World Title To Washington

It has been a long time coming for the City of Washington. It's something that, back in May, nobody thought would have been possible. Looking back, the Nationals were given a 0.1% chance to win the Pennant. They beat the odds, made the series, and after a tough seven game series against the Astros, the Washington Nationals walked away as the 2019 World Series Champions. It wasn't just that they brought a baseball title to Washington for the first time since 1933, its how they did it that was so amazing.

Remember this was a Washington team that sat at 19-31 in late May, so nobody was giving them much of a chance. They had a horrible bullpen who couldn't seem to be able to hold a lead to save their lives. But the Nats stuck with it, thanks to the strength of the top of the rotation with Max Scherzer and Stephen Sgtrausberg. The hitting was just as awesome, with two guys cracking the century mark in RBI. Anthony Rendon led the way with 126, followed by 110 from Juan Soto. Those two guys kept that hot hitting up during the playoffs, being one of four Nationals hitters to be able to drive in more than ten runs in the entire post season. Rendon led the way with 15, with Soto right behind him at 14. Howie Kendrick had a solid playoffs, coming up with 12 RBI's and big hits throughout the entire run. So did Adam Eaton, who drove in ten runs.

Washington was in a hole against the Brewers in the Wild Card game, but managed to get the win off Josh Hader, who's one of the better relief pitchers in the game right now. Then, Washington kept rolling, pulling off a huge upset of the two time defending NL Champs in the Dodgers in five games in the divisional round. To keep rolling, they swept the Cards in the NLCS to reach the fall classic. They then had the unenviable task of going u[p against the best team in baseball in the Astros, and start the series off in Houston.

Well, Washington shut a lot of people up quickly, by taking the first two games in Houston. First in a nailbitter, then in a blowout. Then, all of a sudden, Washington's bats went cold. Now back to Houston, facing Justin Verlander with the prospect of falling in the series. But for the 2nd time in the series, Washington managed to batter Verlander, who is now winless in six career games in the Series. Game Seven saw a masterful outing from Strasburg, who started and Patrick Corbin who was flat out brilliant in his three innings of relief. With that, and some late inning heroics, Washington claimed the title. Stephen Strasburg was so good in this series, it was no surprise he won the MVP award for the series. And why nomt, he went 2–0 in his two starts, allowing four earned runs over 14 innings pitched, to go along with 14 strikeouts. He's the first pitcher to win series MVP since Madison Bumgarner claimed it for the Giants in 2014.

With the series win by the Nats, it had marked the 6th straight year that the series deciding game had been won by the road team. this series also marked the first time major North American sports history that the road team has won all seven games in this best of seven format. For all the talk going into the season about the Nationals losing Bryce Harper to free agency and for the slow start that Washington got off to, it seemed like a real long shot that something like this was even possible. But this season goes to prove that there is magic in the air for a season like this. It also goes to prove that what you do during the regular season might not always be accurate when it comes to the playoffs.

Its not always about the better team, its sometimes about the hotter team. And Washington just so happen to be the hotter team at the right time. Congratulations to the Nationals for their first ever world series title, and the first title in DC since the 1930's.