FAMILIAR FOES
Spring training partners again are on common ground in the Fall Classic
The Astros and Nationals spend their summers in ballparks separated by 1,412 miles of freeway and 1,200 miles as the crow flies, but they spend their springs side by side at FITTTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Fla.
They’ll return to Florida again next February, and for each and every day they’re in camp, one team will have to look at banners celebrating the other team’s 2019 World Series championship.
“I hope it’s them,” said Astros manager A.J. Hinch.
The real estate partnership between the Astros and Nationals is an admittedly superficial link between the teams that will meet in the World Series beginning Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park, but it also reflects the fact that there are no real strangers when two teams meet.
Players share agents — Gerrit Cole of the Astros and Anthony Rendon of the Nationals, for example — are represented by Scott Boras. They share past lives; Justin Verlander of the Astros and Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez of the Nationals were teammates with the Tigers this decade.
Each third baseman has a relationship to his opponent’s city. Rendon is a graduate of Lamar High School who was an AllAmerican at Rice University, and Alex Bregman of the Astros is the grandson of Stan Bregman, the one-time general counsel of the Washington Senators, who moved to Arlington in 1971 as the Texas Rangers.
“My dad is from Washington, and all his childhood friends will be there along with my family,” Bregman said. “We’re looking forward to going there.”
More pertinent to the matter at hand, though, are the structural comparisons between the teams. Verlander and Cole will be 1-2 or 2-1 in the American League Cy Young Award voting, but Strasburg and Scherzer rank among MLB’s top 10 pitchers in Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement ratings.
With Patrick Corbin and Sanchez, the Nationals enter the series with a deeper rotation than the Astros, who with Wade Miley’s late-season implosion are without a traditional fourth starter behind Zack Greinke.
The Nationals enter the series with an edge in most playoff offensive categories save home runs while playing one fewer game than Houston with their four-game sweep of the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
“They have a ridiculously talented lineup, a ridiculously talented pitching staff, and they’ve shown unbelievable grit to get into the position they’re in,” Cole said.
“I know a lot of the guys on their team, and I know how hard they prepare. I’m excited for them, and I’m excited for us.”
Opposing hitters have managed only a .186 batting average against Washington pitching, an ill omen for a Houston team that enters the series significantly underperforming at the plate.
“They did a great job shutting down the Cardinals,” said outfielder Josh Reddick. “We have to get those guys’ backs against the wall, pressure them a little bit. They had it a little too easy in that series.”
The National were able to wreak considerable damage against the Dodgers’ relievers in the Division Series, with Ryan Zimmerman’s three-run homer in the fifth inning of Game 4 and back to back home runs by Rendon and Juan Soto in the eighth inning of Game 5 off Clayton Kershaw,
followed by Howie Kendrick’s game-winning grand slam in the 10th off Joe Kelly.
In the NLCS, the starters dominated the first two Washington wins. Sanchez allowed the Cardinals one hit in 72⁄3 innings in Game 1, a 2-0 Nationals win, and Scherzer held them hitless for six innings in Game 2, which Washington won 3-1.
Big innings secured wins in Games 3 and 4 — a four-spot in the third inning of Game 3 and seven runs in the first inning of Game 4. Washington had 15 runs in the two games, and none were the result of a home run, in marked contrast to the Astros’ homerheavy ALCS output.
The lack of a fourth Astros starter may focus attention, again, on the Houston bullpen, which got contributions from seven pitchers in Houston’s clinching Game 6 win Saturday night.
“We’re prideful men down there,” said righthander Will Harris. “We pitched ourselves into some tight spots but showed some moxie getting out of those spots.
“We play (the Nationals) all the time in spring training. We know those guys. They’re playing really good baseball, and in the postseason that is the most important thing. It’s a team with a lot of talent playing its best brand of baseball.”