BALTIMORE — With a playoff berth in their grasp, the New York Yankees have tons of meaningful baseball ahead of them as August gives way to September, and beyond. 

Nary a soul would have figured until recently, however, that six late-season games against the Boston Red Sox would be included in the relevance column, given the widely held assumption that the Yankees’ nemeses would run off with the American League East title. 

In just eight days, however, things have changed considerably. And the Yankees can suddenly dare to dream that their ticket to October glory might not necessarily run through the wild-card game. 

Thanks to a 15-5 stretch in August, paired with the Red Sox encountering not one, but two three-game losing streaks after avoiding such a skein for 127 games, the Yankees have regained some control of their destiny.

After finishing a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 5-3 victory Sunday night at Camden yards, they are just six games behind the Red Sox, the closest they’ve been to Boston since Aug. 1.

That was just before their nadir, a four-game sweep by Boston at Fenway Park that included demoralizing errors and soul-crushing walk-offs and an apparent coronation of the Red Sox.

Now? Well, the Yankees know the odds are still against them, down six with 32 to play. 

They’re also starting to feel themselves a little bit.  

“This team has the second-best record in baseball. We’re on pace for 100-something wins,” reliever Zach Britton said after retiring all five batters he faced. “This team is very capable of competing with Boston. If they hit a rough patch and we continue to play well, we can catch them.” 

Indeed, the Yankees are on a 103-win pace, good enough to win almost any division in any season save for this AL East.

MORE BASEBALL:

On Aug. 18, they were 10 1/2 games out. 

But the Red Sox finally suffered their first three-game losing streak spanning last Sunday-Tuesday. After winning a pair from the Cleveland Indians at Fenway, they were swept at Tampa Bay, while the Yankees were winning four, including a makeup game, against the 37-94 Orioles. 

Suddenly, an object in their windshield looks a wee bit bigger, though manager Aaron Boone insists on keeping his hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel. 

“We have no say on what they do 2,000 miles away,” Boone said before Sunday’s game. “It’s nice when they lose; I like that. But I’m so consumed with trying to make sure our ship’s going in the right direction, that we’re playing well.”

That, they are. 

Sunday, starter Luis Severino earned his major league-best 17th win, striking out eight Orioles thanks to a fastball Boone termed “electric” and the “best he’s had. All night, it had that life.” 

Severino’s biggest jam came in the third inning, when Baltimore loaded the bases and Severino fell behind Jones with two balls. Not to worry: He dialed it up to 99 mph, 98 and then 99 to end the frame with a soft fly to right field. 

Meanwhile, third baseman Miguel Andujar remained among the hottest hitters in AL, driving in a pair of runs with three hits; he’s batting .357 since the All-Star break. 

Luke Voit, an afterthought acquisition on July 29, slammed a two-run homer, his third of the series, as he eases toward supplanting Greg Bird as the regular first baseman. 

Shortstop Didi Gregorius and catcher Gary Sanchez should be back by next week; slugger Aaron Judge and closer Aroldis Chapman’s return dates are less certain. 

The Red Sox and Yankees face similar schedules: Each have three games remaining with the Orioles and dates with the Blue Jays. The Yankees will face out-of-division tests from the A’s and Mariners as the Red Sox contend with the Braves and Astros.

One key: Boston is done with the Rays, while the Yankees’ final trip to Boston will be preceded by four games at Tropicana Field, where they’re just 1-5 this season. 

Hey, at least those dates are worth marking on the calendar. 

“If we play well, we’re capable of ripping off a lot of wins,” says Boone, “and we’ll see where we end up.” 

They already have. If they continue, a forgettable September will become one to remember.

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques on Twitter @GabeLacques.

 

The third weekend of the NFL’s preseason, widely considered the dress rehearsal stage for many teams — though quite a few continued to rest star players — is complete. Here’s what we learned:

1. It might be time to worry in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, Seattle and Tennessee. Those clubs are winless, and no NFL team has ever finished 0-4 in preseason and gone on to win the Super Bowl since the league implemented the 16-game regular-season schedule in 1978.

2. Interesting (worthless?) stat of the day: San Francisco QB Jimmy Garoppolo is 7-0 as a starter in the regular season but just 4-4 in preseason.

3. Um, the Cowboys have depth issues.

4. There continues to be plenty of buzz around new Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. But Kansas City’s first-string offense played into the third quarter Saturday and only scored 10 points against the Bears, who rested most of their starters.

5. Steelers RB James Conner caught six passes Saturday after snaring zero in his rookie season. Further evidence Pittsburgh might be able to survive without no-show Le’Veon Bell?

6. Raiders RB Chris Warren, son of former Seahawks star RB Chris Warren, leads the NFL with 250 preseason rushing yards. The younger Warren wasn’t drafted but is making a case for a roster spot behind Marshawn Lynch and Doug Martin.

7. Philadelphia’s first-team offense has zero points in 10 drives this preseason, though it’s been missing starters like LT Jason Peters, WR Alshon Jeffery … and QB Carson Wentz.

8. Eagles QB Nick Foles threw two INTs in one half Thursday. He threw three in six starts (including the playoffs) during last season’s Super Bowl run.

More: Time for Jacksonville Jaguars to call Dez Bryant in wake of Marqise Lee injury

More: Bengals QB Andy Dalton gets standing ovation from Buffalo Bills fans

More: Bell Tolls: Saints’ Marcus Williams is determined that rookie gaffe won’t define him

9. Second-year Browns DE Myles Garrett seems ready to emerge as a legit defensive player of the year candidate. His sack of Foles for a safety gave Cleveland’s defense two points. (The Browns offense managed just three.)

10. Bills rookie QB Josh Allen got his first preseason start Sunday. Buffalo didn’t score in his half of action, largely because Allen was running for his life behind suspect blocking. It seems like a disservice to start the highest-drafted passer (7th overall) in franchise history in Week 1 given Allen’s lack of big-game experience and a weak supporting cast that would likely force him to try and overcompensate.

11. Adam Humphries’ 109-yard “kick six” — the Bucs receiver brought a missed 62-yard field goal by Lions K Matt Prater all the way back — has been the play of the preseason so far. (But why wouldn’t Tampa Bay keep that play in their regular-season bag of tricks?)

12. The preseason’s best moment occurred Sunday, when Bills fans gave Bengals QB Andy Dalton a standing ovation eight months after he engineered an upset in Baltimore that vaulted Buffalo into the playoffs for the first time this century.

13. NBC’s new “green zone” feature had many fans seeing red.

14. Adrian Peterson, 33, needed just three practices and one preseason game (56 yards on 11 carries) to put a virtual lock on the Redskins’ starting running back job. Washed up? Pfft.

15. QB Josh McCown, who started 13 games for the Jets in 2017, threw one pass this preseason. He was going to have to get used to watching Sam Darnold sooner or later. (Rams QB Jared Goff hasn’t taken a snap this month … so, that tells you even more about preseason.)

16. Packers QB Aaron Rodgers didn’t play this week but threw pregame passes to former teammate Jordy Nelson in Oakland. Meanwhile, Raiders QB Derek Carr threw to Green Bay WR Davante Adams, a teammate of Carr’s at Fresno State.

17. Coach Mike McCarthy held out Rodgers and several other key starters because he didn’t want them playing on Oakland’s infield baseball dirt, according to former Packers WR (turned NFL Network analyst) James Jones.

18. Elsewhere, the Saints scored 36 points on the Chargers’ soccer field.

19. Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. still hasn’t played in a game since breaking his ankle last season.

20. Slide, Cam … it’s preseason. The Panthers QB wound up with a shiner after failing to “bring this plane in as smoothly as possible” while diving for a first down Friday.

21. Vikings RB Dalvin Cook rushed for 1 yard on two carries in his first game since suffering a torn ACL last October. Good to see the rust coming off.

22. Texans DE J.J. Watt recorded one tackle in his own return to the field after missing 24 games over the past two seasons. “I liked that I came off under my own power,” Watt said afterward when I asked about his performance.

23. On the other side of the ball, Houston’s Deshaun Watson was decleated by Rams DL Ndamukong Suh. Watson was OK, but the Texans’ O-line could be an issue in front of a young quarterback coming off an ACL tear.

24. Niners CB Richard Sherman also returned to action Saturday as his comeback from an Achilles tear continues to progress. 

25. Colts QB Andrew Luck had his best game of the preseason (8-for-10, 90 yards, TD), but questions remain about the quality of his supporting cast.

26. Assuming WR Marqise Lee’s knee injury was as bad as it looked, the Jaguars don’t have a player on their roster who caught more than 42 passes last season. Dez?

27. In more positive news, Jacksonville’s first-team defense has not allowed a preseason touchdown.

28. However Jags CB Jalen Ramsey did get a workout Saturday from Falcons QB (and 2016 league MVP) Matt Ryan, the same man Ramsey deemed overrated in a recent GQ article.

29. Bears WR Kevin White, who’s missed 43 of 48 possible regular-season games because of injuries after being drafted seventh overall in 2015, scored his first NFL TD on Saturday.

30. Bengals WR John Ross, the ninth overall pick in 2017, caught his first pro TD on Sunday after failing to register a reception in his rookie season.

31. Despite connecting on seven of 10 passes Saturday, Ravens rookie QB Lamar Jackson has a 47.2% completion rate. “We’ve seen it in practice where he’s done some really good things,” said Baltimore coach John Harbaugh. “We hadn’t really seen it in the game yet. He handled himself well.”

32. Standing on the opponent’s sideline will get you a delay-of-game penalty. Thanks to Dolphins LB Kiko Alonso for the knowledge.

***

Follow Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis

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Fernando Alonso said F1’s ‘halo’ head protection may have saved Charles Leclerc in their huge crash in Belgium.

Alonso’s McLaren landed on top of Leclerc’s Sauber after being launched into the air by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, who missed his braking point at the first corner at Spa.

Television replays show Alonso’s car being deflected by the halo, which had impact marks on it afterwards.

“I saw the replay and how good was the proof for the halo,” Alonso said.

“We didn’t need any proof but it is a good thing.”

The halo was a controversial introduction to F1 this season, with a significant minority of the drivers feeling it was not needed and many fans objecting to its appearance. There was also a feeling in some quarters that it was diluting F1’s ethos as an open-cockpit formula.

Alonso, who was among the majority of drivers in favour of the halo’s introduction, added: “The positive side is we are all three OK, especially Charles. I flew over his car and the halo was a good thing to have today.”

Leclerc added: “If today it has been useful or not, I don’t know. I don’t know what would have happened without it but in some cases it is definitely helpful.”

Later, he posted an image of the accident on Twitter and wrote: “Never been a fan of the halo but I have to say that I was very happy to have it over my head today.”

Hulkenberg was handed a 10-place grid penalty at the next race in Italy this coming weekend, as well as three licence penalty points, bringing his total to four of the 12 permitted before a race ban.

Hulkenberg said he was “disappointed and frustrated” with himself for the incident.

He added: “I don’t want that for myself, for Fernando, for everyone. It is a shame and very bitter to take that and difficult to swallow and be out in lap one after the summer break.

“It caught me by surprise. I just misjudged my braking point a little bit and there was no real time to recover it.”

Alonso likened the incident to the one at the same race in 2012, when then Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was given a race ban for causing a similar incident, in which the Spaniard was also innocently involved.

Speaking before Hulkenberg’s penalty was announced, Alonso said: “That time Romain had a race ban. This time, we’ll see. It is tough to understand how you can miss [your braking point] so much.

“It is not a couple of metres, you arrive at a speed that it is impossible to negotiate the corner. So, sad for that but happy that we are all fine.”

The stewards took into account the Grosjean incident but pointed out in their verdict that at the time the penalty point system had not been introduced.

FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting said: “I think it would be a little bit speculative [to say a serious injury had been avoided], but you can see it doesn’t take much imagination to think that the tyre marks could have actually been on Charles’ head.

“What is clear is the significant tyre marks on both the tyre and the halo. We take a lot of photographs, and our researchers will be contacting Sauber on Monday morning to make sure we understand, for example, when they take the halo off, to see if the fixings and the bolts that fix it are in good shape, and more importantly to see if it’s been distorted. It’s being held in by the bolts at present, but see if it springs into a different shape.

“Let’s hope we can try and learn whatever we can from that. Looks like it’s had a fairly hefty whack though.”

Image: Anne Marie Fox/HBO

This article contains spoilers for the finale of HBO’s Sharp Objects.

By the time audiences got to the finale of Sharp Objects it was pretty clear that the central mystery of the show wasn’t exactly the point. Yes, the murders of Natalie Keene and Ann Nash were the reason Camille returned home to Wind Gap and incremental advancements in the case pushed the plot along, but the story was always more about Camille Preaker, her trauma, and the tragedies that have left physical and emotional scars on her entire person. 

However, in a shocking twist that only unfurls in the last few moments of the series, Camille learns that the murders and her family’s painful legacy are in fact the same issue — both her mother and her sister are killers, with Adora killing Camille’s sister Marion and Amma being responsible for the murders of Natalie and Ann.

Adora’s murder was of course brought forth by her Munchausen by proxy disorder, which caused her to slowly poison her daughters in order to feel needed and otherwise reap the social and emotional rewards of being a constant caregiver. 

In the finale, Camille finally experiences her mother’s deadly brand of caring when she allows herself to drink the “medicine” Adora gave to Amma and Marion, but is saved when her editor Frank Curry forces the Wind Gap police to search the Preaker mansion and rescue her. 

From there, the case seems open and shut. After the police deduce that Adora poisoned her daughters, the police find bloodstained pliers like those used to remove Natalie and Ann’s teeth, in the house and arrest her for homicide. Adora goes to prison, Amma moves in with Camille in St. Louis…and everything seems as good at things get for Camille, who can finally begin to heal from her mother’s horrible nature. 

Except technically, terrifyingly, not. 

In a whiplash-inducing ending, Camille becomes suspicious when one of Amma’s new friends in St. Louis goes missing and takes a closer look at Amma’s dollhouse. There, in the replica of Adora’s famously ivory-floored bedroom, she sees dozens of human teeth laid into the dollhouse floor, proving that Amma was the real Wind Gap murderer.

The finale ends before explaining exactly why and how Amma killed her former friends, but her final line, “don’t tell Mama,” insinuates that Adora’s years of abuse may have damaged her grip on reality and perhaps even her ability to feel empathy. 

It’s a shame that Sharp Objects ends before the audience has a chance to see what happens to Camille if not Amma in the aftermath of this revelation, especially since the book does go into what happens to both of them once Amma is outed as the murderer. 

Still, as far as TV ending shots go, Sharp Objects‘s twist is a horrifying and appropriate cap on a miniseries that set out to prove the dangers that lie inside seemingly happy homes. 

Fear the Walking Dead

type

TV Show

Genre

Drama, Horror

run date

08/23/15

performer

Alycia Debnam-Carey, Lennie James, Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman

broadcaster

AMC

seasons

4

SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you’ve already watched Sunday’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead, “The Code.”

Friends or foes? The answer to that question shifted several times during the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead as Morgan met a new duo named Sarah and Wendell, who appeared at first to be a pair of post-apocalyptic do-gooders but turned out to be anything but. And then there was brewmeister Jim, whom Morgan saved from certain death — only to be repaid by Jim leaving Morgan to die on his own.

Morgan eventually survived a zombie onslaught and told the trio he would bring them to Alexandria, but only after they delivered him back to Texas to save his friends — and dropped off supply boxes along the way. So are Sarah, Wendell, and Jim to be trusted? And who was with that mysterious other woman we met in the very last scene? We asked showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg about all the newcomers, as well as Morgan’s big changes throughout the episode and what to expect next.

 

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You all told us last week that there would be a tonal shift for this episode and we’d see more humor than usual, and we certainly did, with most of it based around Daryl Mitchell’s character of Wendell. What made you all want to add some spots of levity in here?
ANDREW CHAMBLISS: Coming off of the previous episode with Alicia and Charlie having their reckoning together during the hurricane in a house, that was a very dark episode and there was only a small glimmer of hope at the end. We wanted something that really was a shift in which we’re reminding the audience that at the end of the day there is hope in this world. We ended up landing on these two characters, who we meet in Wendell and Sarah.

One of the things we love about humor is how people often use it to cope with really difficult situations. There’s not something we can think of much more difficult than the zombie apocalypse, so these two characters, Sarah and Wendell, are people who almost are joking with each other and trying to keep things light because they have to. That’s kind of their survival mechanism. It’s a big shift when they come into contact with Morgan, because he’s not necessarily a character who goes around cracking jokes. So, he’s kind of the straight man to them.

So Morgan meets Sarah and Wendell, thinks they’re doing all this post-apocalyptic philanthropic work. Turns out that is certainly not the case, and they instead stole the truck and supplies from someone else and later, along with brewmeister Jim, will leave Morgan out to die after he gives them information on how to get to Alexandria. I know not many people are strictly good or bad in this world, but where do these three folks fall on the morally reprehensible meter?
IAN GOLDBERG: Well, I think that’s a really interesting question. All three of them have come from very different circumstances and are surviving in really different ways. I mean, you take Jim, he’s someone who has been somewhat sheltered from the apocalypse. He’s holed up in his brewery, and he has a very clear drive of what he wants to do. He believes that beer is key to bringing people back to civilization, and he’s got that speech where he tells Morgan of all the historical reasons for that.

It seems like it’s a very kind of noble thing that Jim wants to do, but what we think is so kind of interesting about Jim is the contrast, and that he’s actually doing it for a very selfish reason. He’s got a big chip on his shoulder for what he feels like he didn’t get before the apocalypse that he feels like he should now. There’s some complexity to Jim in that way.

What about Sarah and Wendell? Because clearly they’re doing some bad things here during the course of the episode. So how should we feel about that, and how should we feel about them? They did leave Morgan to die, so what’s their excuse?
CHAMBLISS: What is anyone’s excuse in the apocalypse? I think if you asked Sarah and Wendell, they would say they’re just two people trying to survive, and they don’t necessarily see what they do is anything worse than what anyone else would do. In fact, we hear Sarah call out Morgan and say, “This is no different than what you did. You could have crossed that bridge. We know it wasn’t out. You’re not protecting your friends, just like we’re not going to help you right now.” So I think they just see themselves and people trying to live in this world.

Morgan does, I think, get through to them by the end, and even though they ostensibly are helping him in his mission to find his friends and leaving these boxes kind of begrudgingly on the side of the road, I think there’s a part of them that may actually find some satisfaction in doing that. And that’s something that we’re going to kind of play forward as we progress throughout the season.

We saw Morgan make Alicia his mission after he failed to save Nick. Does he see these three people as a new mission of his?
GOLDBERG: Absolutely, yeah. I think Morgan is on a mission of redemption. The sort of crossing with Sarah, Wendell, and Jim is kind of a fortuitous thing for him because Morgan has done some things that he regrets, things that he feels he needs to make up for. We see it very clearly in this episode when he stands on that bridge in the beginning and lies and tells Sarah and Wendell that the bridge is out when it isn’t. And then later he admits to being a coward and voices his own fears that he might not be able to emotionally help his friends as much as he thinks they need it.

That’s a big moment, and a big admission for Morgan to make. I think the discovery of the box, and the mile marker, and being able to use those things to free himself from the walkers at the bottom of that ravine, and sort of realizing what the truckers were doing by leaving these boxes on the side of the road — it gives Morgan a real opportunity to carry that mission forward. As he’s heading back to Texas to find his community of people that he left behind, he’s also redeeming himself with Sarah, Wendell, and Jim by leaving these boxes and carrying forward that mission.

Let’s talk about that last scene. What are we to make of this woman at the very end who’s been listening in on the radio? She’s got zombie Pervis hanging there on the wall with her. How does she fit into this puzzle?
CHAMBLISS: I don’t want to say much about that mysterious woman, but I think it’s apparent in that moment that she clearly has some sort of history and relationship with whoever it was who set up that truck stop. And the fact that in the final moments of the episode she writes on that walker’s face the key phrase that we’ve seen on the boxes the entire episode, “Take what you need. Leave what you don’t,” I think we can see that she’s not too happy with the fact that Morgan is now carrying on that kind of legacy that’s left behind. We will certainly see her again. She’s going to become perhaps an unexpected antagonist to Morgan and the rest of the group.

Let’s use that to look ahead as to what we can expect next week on Fear the Walking Dead. What can you all say?
GOLDBERG: Kind of just reiterating what Andrew said, we will learn a bit more about that mysterious woman that we saw at the truck stop, and we’ll get a little bit more glimpse into what her goal is. We’re going to see just how dangerous she is as well.

CHAMBLISS: Next week we are going to find out what happened to June and Al, and I will say Al is a character who we’ve always seen pretty much be in control of whatever situation she is in. But that may not be the case next week.

All right. I’ve saved the most important question for last. Jim — or Jimbo, as it were — gave this whole little speech to Morgan, and I pose the question now to you guys: Is Jim right? Does the world need beer?
GOLDBERG: Oh, that’s very much so.

CHAMBLISS: That’s an emphatic yes.

GOLDBERG: And without spoiling anything, there’s a lot more beer to come this season.

For more Fear the Walking Dead scoop, follow Dalton on Twitter @DaltonRoss.

Drini Gjoka tweeted his excitement for the Madden 19 video game tournament in downtown Jacksonville: “can’t wait to compete.”

About 15 hours later, @youngdrini tweeted something horrific: “The tourney just got shot up. I’m leavinng (sic) and never coming back.”

Three people were killed and several others wounded Sunday after a shooting rampage at the video game tourney at Chicago Pizza.

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the lone shooter, a white male named David Katz, was among the dead.

More: Accused Jacksonville shooter David Katz: The search for answers is on

More: Jacksonville shooting at Madden tournament: What we know so far

More: Jacksonville shooting suspect was in ‘rampage mode,’ according to eyewitness

The sheriff’s office said there were “multiple fatalities,” and many other victims were taken to hospitals. According to media reports, several more were wounded at the GLHF Game Bar.

A live Twitch feed from the tournament was underway when the shooting took place, and the audio feed was interrupted by the sound of several gunshots.

Among the injured are several competitors and a Complexity pro Madden player.

Here are the victims of the Jacksonville mass shooting at Madden tournament.

FLORIDA TODAY will update this story as we get more information.

More:  GoFundMe campaign for Jacksonville shooting victims

Those killed at the shooting

Taylor Robertson, 27, of Ballard, West Virginia. The gaming community, as well as close friends, posted about Robertson on social media.

Eli Clayton, 22, of Woodland Hills, California.

Injured at the shooting

• Taylor Poindexter of Chicago was at the gaming tournament at Jacksonville Landing with her boyfriend, Marquis Williams, during the shooting. She describes being injured in the rush to escape and crawling to safety.

They were seated in a nearby restaurant when the shooter began firing. The first shots caught them off guard, they said.

Video: Cook in Jacksonville shooting to gunman: ‘Come into this kitchen, you’ll get stabbed’

Video: Jacksonville shooting: Witness describes scene

More: Jacksonville Madden Tournament shooting: What politicians, other officials said

“We were talking, getting ready to order a pizza,” Williams said. “The first shot, everybody just turned around and looked. The second, third, fourth shots, everyone just took off and ran for the exits.”

As they joined the fray, Poindexter said they caught sight of the shooter.

“We saw him, had two hands on the gun, walking back, just popping rounds,” she said.

In the rush to escape, Williams clipped his leg against a chair or a pole and Poindexter was bowled by the crowd, injuring her ankle. 

“We crawled out,” Poindexter said. “My boyfriend made it out before me. By the time I see him, I’m calling out to him. It was hard for me to walk.”

Hobbling, they fought the crowed and barricaded themselves in the bathroom of a Cinco De Mayo restaurant, away from the shots, where they awaited police.

• A St. Lucie County School District teacher was injured, according to school district spokeswoman Kerry Padrick.

“St. Lucie Public Schools is aware that an employee attending the qualifying event for the Madden 19 Tournament in Jacksonville sustained a non-life-threatening injury at the event,” Padrick said in an emailed statement Sunday night. “We extend our thoughts and prayers to all of those impacted by this tragedy.”

A faculty announcement identified the man as Dalton Kent, a social studies teacher at Treasure Coast High School, according to a news report by WPBF.

Kent was shot in the shin during the gaming event, WPBF said, citing a faculty announcement.

“Other than that, we are thankful he is ok,” the faculty announcement said about Dalton, according to WPBF’s news report.

• Player Rod Breslau who goes by @slasher on Twitter, said one of the injured gamers was Larry Legend, an NBA 2K pro gamer or @oLarry2K.

Gov. Rick Scott visited with Larry Legend in the hospital.

@ImSteveyJ, whose Twitter bio says he’s a pro gamer from Orlando, had changed his profile pic to the two victims who were killed.

• Other gamers — @lynch_toliver, @maddenvtech and @fitzmagic13 — were suggested in a tweet by @MiseryAP that they were among the injured.

• Without naming the pro esports player who was injured in the Madden tournament, Jason Lake, founder and CEO of Complexity gaming company, tweeted: “To the press reaching out for comment: Please do not contact our player directly. He is understandably shaken and is not in a place to be speaking with you right now.”

Gjoka, however, tweeted the experience of the mass shooting.

• “I am literally so lucky. The bullet hit my thumb.”

• “Worst day of my life.”

• “I will never take anything for granted ever again. Life can be cut short in a second.”

• “If I havent (sic) said it before, I’ll say it now. I love all you guys.”

 

Check back for updates.

FLORIDA TODAY‘s Eric Rogers and TCPalm‘s Lisa Broadt contributed to this report.

Sangalang is a digital producer at FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Sangalang at 321-242-3630

or jsangalang@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @byjensangalang

Facebook: /jennifer.sangalang3

Instagram: @byjensangalang

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Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers from the series finale of HBO’s “Sharp Objects.”

“Don’t tell Mama.”

Those are the bone-chilling final words of HBO miniseries “Sharp Objects,” which came to a riveting, emotional conclusion Sunday night. The line is uttered by precocious teenager Amma (Eliza Scanlen), who walks in on older sister Camille (Amy Adams) just as she discovers a bedroom floor tiled with human teeth inside Amma’s dollhouse — teeth belonging to the two girls whose murders Camille was sent to hometown Windgap, Missouri, to investigate. 

Despite many false leads and suspects, it’s not entirely surprising that Amma is the killer (and claims a third victim off-screen in the show’s last few minutes). There was always something off about Amma, who wore flower crowns and roller skates around her doting (and also murderous) mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson), but was hard-drinking and overtly sexual with her friends. That Amma was also slowly being poisoned by Adora, who wanted her daughters sick so she could care for them, couldn’t have helped matters. 

Scanlen, 19, is back in her native Australia this summer before shooting Greta Gerwig’s star-studded “Lady Bird” followup “Little Women” with Meryl Streep later this year. She called USA TODAY to chat about the finale. 

Question: That last shot of Amma is so unsettling, as she goes from being startled to slightly smiling at Camille. What kinds of notes did (director) Jean-Marc Vallee give you about how to play it?

Eliza Scanlen: That was probably one of the hardest scenes for me. It’s the last scene and the last line of the whole show, and you want it to have the right impact. The final cut (of the episode) takes out a few moments where I run up the stairs from just performing another murder, so I’m out of breath and obviously quite erratic. Amma runs into her room only to discover Camille there, who has unraveled the whole mystery, and obviously that’s a really big moment. So we all really collaborated on that last bit. Jean-Marc and Amy helped me get to that place.

Q: How soon into reading the book or scripts did you start to suspect Amma was the killer? 

Scanlen: I actually already knew before I started reading the book, so there was no surprise. But it’s been interesting seeing everyone suspecting various characters and all the fan theories.

Q: I just read one theory that Amma’s friends were accomplices, after one of them tells Camille none of the “cool” girls were getting murdered. Thoughts? 

Scanlen: It’s right! They had a hand in that. That’s very accurate, actually.

Q: What do you think motivated her to kill those girls? 

Scanlen: It’s a very complex situation. Amma has grown up in a very dysfunctional family, who all share a warped sense of love and understanding of intimacy, as well as pain. She’s been surrounded by people who manifest that pain and rage through destruction and self-destruction, whether it’s Adora (poisoning) her children so she can take care of them, or Camille (drinking and cutting herself). With Amma, it comes in a different form: She’s lashing out. She’s been confined for her whole life in many different ways and it’s reached a breaking point for her. Those motivations combined drove her to do what she did with so much brutality. I’m still baffled by Amma – I could talk about her forever.

Q: What do your friends think of the show? Has it aired in Australia yet? 

Scanlen: In Australia, it’s kind of hard to watch if you don’t have this TV service called Foxtel. But the ones that are watching it absolutely love it. Everyone is telling me all their theories about who did it and I just have to say, “I don’t know!” But my whole family is really supportive and excited. Every Monday night – which is when it airs in Australia – my auntie invites a lot of the family over to her place and we all watch it together. Every time I come on the screen, I run out of the room. (Laughs.)

Q: Did you take anything from the set when you finished shooting?

Scanlen: I actually took a lot. I took Amma’s red-and-blue bomber jacket. I took her necklace and the boots that she wore with her white dress that she wore for Calhoun Day. She actually was wearing them when she was killing one of the girls.

Q: Do you still roller skate?

Scanlen: Yeah! I actually went to a roller-skating camp when I was in California a few months ago. It goes for about three days and you learn how to roller skate on ramps and in bowls. It was really scary, but really cool. My butt was sore by the end of it, but it’s fun learning a new skill.

 

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As news continues to come out of Jacksonville following Sunday’s deadly shooting at a Madden video game tournament, gamers are taking to the internet to share their thoughts about the senseless violence that left three dead, including the shooter, and 11 wounded.  

“Crying and in so much pain. … ” wrote Eric “Problem” Wright, a popular Madden player and Twitch streamer, on Twitter referencing two of the players who were killed. “All over a videogame. Two of our brothers are gone man and its so disturbing. One of the most tragic days ive experienced. This community is like family. Broken.” 

“We are shocked and saddened by the tragedy that took place in Jacksonville today,” wrote the official Twitch Twitter account. 

“This is a horrible situation, and our deepest sympathies go out to all involved,” tweeted EA Sports, makers of Madden 19. 

Bungie, makers of the popular “Destiny” and “Halo” video game franchises, announced Sunday night that its social media accounts will be silent Monday out of respect for the victims. The company was previously planning to debut a new trailer for its hotly-anticipated forthcoming game, Destiny 2, on Monday.  

“I don’t understand this world sometimes,” wrote Ronnie Singh, better known online as Ronnie2K, the popular digital marketing director for the NBA 2K franchise. “It’s video games. There is no bigger joy in the world and it has to be ruined. Prayers up to those in Jacksonville.”

Others took to the Internet to comment on how video games shouldn’t be blamed for the latest shooting, noting how the gamers embrace one another and the gaming community at these events. 

“Gamers come to these events to celebrate their hobby. We come to celebrate each other,” wrote popular gamer and streamer Steven Williams, also known online as Boogie2988. “End. Of. Story.”

In addition to sending prayers, the passionate community headed online to connect with one another and provide comfort.

“Our hearts are with the victims and all those impacted by today’s events in Jacksonville,” wrote the Team Envy, a popular esports team. “On a day mired by tragedy, we are reminded that the gaming community and the positive support it can give are more important than ever.”

Matthew Patrick a streamer with more than 5.1 million followers on Twitter at his MatPatGT handle, took to the internet to remind people that the games are just, that, games. 

“Remember, at the end of the day, games are entertainment. Your skill is NOT a reflection of your self worth. And at NO point should games EVER be used to justify violence.”

Some media reports suggested that the shooter, David Katz, was a disgruntled player who had lost earlier at the Madden tournament. 

In addition to commenting, other members of the community are taking action to try and help their fellow gamers and the families impacted by Sunday’s shooting. A GoFundMe campaign to help the victims has raised over $2,000 in roughly four hours, hoping to reach $100,000. 

“This act of violence was done with the purposeful intent on dividing us all. We must be stronger than the adversity this will cause,” wrote fundraiser creator Samanthia McGlaughn.

“To those of The GLHF Game Bar, Chicago’s Pizza, and all those at The Jacksonville Landing: The owners, staff, gamers, other patrons and innocent bystanders, WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. Your community stands behind you in full support during this difficult time.” 

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal

Contributing:  Jennifer Sangalang-Meesey

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USA TODAY Sports
Published 10:01 p.m. ET Aug. 26, 2018 | Updated 11:13 p.m. ET Aug. 26, 2018