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The Washington Nationals show occasional signs of getting it all together, even if those moments come too late in the season.
The Atlanta Braves (97-55), meanwhile, need to crank it up again or risk losing some of their edge entering the playoffs.
The teams will begin a four-game series Thursday night in Washington, D.C.
The Nationals (68-85) smacked the Chicago White Sox 13-3 on Wednesday to finish with two wins in the three-games series.
While the results have been wavering, Nationals manager Dave Martinez hopes the blowout will boost his team’s morale entering the last 1 1/2 weeks of the season.
“It’s good to let guys relax and let them play,” Martinez said.
Washington’s Lane Thomas, who hit a grand slam on Wednesday, believes the Nationals are maintaining the right approach.
“I’m proud of us as a team,” he said. “I think we need to play the way we have played post-All-Star break.”
The Nationals are glad to see first baseman Dominic Smith finally displaying his power. He has homered in two of the past three games, giving him 11 long balls for the year.
“He’s starting to drive the ball a lot better,” Martinez said. “He has worked all year to try to get that swing. I’m glad it’s working out for him right now.”
The National League East champion Braves have lost five of their past six games after falling 6-5 in 10 innings to the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
The set in Washington will comprise the final regular-season road games for the Braves, who have been less than sharp since clinching the division.
Atlanta began the season by taking two of three games in the nation’s capital.
“The season flies by,” Braves catcher Sean Murphy said. “It just feels like we were leaving in March for Washington, and now our last trip is Washington.”
There is still something at stake for the Braves — they are attempting to wrap up home-field advantage throughout the postseason.
“We’re just going out and trying to win every game we play pretty much,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re in the playoffs. We got a bye. I think you’ve still got to go out and win games regardless of where you’re at.”
Max Fried (7-1, 2.64 ERA) will start for Atlanta in the series opener. The left-hander has won all five of his decisions in eight starts since returning from the injured list in early August. In September, he is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts.
Fried hasn’t faced the Nationals since Opening Day, when he allowed one run in 3 1/3 innings. In his career, he is 6-4 with 4.44 ERA against Washington in 16 outings, including 15 starts.
The Nationals have right-hander Jake Irvin (3-6, 4.34) lined up as their starting pitcher. It has been two months since he registered a victory, as he is 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA in his past nine starts.
The rookie was sharp against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 9, yielding just one run in six innings in a no-decision, but he struggled his last time out. Irvin gave up four runs and walked five in 4 2/3 innings during a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.
A week ago, the Toronto Blue Jays reached a low point in the midst of getting swept in a four-game home series against the Texas Rangers.
Now things are trending better for the Blue Jays, who hope to get some more clarity on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s right knee discomfort on Thursday before attempting to sweep the host New York Yankees.
Since being outscored 35-9 by Texas last week, Toronto has won five straight for the first time since winning a season-best six in a row in late April. The Blue Jays followed up a three-game home sweep of the Boston Red Sox by outscoring the Yankees 13-2 in the first two games.
After opening the series with a 7-1 win, the Blue Jays scratched Guerrero shortly before recording a 6-1 victory on Wednesday. Guerrero underwent an MRI exam shortly before Kevin Gausman struck out 10 in six scoreless innings and Bo Bichette had a pair of RBI singles for Toronto.
“Coming off the worst series of the year and then sweeping Boston and obviously coming here and winning the first two, it’s been night and day demeanor-wise, clubhouse energy,” Gausman said. “It’s just we had a really bad four days and you could really feel that.
“So to have three really good days in a row after that was huge and kind of put all that on the backburner, and it’s kind of like, ‘Listen, what we did against those teams that we’re chasing or that are chasing us, we have no say on them anymore.’ ”
Toronto is 17-8 in the Bronx since the start of the 2021 season, including a four-game sweep in September 2021. The Blue Jays (85-67) enter Thursday with a one-game lead over the Rangers (84-68) and Mariners (84-68) for the second of three American League wild cards. Texas and Seattle are idle Thursday before starting a three-game, head-to-head series on Friday in Arlington, Texas.
New York (76-76) is riding a three-game losing streak. Since winning 14 of 19 games, the Yankees have scored just four runs in the past three contests. On Wednesday, they were held to one run or fewer for the 28th time, and they have struck out 26 times over the first two games of the series.
Gerrit Cole (13-4, 2.81 ERA) will make his final home start of the season on Thursday as he attempts to enhance his AL Cy Young Award credentials. Cole is coming off consecutive no-decisions. He allowed two runs in five innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday after tossing seven scoreless innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 10.
“I know he’s had an awesome year and I would imagine clearly the front-runner,” New York manager Aaron Boone said of Cole’s Cy Young candidacy.
Since allowing six runs in four innings on Aug. 19 against the Boston Red Sox, Cole is 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA over his past five starts. He has allowed two runs or fewer in 24 starts this year, joining Jack Chesbro (28 in 1904) and Ron Guidry (26 in 1978) as the only pitchers in team history to allow two runs or fewer in at least 24 starts during a season.
Cole is 6-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 14 career starts against Toronto. In two no-decisions against them this year on April 22 and May 17, the right-hander pitched 11 2/3 scoreless innings.
Jose Berrios (11-10, 3.49 ERA) will get the ball for Toronto, attempting to match his win total from last season, when he posted a 5.23 ERA. Berrios will look to win a third straight start for the first time this year after allowing a combined two runs on 10 hits and two walks with 15 strikeouts in 14 innings against the Kansas City Royals and Boston.
Berrios is 3-5 with a 5.01 ERA in 10 career starts against the Yankees. He lost to New York on May 18 after giving up three runs in 6 2/3 innings.
Over the past few days, a lot of pharmacies in and around the Kansas City metro area have been temporarily closed. The pharmacists are protesting by leaving their jobs because they believe they are not receiving enough staff support. Patient safety is at risk when staff support is insufficient. The workplace at CVS has allegedly turned into “a dangerous environment,” and the company’s clients deserve better, according to one employee.
A number of Target sites, including those on Ward Parkway, Stadium Parkway, and Chipman Road in Kansas City, have closed their CVS pharmacies.
Pharmacists across 22 CVS pharmacy (CVS) branches situated in eastern Kansas and western Missouri have taken action by calling in sick on both Thursday and Friday. Their collective decision to protest is in response to recent corporate choices they believe endanger both the staff and patients. The majority of these walkouts had a direct impact on CVS outlets located within Target retail stores.
The pharmacists who initiated this walkout are expressing their concerns about CVS’s recent decisions to reduce technician and pharmacy hours. They argue that these decisions are negatively affecting their capacity to adequately fill and verify prescriptions, potentially placing patients in jeopardy.
One employee cited an example, revealing that the CVS location where they were employed remained operational for 64 hours each week, but they were only permitted assistance from a technician for a mere twenty of those hours.
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Another pharmacist, speaking to USA Today, disclosed their inability to handle the mounting backlog of prescriptions and the long queue of individuals awaiting prescriptions and vaccines due to the staffing and hour cuts.
This walkout in the Kansas City region occurs against the backdrop of a prolonged history of complaints by retail pharmacists regarding staffing levels and the mounting pressure to meet performance targets.
“We have communicated to corporate, and there has been zero response,” another CVS pharmacist told USA Today.2 “They have not talked to us yet.”
“The workload is so heavy and the number of staff they allot us is so low that I’m unable to go to the bathroom during my 10-hour shift,” a pharmacist told USA Today. “I’m expected to fill all these prescriptions by myself and counsel all these patients by myself and do all the vaccines by myself so that I’m unable to go to the bathroom and I’m unable to keep my patients safe.”
The American Pharmacist Association is in support of the walkout and has made a statement. The Pharmacy Workplace and Well-Being Reporting (PWWR) data submitted by pharmacists to date indicates that employers and pharmacists are not engaging in sufficient dialogue.
American Public Health Association (APhA) calls upon employers to engage in better communication with pharmacists to find solutions that will accelerate innovations and improvements in the dispensing and care process.
In two distinct court appearances held on Tuesday, Jesus Ayala, aged 18, and Jzamir Keys, aged 16, faced arraignment. Both teenagers are facing serious charges, including assault involving a deadly weapon, attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, and homicide involving a deadly weapon.
The tragic incident occurred on August 14th when 64-year-old Andreas Probst, are retired police officer of city of Bell, California, father, and grandfather was cycling, only to be struck from behind by a car. The investigation quickly led to the identification of Ayala as the driver, while Keys eluded capture for a month before being apprehended by detectives.
Both have been accused of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, murder with a deadly weapon, and battery with a dangerous weapon. In addition to being suspected of leaving the scene of the accident and possessing a stolen car, Ayala is also accused of driving a stolen Hyundai Electra during Probst’s alleged hit-and-run. According to police, Keys was operating the vehicle during the initial hit-and-run, and while a passenger, she caught on camera the collision that killed Probst.
Both are being tried as adults, according to the prosecution.
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For the first time since 2019, congressional gridlock is poised to at least temporarily shut down big parts of the federal government — including many health programs. If it happens, some government functions would stop completely and some in part, while others wouldn’t be immediately affected — including Medicare, Medicaid, and health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. But a shutdown could complicate the lives of everyone who interacts with any federal health program, as well as the people who work at the agencies administering them. Here are five things to know about the potential impact to health programs: 1. Not all federal health spending is the same.
“Mandatory” spending programs, like Medicare, have permanent funding and don’t need Congress to act periodically to keep them running. But the Department of Health and Human Services is full of “discretionary” programs — including at the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, community health centers, and HIV/AIDS initiatives — that must be specifically funded by Congress through annual appropriations bills.
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The appropriations bills (there are 12 of them, each covering various departments and agencies) are supposed to be passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president before the start of the federal fiscal year, Oct. 1. This almost never happens. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, Congress has passed all the appropriations bills in time for the start of the fiscal year only four times since the modern budget process was adopted in the 1970s; the last time was in 1997.
Congress usually keeps the lights on for the government by passing short-term funding bills, known as “continuing resolutions,” or CRs, until lawmakers can resolve their differences on longer-term spending.
This year, however, a handful of conservative Republicans in the House have said they won’t vote for any CR, in an attempt to force deeper spending cuts than those agreed to this spring in a bipartisan bill to raise the nation’s borrowing authority. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his allies could join with Democrats to keep the government running, but that would almost certainly cost McCarthy his speakership. Several of the rebellious conservatives are already threatening to force a vote to oust him.
2. The Biden administration decides what stays open.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is responsible for drawing up contingency plans in case of a government shutdown and publishes one for each federal department. The plan for Health and Human Services estimates that 42% of its staff would be furloughed in a shutdown and 58% retained.
The general rule is that two types of activities may continue absent annual spending authority from Congress. One is activities needed “for safety of human life or the protection of property.” At HHS, that would include caring for patients at the hospital on the campus of the National Institutes of Health — though new patients generally would not be admitted — as well as the agency’s laboratory animals, and CDC investigations of disease outbreaks.
Other activities that may continue are those with funding sources that aren’t dependent on annual appropriations. Medicare and Social Security, for example, are entitlements funded by taxes and premiums. Drug approvals at the FDA are largely funded by user fees paid by drugmakers, so approvals in process could continue, but questions remain about whether new approval processes could start.
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Also unaffected are programs that have been funded in advance by Congress. For example, the Indian Health Service is already funded through the 2024 fiscal year.
3. What happens to enrollment in Medicare and Affordable Care Act plans?
It depends on how long the shutdown lasts. In the short term, mandatory spending programs would be mostly, but not completely, unaffected by a government shutdown. Benefits would continue under programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, and doctors and hospitals could continue to submit bills and get paid. But federal staffers not considered “essential” would be furloughed.
That means initial Medicare enrollment could be temporarily stopped. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent group that tracks federal spending, during the 1995-96 federal shutdown, “more than 10,000 Medicare applicants were temporarily turned away every day of the shutdown.”
A shutdown shouldn’t much affect Medicare’s annual open enrollment period, which starts Oct. 15 and allows current beneficiaries to join or change private Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plans. That’s because much of the funding to help seniors and other beneficiaries choose or change Medicare health plans has already been allocated.
Rebecca Kinney, who runs the HHS office that oversees the federal program that counsels Medicare beneficiaries about their myriad choices, said Sept. 22 that funding for both the 1-800-MEDICARE hotline and federally funded state counseling agencies has already been distributed for this year, so neither would be affected, at least in the short run.
The same is true for Affordable Care Act plans, which open for enrollment Nov. 1. The HHS contingency documents say the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the federal health exchange, healthcare.gov, “will continue Federal Exchange activities, such as eligibility verification,” using fees paid by insurers left over from the previous year.
Still, about half of CMS staffers would be furloughed in a shutdown. That could complicate a lot of other activities there, starting with drug price negotiations set to begin Oct. 1. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters at the White House last week that a shutdown would likely push back the timeline for negotiations.
A shutdown would also threaten HHS oversight of the Medicaid “unwinding” process, as states reevaluate the eligibility of those enrolled in the program for low-income people. State workers would be unaffected, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, so eligibility reviews would continue regardless. But because of federal furloughs, “technical assistance to help states address unwinding problems and adopt mitigation strategies could cease,” wrote the center’s Kelly Whitener and Edwin Park. “Efforts to determine if there are further renewal processes that are out of compliance with federal requirements could be limited or ended.”
4. What if the shutdown is prolonged?
More programs could be affected. For example, the HHS shutdown contingency document says that “CMS will have sufficient funding for Medicaid to fund the first quarter” of fiscal year 2024. The government has never been shut down long enough to know what would happen after that. The 2013 shutdown, which included HHS, lasted just over two weeks. Most of the agency wasn’t affected by the 2018-19 shutdown because its annual appropriations bill had already been signed into law. (The FDA is funded under the appropriations bill that covers the Agriculture Department rather than the one that funds HHS.)
5. Do federal employees get paid during a shutdown?
It depends. Employees whose programs are funded continue to work and be paid. Those considered “essential” but whose programs are not funded would continue to work, but they wouldn’t get paid until after the shutdown ends. A 2019 law now requires federal workers to get back pay when funding resumes, which was not always the case. However, federal contractors, including those who work in food service or maintenance jobs, have no such guarantee.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.Julie Rovner, KFF Health News
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Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland held off Japanese qualifier Mai Hontama 6-4, 7-5 on Wednesday and advanced to the quarterfinals at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
Swiatek rallied from 4-1 down in the first set and squandered a 5-1 lead in the second set before prevailing in just over two hours. Up next is No. 8 seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, who defeated Kayla Day 6-3, 6-3 in second-round action at the WTA 500 event.
No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula saved both break points and won 86 percent of the points on her first serve (18 of 21) in an efficient 6-1, 6-2 win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa. Defending champion and No. 7 seed Liudmila Samsonova fell in straight sets to fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, 6-4, 6-2.
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No. 1 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia eased into the quarterfinals in Ningbo, China, with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch.
Jabeur never lost her serve in the 84-minute match and advanced to face Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, who was leading Clara Tauson 6-4, 1-0 when the Dane was forced to retire.
Two Czech players pulled off second-round upsets. Katerina Siniakova knocked out No. 3 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 7-5, and Linda Fruhvirtova outlasted No. 4 Anna Blinkova of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Other winners were No. 8 Lucia Bronzetti of Italy and Nadia Podoroska of Argentina.
Wild card Alexander Shevchenko of Russia defeated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Astana Open on Wednesday in Kazakhstan.
Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic, another wild-card entry, was leading countryman and No. 7 seed Laslo Djere 6-3, 2-1 when Djere was forced to retire.
Nuno Borges of Portugal rallied for a 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory against wild card and home favorite Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands is the ATP 250 event’s No. 1 seed. Novak Djokovic of Serbia is the defending champion but is not in this year’s field.
Calgary Flames assistant general manager Chris Snow has taken a turn for the worse in his public battle with ALS.
Snow was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, four years ago. On Wednesday, his wife announced that he went into cardiac arrest a day earlier.
“With a shattered heart I’ve come to share that yesterday Chris became unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest,” Kelsie Snow posted to social media. “Paramedics and doctors were able to get his heart beating again but, devastatingly, a scan showed Chris has suffered a catastrophic brain injury caused by lack of oxygen. His doctors do not expect him to wake up from this.”
At the time of his diagnosis, doctors gave Snow, now 42, one year to live.
Boston.com, in an article earlier this year about Snow, said that his father, two uncles and a cousin all died of ALS, with a specific mutation running through the family.
He continued to work for the Flames this year, despite increasing challenges with his health and time spent in the hospital.
A former sportswriter, Snow transitioned to the NHL years ago. He was the director of hockey operations for the Minnesota Wild from 2006-10, then joined the Flames as director of hockey analysis in 2011. He was promoted to assistant general manager in September 2019.
Kelsie Snow, who shares two children with Chris, ended her post on a personal and emotional note.
“My chest feels cracked open and hollowed out,” she wrote. “Chris is the most beautiful, brilliant person I’ll ever know and doing life without him feels untenable. Hug your people.”
Cory Schneider, who played parts of 13 NHL seasons as a goaltender primarily with the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks, announced his retirement from the league on Tuesday.
Schneider, 37, last played in the NHL during the 2021-22 campaign and was not signed to a team ahead of the new season.
“I’m at peace with it,” Schneider told the Salem News in his native Massachusetts. “I’ll miss my teammates and the intensity of playing, but it’s the right time for me.”
Schneider was a first-round draft pick (No. 26 overall) by the Canucks in 2004 and played for them from 2008-13. He and Roberto Luongo teamed up to win the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2010-11 for the best team goals-against average in the league.
Schneider played 311 of his 410 career games for New Jersey from 2013-20 and was an NHL All-Star in 2016. He appeared in one game for the New York Islanders in 2021-22 amid late-career injuries, making 27 saves to help the Isles beat the Devils.
Schneider retires with a 171-159-58 record and 10,568 saves over his NHL career, with a .918 save percentage and a 2.43 GAA. He ranks second to Martin Brodeur in Devils history in games played, saves (8,023) and shutouts (17).
Sean Couturier will skate in a game for the first time in 20 months on Monday.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ forward had back surgery twice since 2021 and last played a game in December of that year. The 30-year-old said he feels “pretty good” since training camp began, but knows there’s a bit of rust to shake in the coming weeks.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a while,” Couturier said Monday, before the Flyers faced the New Jersey Devils in the preseason opener.
“All summer I’ve been thinking about it and now I’m here. I’m just excited to get warmups going and get that first shift out of the way, just play hockey. I think that’s what I miss most.”
The Selke Trophy winner as the best defensive forward in the NHL in 2019-20, Couturier is penciled in for the top line this season. He’s a two-time 30-goal scorer and, along with Cam Atkinson, brings firepower to the Flyers the team missed last season.
Atkinson sat out the 2023-23 season with a herniated disk in his neck. He was held out of the preseason game after reporting lower-body soreness unrelated to his neck injury.
“It can get physical at times in these exhibition games. It’s a good test. I’m not scared of it and I’m looking forward to it,” Couturier said.
