledon -- against a player ranked 116th, to boot -- in late June. That ended Federers record run of reaching at least the quarter-finals at 36 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. Now, thanks to Robredo, Federer has a new, unwanted streak: Two consecutive losses before the quarter-finals at majors. This is the first season since 2002 that Federer did not reach at least one final at any of the four Grand Slam tournaments. That year also marked the last time Federer was ranked lower than he is now at No. 7. "The story of my life: When I lose, people are shell-shocked to see me play this way," Federer said. Heading into Monday, the buzz at the U.S. Open was all about looking ahead to a potential quarter-final between Federer and his nemesis, Rafael Nadal. Owners of a combined 29 Grand Slam trophies, they have played each other 31 times -- including in eight major finals -- but never in New York. Federers loss means they wont fix that gap in their rivalry this week. When Federers match was ending, the second-seeded Nadal was just getting started in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the Spaniard wound up improving to 19-0 on hard courts in 2013 with a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 victory over 22nd-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Nadal, who won the 2010 U.S. Open but missed it last year with a left knee injury, faced only one break point Monday, and Kohlschreiber blew it by putting an overhead smash into the net. Nadal has not lost any of his 56 service game so far through four matches. "I dont want to lie. Happy for that. But I felt at the beginning today, I didnt serve my best," Nadal said. "In the next sets, I am very happy the way that I served. I was able to win a lot of points and ... start a lot of points in a good position." He and Federer have met in four finals at the French Open, three at Wimbledon and one at the Australian Open, but theyve never met in any round at the U.S. Open. ";Didnt happen. (Doesnt) mean cannot happen in the future. Well see. Hopefully," the 27-year-old Nadal said. "But is true that we are getting older, so the chances are less today than five years ago." At age 32, Federer has struggled with a bad back and experimented with a larger racket head, and all along, hes had far more trouble winning matches than he usually does -- particularly against the sort of players he barely broke a sweat against at his peak. That this defeat came against Robredo made it all the more stunning. Not that Robredo is a slouch. Hes been ranked as high as No. 5, albeit back in 2006, and this is his seventh trip to the quarter-finals at a major. He made it that far at this years French Open by doing something no man had done since 1927, winning three matches in a row after dropping the first two sets of each. But consider these other facts about Robredo and this matchup: Not only wwas he 0-10 against Federer until Monday, hed managed to win only three of the 27 previous sets theyd played. Jaquiski Tartt Super Bowl Jersey. And before Monday, Robredos record in the fourth round of the U.S. Open was 0-7. Robredo missed time in 2011 and 2012 because of left leg problems that required surgery, and his ranking fell below 400th. "Roger, when he was No. 1, (compared) to the Roger right now," Robredo said, "hes not maybe (playing) with the same confidence, no?" Federer agreed with that assessment, acknowledging that he has doubts about his play these days. He also was asked whether Robredo -- who is 0-6 against Nadal -- tried anything different this time around. "No, he didnt. Pretty simple. No surprises," Federer said. "He didnt serve-and-volley or chip-and-charge. He stood back the way he usually does. He kick-served the way he usually does." Fans tried to get Federer going, singing, "Lets go, Roger, lets go!" or simply chanting his name. He even got support in Spanish, with one fan yelling, "Vamos, Roger! Youre the best!" Heres the way Robredo described the atmosphere: When he walked out onto the court before the match, "it was like 2 per cent of noise," while when Federer arrived at Louis Armstrong Stadium, it sounded "like a concert." Federer originally was supposed to face Robredo in Ashe -- the main, 23,000-capacity court -- but hours of heavy rain in the afternoon muddled the schedule, including prompting the tournament to postpone two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenkas match against 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic until Tuesday. In the three womens matches that were played Monday, No. 10 Roberta Vinci and unseeded Flavia Pennetta set up an all-Italian quarter-final with victories. Vinci beat yet another woman from Italy, 136th-ranked qualifier Camila Giorgi, 6-4, 6-2, while Pennetta defeated No. 21 Simona Halep of Romania 6-2, 7-6 (3). Azarenka or Ivanovic will face Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, who got past American wild-card entry Alison Riske, a 23-year-old who grew up in Pittsburgh, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. In mens action, No. 4 David Ferrer of Spain, the runner-up to Nadal at the French Open this year, moved on by beating No. 18 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3). In the quarter-finals, Ferrer will play No. 8 Richard Gasquet, who entered the day 1-15 in fourth-round Grand Slam matches but erased a match point and withstood 39 aces from No. 10 Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., to win 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (9), 7-5 on Court 17. A long line of fans snaked across the grounds when Federer-Robredo was moved from Ashe to much smaller Armstrong, which holds about 10,000 spectators and has a lot less room separating the playing surface from the stands. Federer, accustomed to playing in Ashe, last competed in Armstrong in 2006. He said that was not a factor in Mondays outcome, though. The blame, instead, belonged with his inability to hit his strokes the way he wanted. Federer was particularly ineffective when he had chances on Robredos serve. Time and again, Federer would get an opening, a chance to begin the long climb back into the match. And he kept letting those opportunities slip by. "We all know the way he plays, how easy he can do everything," Robredo said. "But I think the difference today was the break points conversion." Thats true. Robredo went 4 for 7; Federers poor play on break chances included 0 for 12 in the last two sets. Soaked with perspiration, Federer flubbed a backhand to waste the last of five break points he had in the fourth game of what turned out to be the final set. He kicked the offending ball, a rare sign of frustration from the generally unflappable Federer. Well, unflappable against pretty much anyone other than Nadal, that is. "Ive definitely got to go back to work and come back stronger. Get rid of this loss now as quick as I can, forget about it, because thats not how I want to play from here on," Federer said. "I want to play better. I know I can." ' ' '



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