WASHINGTON -- At 11:24 p.m. on Tuesday, less than half an hour after Trent Grisham committed the error that cost the Milwaukee Brewers their season, the man he replaced approached his locker in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park. Christian Yelich, the reigning National League MVP, slapped Grisham on the shoulder with his right hand, leaned in, gave him a hug and whispered words of solace into his ear.

Grisham, the rookie who took over right field for the Brewers after Yelich suffered a season-ending kneecap fracture, nodded silently. As much as he appreciated the gesture, it couldn't lessen the pain of what had happened.

The Brewers were barreling toward a National League Division Series showdown against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then after ace reliever Josh Hader loaded the bases, Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto ripped a single to right field that took a sideways hop, skipped past Grisham, cleared the bases and propelled the Nationals to a 4-3 victory in the NL wild-card game.

Grisham was crestfallen. A season that had begun at Double-A and continued with him leading off for the Brewers in his first playoff game ended in one of the cruelest possible fashions, with Grisham wondering what could've been, what should've been.

"It's going to sting. It's going to sting for a long time," Grisham said. "Essentially gifting the Nationals a divisional berth. It's going to hurt. And I expect it to hurt when I debrief and go into the offseason."

The 22-year-old, a first-round pick in 2015, had distinguished himself with a combination of power, patience and solid defense since his Aug. 1 debut. While the game-tying run was likely to score on Soto's single, the go-ahead run in Anthony Rendon easily came home as Grisham scurried to chase the ball that had gone by him.

"That's part of playing in these games," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "And it's disappointing, and I'm sure Trent is disappointed. But for all these guys, Trent's why we're here. Trent got us here. Big part of getting us here. The inning was an ugly inning. Crazy things happen."

Grisham faulted himself for his approach on the play. He charged the ball too quickly, he said, and didn't break down to get into position to field it. When the ball hit the ground, it took a slight leftward hop past the glove of the left-handed Grisham.

"At the end of the game, when getting down to six, five, four outs to go, of course you feel all that pressure," he said. "It's exciting. You want to live in those moments and live up to those expectations.

"I don't think it got to me at all. I just ended up making an error. It's not my first. It's not going to be my last. It just happened that way."

In the clubhouse after the game, teammates streamed to Grisham's locker to console him and thank him for his work in 2019. From Sept. 6-26, the Brewers won 18 of 20 games, including 13 of 15 without Yelich, to leapfrog the Chicago Cubs and secure the second wild-card slot.

"These baseball seasons are sacred," Counsell said. "You think that you don't get many of them, and you don't get many chances like this. And I'm so proud of the way we battled and the urgency that we played with and how together we became, better than anybody thought we could be."

On Tuesday, they weren't good enough to beat the Nationals, something Grisham will take into the winter as he prepares for his first full season in the major leagues.

"It hurt. It wasn't ideal. It's not how you want your first playoff game to go," he said. "We expected to win. There's all kinds of thoughts and emotions running through your head. It just kind of stings right now."

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It doesn't usually happen like this. October is the month in which misfortune attaches itself to the Washington Nationals. They are the ones who lose in the postseason in excruciating fashion. Games like Tuesday's National League wild-card barnburner happen to them, not in their favor.

Maybe, then, this is a different Nationals team. All it took was a hit by pitch, a broken-bat single, a walk, a single and a timely error by the Milwaukee Brewers, all in the eighth inning, to erase a two-run deficit and send the Nationals to the division series with a 4-3 victory in front of 42,993 at Nationals Park. They advance to face the Los Angeles Dodgers, with left-hander Patrick Corbin expected to start Game 1 on Thursday.

For seven innings, the Nationals' offense was inert against the Brewers' stalwart pitching. When Milwaukee closer Josh Hader entered for a two-inning save in the eighth inning, it looked as if more of the same would come.

Then pinch hitter Michael A. Taylor reached on a controversial hit by pitch that looked as though it might have hit his bat before his wrist; pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman poked a single into center as his bat shattered; Anthony Rendon drew a full-count walk; and 20-year-old Juan Soto stepped to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded.

Soto ripped a single into right field that was certain to score two runs. Rookie right fielder Trent Grisham -- in for injured reigning MVP Christian Yelich -- charged the ball and missed it. Rendon hustled home, staking the Nationals a 4-3 lead.

Daniel Hudson, acquired in a trade-deadline deal, secured the final three outs and locked down the win for the Nationals and Stephen Strasburg, who had come on for three brilliant innings of relief.

For the fifth time in eight seasons, the Nationals earned a playoff berth. The previous four times they had lost in the division series after winning the NL East. Their first wild-card game didn't exactly start as desired, either.

Only seven pitches into the game, the Brewers took a 2-0 lead on a Yasmani Grandal line-drive home run to right field off Max Scherzer. They tacked on another run the next inning when Eric Thames homered to center.

The Nationals answered back in the third, when Trea Turner pummeled a 98 mph fastball from Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff into the Milwaukee bullpen in left-center field. It was the closest Washington would come all night to hitting the Brewers' relief pitchers -- until the eighth.

Soft-tossing left-hander Brent Suter worked out of a two-on jam on the fifth inning. Lefty Drew Pomeranz, acquired at the trade deadline, worked a pair of scoreless innings. On came Hader, hoping to send the Brewers to Los Angeles for a rematch of last season's NL Championship Series.

Instead, it was the Nationals -- finally the Nationals -- doing the celebrating.

One of the most interesting people in motorsports took some time to share stories and insight on The Ralph Sheheen Show Presented by Lucas Oil. Danny Sullivan, the 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner, has had a fascinating open-wheel racing career ranging from Formula One to IndyCar with a lot in between. And it all began as a taxi driver on the streets of New York City. Now that’s a unique path to the Tyrrell Formula One team and Penske Racing!

Catch this week’s full episode on SPEEDSPORT.com or download the podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, iHeart Radio or Spotify.

LAS VEGAS – The PGA Tour returns to Las Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, where Bryson DeChambeau will look to defend his title against the strongest field of the fall slate. Here are marquee groupings for this week at TPC Summerlin.

7:10 a.m. Thursday, 12 p.m. Friday: Kevin Na, Phil Mickelson, Tony Finau

The Las Vegas stop was a fixture on Mickelson’s schedule in the 1990s and early 2000s, but he’s been away for 14 years. He’ll make his first start since 2005 as he looks to bounce back from a missed cut in Napa and make a late case for a Presidents Cup pick. Finau is making his sixth straight start in the desert and is likewise looking to impress captain Tiger Woods in his season debut. Na won this event in 2011 and lost in a seven-way playoff in 2015 but has otherwise missed the cut or withdrawn in four of his last five trips to Summerlin. 

7:20 a.m. Thursday, 12:10 p.m. Friday: Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland, Adam Scott

World No. 1 Koepka is making his season debut and returns to the Shriners after two years away. From 2013-2016, he recorded a runner-up, a tie for fourth and two missed cuts. The reigning U.S. Open champ Woodland was T-18 and T-10 in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and rounded out last year’s event with a final-round 63. Scott spent his brief college career at nearby UNLV and is playing this event for the first time.

12 p.m. Thursday, 7:10 a.m. Friday: Joaquin Niemann, Matthew Wolff, Collin Morikawa

A trio of newly minted PGA Tour winners all aged 22 or younger. Wolff took last season’s 3M Open, Morikawa the Barracuda, and Niemann this season’s Sanderson Farms. All three players managed to wrap up full-time status on Tour in limited starts as non-members, with Niemann doing so via points in 2017-18. Wolff is making his season debut, which Morikawa got out of the way last week with a top-10 in Napa. 

12:10 p.m. Thursday, 7:20 a.m. Friday: Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Webb Simpson

A collection of three past champions and the last two winners here at Summerlin. DeChambeau edged Cantlay last year thanks in large part to a late eagle at the par-5 16^th. He was the only player keeping Cantlay from a successful defense of his maiden PGA Tour victory, which he earned in a wind-swept playoff with Alex Cejka and Whee Kim back in 2017. Simpson rolled to a six-shot victory and a 24-under total back in 2013.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino said his side must "stay all together" following their 7-2 shock defeat to Bayern Munich in Champions League group stage action.

The disastrous result at Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Tuesday night was the club's worst home defeat in European action, thanks in part to Serge Gnabry's four-goal performance.

- Spurs ratings: Defensive woes exposed in Bayern beating

Runners-up in last season's final, Spurs looked a shell of themselves as the five-time European champions put on a clinic behind Gnarby's big night and Robert Lewandowski's brace.

LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino called for "calm" after his Tottenham Hotspur team had just suffered the club's biggest-ever home defeat by losing 7-2 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday.

After such a brutal humiliation, which resulted in the stadium being virtually empty but for the celebrating Bayern fans at the final whistle, Pochettino had two options, and he chose the diplomatic one rather than allowing his frustrations to boil over after perhaps the worst 90 minutes of his managerial career.

Spurs had allowed Bayern to take 20 shots at goals, scoring seven of them, and they ended up with the heaviest-ever home defeat by an English club in European competition. And just to cap a horrible night for Tottenham, Serge Gnabry -- a player who scored just once in 18 appearances for North London rivals Arsenal during an unproductive five-year spell at the Emirates -- truly rubbed their noses in it by scoring four for Bayern.

Little wonder, then, that Pochettino attempted to lower the temperature after the game by insisting that it was no time for recriminations and finger pointing.

"It's a moment to stick together," he told the assembled media. "We cannot talk now, not today. We must be calm.

- Player ratings: Spurs defence crumbles vs. Bayern
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"We know how we feel, it's very disappointing, so the feelings are not so good. We are not going to fix anything by shouting. We must stay calm."

Just four months ago, Pochettino's team were contesting the Champions League final against Liverpool in Madrid. They lost that night, but being there was an achievement in itself and it also provided justification for the Argentine's approach and his determination to focus on the biggest competitions rather than drain his squad's resources on the domestic cups in England.

It was a tangible sign of progress and that Pochettino was taking Spurs down the right path. But since losing to Liverpool in the Wanda Metropolitano, little has gone right for Pochettino and his team, and this dismantling at the hands of Bayern was a brutal reality check.

Since the start of this season, Spurs have won three, lost three and drawn four, scoring 18 goals and conceding the same number at the other end.

But the malaise goes beyond the start of this campaign and the defeat against Liverpool, with Tottenham suffering a miserable calendar year so far that would look far worse but for the run to the Champions League final. Pochettino's players have won 17 and lost 16 of their 39 games in all competitions in 2019, scoring 62 and conceding 49, so they are not performing like a team on an upward trajectory.

Spurs are in a tailspin and Pochettino may no longer be the man to pull them out of it. And having repeatedly been evasive and vague on his future at the club, perhaps he no longer possesses a burning desire to be the man to do it.

Bayern were good, make no mistake. Robert Lewandowski gave a centre-forward's masterclass, scoring twice to move level with Ruud van Nistelrooy on 56 goals as the Champions League's fifth-highest all-time goal scorer, while Gnabry played the tormentor.

But it is difficult to gauge just how impressive Bayern were, simply because Spurs were so bad. Pochettino's team was too open and the manager failed to correct that flaw, choosing to chase the game with attackers rather than settle on damage limitation when the roof began to cave in during the final 10 minutes. His team selection was also up for debate again, with Christian Eriksen once more named on the substitutes' bench before being thrown into the fray late in the game.

By the end of it, with Bayern scoring three goals in five minutes to make it 7-2, Pochettino's players looked completely lost, with heads bowed and shoulders drooping.

Is Pochettino still getting his message across? Are his players listening? Those are big questions that are yet to be answered, but the manager insists that he is ready to face his critics.

"Sometimes you need to face this situation," he said. "It's nice to play a Champions League final, it's nice to put my face in front of you after eliminating Ajax or Man City to get to the final, but I must now put my face in front of you to say it wasn't as good as I expect.

"The most important thing is to move on, assess the team and our players. That is the most difficult job for us.

"After five years, our sixth season here, we need to be clearer and work like always, give solutions to the players. We are very critical of ourselves. We have to find a way to fix the problem and move on.

"It's more psychological now. The important thing is to have one idea, one assessment and stick with this idea and start to improve."

Pochettino, whose team now face back-to-back encounters with Red Star Belgrade, admits he saw Tottenham's difficulties coming, however.

"I knew a few months ago it was going to be a tough season," he said. "I told you. After the Champions League final, it was a chapter closed and we need to open another chapter for the medium or long term.

"Defeat isn't going to change my opinion. You need to show your quality like men because, in this type of situation you must show are strong, strong together, and bounce back."

Pochettino is right. He and Spurs must bounce back, but on this evidence, they don't look like doing that.

METAIRIE, La. -- New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson didn't want to have any miscues on his first official day of practice.

So there were no windmill dunks. No dribbling between the legs.

He just wanted to be one of the guys.

"It's the first practice," Williamson said Tuesday. "I'm not trying to mess up. Maybe my second year or something. I'm just trying to learn the system and be the best player I can be."

Williamson is one of a number of new faces for the Pelicans. New Orleans only has five healthy players in camp who played for coach Alvin Gentry last season -- Jrue Holiday, Frank Jackson, E'Twaun Moore, Kenrich Williams and Jahlil Okafor.

Because of that, Holiday said practice had sort of a "deer in the headlights" feel to it.

"I think it was just a new step," said Holiday, who is entering his 11th NBA season. "It was new going from college to this kind of setting. It was intense. Everyone was focused and locked in."

That included Williamson, who was being as inquisitive as he possibly could.

"He asked questions. That's not overthinking," Holiday said. "He doesn't want to be wrong. That's a great thing. Especially defensively. Asking questions, seeing where he's supposed to be and worrying about the scheme. He did a great job today."

Gentry tried to downplay Williamson's performance as the team doesn't want to put so much on the rookie's shoulders.

Williamson and the rest of the new Pelicans spent a lot of practice on defensive drills, although pushing the pace came up often.

"He wants us to be a fast-paced team," Williamson said of Gentry. "If you get a rebound, push it."

Williamson credited Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski for preparing him for his first NBA practice, saying the adjustment was "pretty easy."

As for where Williamson will spend most of his minutes, the Pelicans are seemingly tinkering around with possibilities.

The team's approach will depend on whether Williamson is playing small forward or power forward. Pelicans guard JJ Redick mentioned surrounding Williamson with shooting if he plays center.

Gentry said Williamson's athletic ability fits in with how the team wants to play.

"He can rebound and push it on the break," Gentry said. "He can run the wing. He can run and be a post-up player. He's a real versatile player. We almost play positionless basketball. It's not like he's a power forward, a small forward or a guard. He's just a basketball player. He fits into the scheme of things of what we're trying to do because of so much he can do."

A Houston furniture salesman, attempting to mitigate millions of dollars in potential refunds from a promotion, placed one of the largest bets ever taken by a U.S. bookmaker on Tuesday at a Mississippi sportsbook.

Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, bet $3.5 million on the Astros to win the World Series at the DraftKings sportsbook at Scarlet Pearl casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. At +220 odds, the wager would pay a net $7.7 million if the Astros win the World Series.

McIngvale also recently placed a $200,000 World Series bet on the Astros +250 at the South Point in Las Vegas and has additional wagers for undisclosed amounts with Nevada bookmakers Caesars, MGM, Treasure Island and Circa Sports. He's shopping around for more, too.

McIngvale's $3.5 million wager at the Scarlet Pearl is nearly equal to how much was bet on baseball at Mississippi sportsbooks in the months of June, July and August combined.

"I think it's the biggest [bet] that's ever happened in Mississippi," DraftKings chief revenue officer and co-founder Matt Kalish said.

Not only is it believed to be the biggest bet ever in Mississippi, but it's also easily one of the largest wagers ever reported in the United States -- and McIngvale may not be finished yet.

McIngvale has been in communication with multiple sportsbooks in New Jersey, inquiring about making large wagers. In early September, bookmaker FanDuel, after discussions with McIngvale, requested approval from New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to accept a bet of greater than $5 million on the Astros.

For much of the baseball season, McIngvale has been offering to refund mattress-related purchases of $3,000 or more if the Astros win the World Series. He ran a similar promotion in 2017 and refunded more than $10 million in purchases, when Houston beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the franchise's first World Series. That year, McIngvale placed more than $1 million in bets on the Astros with Las Vegas bookmakers, helping him limit his exposure from the promotion. This year, with more states offering sports betting, he has expanded options, like Mississippi and New Jersey.

"It's a whole different game in 2019," McIngvale told ESPN last week, as he was shopping around for the best price and highest limits.

While a few $1 million bets regularly show up on the Super Bowl, multimillion-dollar wagers -- especially on the World Series -- are extremely rare:

• In 2018, an unnamed bettor at an MGM sportsbook in Las Vegas placed a $3 million money-line bet on the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII. The Eagles pulled off the upset, and the bettor won a net $4.5 million.

• In 1995, veteran Las Vegas bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro says that he took a $2.4 million money-line wager from prominent investor Carl Icahn on the heavily favored San Francisco 49ers (1-8) to beat the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. Icahn won a net $300,000 when the 49ers blew out the Chargers.

The Astros were down to +210 in DraftKings' odds to win the World Series, after taking McIngvale's bet. The Dodgers are the second favorite at +260.

Prior to McIngvale's wager, more money had been bet on the New York Yankees to win the World Series at DraftKings than had been bet on any other team. The Yankees are +425.

"This does change the picture for us a little bit," Kalish said Tuesday. "This will make the Astros the biggest liability."

McIngvale, 68, is a beloved figure in Houston. He opened up his furniture store to those in need during flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey and says he always roots for the Astros, regardless of his position.

He declined to characterize how big of a liability he has on this year's promotion.

"I know these wacky promotions like this one, when people get their money back, it's the greatest publicity I could ever hope for," McIngvale said.

The Astros will host the winner of the Tampa Bay Rays-Oakland Athletics wild-card game in an American League divisional series.

In the weeks leading up to baseball's postseason, McIngvale hired two Las Vegas gamblers to help him locate the best price. Anthony Curtis, one of the gamblers, said McIngvale was looking to get down upward of $10 million on the Astros.

After Tuesday's bet, Mattress Mack is almost halfway there.

Playoff baseball is finally here! If the start of October baseball doesn't get you excited, how about kicking off the postseason Tuesday with Max Scherzer facing the hottest team in the majors?

What's on tap

The most important thing of the day: The Nationals are a popular pick as the National League team most likely to knock off the Dodgers, but that won't matter one bit if Mad Max & Co. can't get past the red-hot Brewers in the one-game showdown between the NL wild-card teams.

The view from inside the stadium: Injuries be damned (see: Yelich, Cain, Braun), the Brewers are confident thanks to a filthy bullpen that fueled their Cinderella September run. But nobody is more confident than the battle-tested and Baby Shark-infested Nationals, who have won eight straight and for the first time in their playoff history seem to be peaking at just the right time. -- Eddie Matz

A stat to impress your friends: According to FanGraphs, the Nationals had a season-low 22.2% chance to make the playoffs on May 23 before going 74-38 the rest of the way to take the NL's top wild-card spot. But that's nothing compared to the Brewers, who had a 5.6% chance of making the playoffs as recently as Sept. 5 before an 18-2 stretch paved their way to the postseason.

Predictions: The Nats are way healthier than the team that got swept at home by Milwaukee in May. They're also starting some guy named Scherzer. Nationals 5, Brewers 3. -- Matz

The Nationals are starting Scherzer, but with a 5.16 ERA in September, he hasn't quite been the Scherzer we're used to seeing dominate. The Brewers bullpen their way to the victory. Brewers 3, Nationals 2. -- David Schoenfield

Off the diamond

Social media says:

The 2019 MLB postseason bracket is set ? pic.twitter.com/T1REvwUNhW

— ESPN (@espn) September 29, 2019

Quote of note: "We wouldn't be where we are without our starting pitching. In my very biased opinion, we have the best rotation in the game right now. A game like [Tuesday's], you put roles aside, you put egos aside, and you go with your best guys. Those are our best guys." -- Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle on the possibility of starters Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin being used out of the bullpen against Milwaukee

Australian thrower beats Chinese duo with last-round effort at the IAAF World Championships

Going into the final round of the women’s world javelin final on Tuesday night in Doha, Kelsey Barber was lying in fifth place with Chinese duo Shiying Liu and Lyu Huihui set for a one-two.

“Going into the sixth round it was a case of clearing my mind and believing there was more there,” Barber said. “It’s one thing to say it and believe it but another to actually do it.”

Barber believed and she delivered with a 66.56m throw to go into the lead. It was three metres better than she had thrown in the first five rounds and the 28-year-old’s face was full of joy as the enormity of what she had done sank in.

“I feel really proud to win in the Australian colours today and hopefully it’ll put track and field on the map a little bit more in my country,” she said, adding that taking her run-up back slightly gave her more space and was the technical tweak needed to give her gold.

Barber threw 67.70m in Lucerne earlier this year to go No.12 all-time. Otherwise she has been the perennial runner-up during 2019 – in Lausanne, Zurich’s Diamond League final and the Anniversary Games in London.

World No.1 Lyu Huihui led in the first four rounds with 65.06m in round two. But her team-mate Shiying Liu threw 65.88m in the fifth round to take the lead. At this stage it looked set for a Chinese gold and silver, but Barber passed them both with her big winning effort in the last round.

In the final round neither Huihui nor Shiying could improve, which meant Barber won Australia’s first world javelin title.

World javelin champion Kelsey Barber of Australia with silver and bronze medallists Shiying Liu & Lyu Huihui of China. "I feel really proud to win the Australian colours today and hopefully it’ll put track and field on the map a little bit more in my country," she says. pic.twitter.com/qgydxBJKj0

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) October 1, 2019

In his quest for a fourth successive world title, Pawel Fadjek of Poland led the hammer qualifiers with 79.24m from European champion Wojciech Nowicki’s 77.89m.

There was success for Britain’s Nick Miller, too, as the Commonwealth champion threw 76.26m in the third round to qualify as 10th of the 12 for Wednesday’s final.