Nationals end World Series wait
● Astros stunned in Houston as title goes to Washington
Howie Kendrick and Anthony Rendon homered in the seventh inning as the Washingtonnationalsovercameatworun deficit to beat the Houston Astros 6-2 and win their firstever World Series.
In an unprecendented series, the away team won all seven games and, even more unlikely, the wild card Nationals won five elimination games in the post-season.
“What a story,” said Ryan Zimmerman, the only player who’s been a part of every Nationals team. “The way this game went is the way our whole season went.”
It was the city of Washington’s first World Series championship since the Senators in 1924. The current franchise started out as the Montreal Expos in 1969 and moved to D.C. in 2005, ending Washington’s three-decade-plus wait for big league baseball after the Senators left to become the Texas Rangers.
Manager Dave Martinez said: “Resilient, relentless bunch of guys. They fought all year long.”
Having lost star slugger Bryce Harper in free agency and beset by bullpen woes, Washington’s record was just 19-31 in late May. It got so bad there was talk they might fire Martinez and trade away star pitcher Max Scherzer.
Instead, they stuck with the mantra that sprung up on T-shirts – Stay In The Fight.
“That was our motto,” Scherzer said.
Shut out on one hit by Astros pitcher Zack Greinke going into the seventh, they still found a way to win.
“Guess what? We stayed in the fight. We won the fight!” Martinez shouted during the trophy celebration on the field.
“We were down and out. We were 19-31. We didn’t quit then, we weren’t going to quit now,” he said.
“It’s almost like we’ve done it so many times that we have to get punched in the face to kind of wake up,” he said.
For the 43,326 revved-up fans at Minute Maid Park, it was a combination of shock and disappointment. So close to seeing Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, George Springer and their Astros add to the title they won in Game 7 at Dodger Stadium two years ago, they watched this chance suddenly vanish.
“I’ve got a group of heartbroken men in there that did everything they could to try to bring a World Series championship to this city. And we fell one win shy,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said.
“I just told our team, it’s hard to put into words and remember all the good that happened because right now we feel as bad as you can possibly feel,” he added.
With Greinke and Scherzer grunting on every pitch, Game 7 started as a classic duel.
Yuli Gurriel put the Astros ahead with a home run in the second and Carlos Correa added an RBI single off Scherzer that made it 2-0 in the fifth.
Scherzer was done after the fifth. Only a few days earlier, the three-time Cy Young Award winner had been unable to lift his right arm due to nerve irritation near his neck.
Greinke was in complete control until Rendon – a Houston prep and college star – hit a solo homer with one out in the seventh that trimmed it to 2-1. When Juan Soto followed with a one-out walk, Hinch decided to make a move. He’d had ace starter Gerrit Cole warming up earlier, but left him in the bullpen.
“I wasn’t going to pitch him unless we were going to have a lead,” Hinch said. “He was going to close the game in the ninth.”
Instead, Hinch signalled for reliable reliever Will Harris.
Kendrick connected on the second pitch, slicing a drive that hit the screen attached to the right field foul pole for a 3-2 lead. Washington kept pulling away, with Soto hitting an RBI single in the eighth and Adam Eaton adding a two-run single in the ninth.
Daniel Hudson closed for the Nationals, who made Houston pay for stranding so many runners. Hudson struck out Michael Brantley for the last out, then threw his glove to start the celebrations.