The Washington Nationals motto in 2019 was “Stay in the Fight” and that they did. They stayed in it despite starting out the season 19-31, despite having arguably the worst bullpen in baseball at that point in time, they rallied to snatch a WC berth and make the playoffs. After that, they kept staying in until they “Won the fight”, as they overcame a 3-0 deficit in the WC game and scored 3 runs off of one of the best closers in baseball in Josh Hader. They stayed in it, despite going down 2-1 to the 106 win Dodgers, and even though forced a game 5, they trailed 3-0 in that contest and still rallied to win against two legendary pitchers in Walker Buhler and Clayton Kershaw. They stayed in it, despite losing 3 straight games at home to the 107 win Houston Astros in the World Series.
Then, the improbable happened, as the Nationals deflated Justin Verlander in game 6, before rallying to shock the Astros and the baseball world with a thrilling 6-2 win in game 7 of the World Series in Houston.
The win marks the 1st time a road team has won all 7 games in a postseason series and all 4 wins from the winning team have come on the road. This also marks the 1st title ever for the Nationals.
The Astros had it going their way early as Zach Greinke was locked in and Yuli Gurriel went deep for a solo HR in the 2nd, and give the Astros an early 1-0 lead which almost went to 3-0 in the inning, but was stopped at 1 when Juan Soto made a diving catch in left field to save 2 runs with men on 2nd and 3rd. Houston would extend the lead to 2-0 though, as a Carlos Correa RBI double in the 5th off Max Scherzer (Who stranded 6 Astros and kept Washington in the game through 5 innings of 2 run ball) to make it 2-0 Astros which set off a mini- celebration in Minute Maid Park as the Houston faithful could taste a championship with Greinke shutting down the Nats offense and there offense grinding out at bats and driving in runs.
But what had made the Nats run so special up until this point was that they had trailed in all 4 elimination games and had comeback in all of them and this time was no different. It all started in the 7th, as Anthony Rendon hit a 1 out solo HR to get the Nats within 2-1, before a walk to Soto chased Greinke, as Will Harris trotted out of the bullpen for Houston which puzzled many fans &experts alike, as the best pitcher in the league in Gerrit Cole had been warming up in the bullpen, and would’ve entered with a lead and 8 outs standing between him and a championship. But Astros manager AJ Hinch opted to go with Harris and the move backfired, as veteran Howie Kendrick silenced the Astros faithful (Who felt like they led by more then 2 runs entering this inning) by clanking a go-ahead 2run HR off the right field foul poll to give the Nats a 3-2 lead.
They wouldn’t stop there, as in the 8th, a Soto RBI double pushed there lead to 4-2, before Adam Eaton drove in the final runs of the 2019 season with a 2 run single in the 9th to make it 6-2 Nationals.
On the bullpen side, Patrick Corbin went 3 scoreless and Daniel Hudson closed it out in the 9th striking out Michael Brantley on one knee to end it and seal an improbable WS title for the Washington Nationals.
MVP: Anthony Rendon
LVP: Will Harris
WS MVP was Stephen Strasburg Who was the only pitcher to go 5-0 this postseason, including 2-0 in this World Series, defeating Justin Verlander twice.
WS LVP: Justin Verlander, as his 2 losses in this series came back to haunt him and his team.
Via BR (@BleacherReport ) on Twitter.
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