Nationals’ underdog journey ends with World Series win.
First time visiting team has won every game
HOUSTON — Almost out of contention in May, champs in October.
Howie Kendrick, Anthony Rendon and the Washington Nationals completed their amazing comeback journey — fittingly with one last late rally on the road.
In Game 7 of the World Series, no less.
Kendrick and Rendon homered in the seventh inning as the Nationals overcame a tworun deficit, rocking the Houston Astros 62 Wednesday night to win the first title in franchise history.
Washington pitcher Patrick Corbin and catcher Yan Gomes (10) run toward relief pitcher Daniel Hudson to celebrate the final out of their 62 win in Game 7 of the World Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
With all eyes on Max Scherzer and his remarkable recovery after a painkilling injection, these Nationals truly embraced their shot in the only Series in
which the road team won every game.
Even more against the odds: Juan Soto and Washington came from behind to win five elimination games this postseason, an unprecedented feat.
“What a story,” said Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals’ initial draft pick back in 2005.
World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg, lefty Patrick Corbin and the Nats brought the first World Series championship to the nation’s capital since Walter Johnson delivered for the Senators in 1924.
This franchise started as the Montreal Expos in 1969 when the major leagues expanded beyond the border, putting a team with tricolor caps at jaunty Jarry Park. They moved to D.C. in 2005, ending Washington’s threedecadeplus wait for bigleague baseball after the Senators left to become the Texas Rangers.
But the path these wildcard Nationals with the curly W logo took, no one could have imagined.
“Resilient, relentless bunch of guys,” manager Dave Martinez said. “They fought all year long.”
Having lost outfielder Bryce Harper to free agency and beset by bullpen woes, Washington plummeted to 1931 in late May. There was talk the Nationals might fire Martinez and trade Scherzer.
Instead, they stuck with the mantra that sprung up on Tshirts: “Stay in the Fight.”
“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 1931. We didn’t quit then, we weren’t going to quit now,” he said.
For the 43,326 revvedup fans at Minute Maid Park, it was shock and disappointment. So close to seeing the Astros win their second Series title in three years, they watched their chance vanish as Houston fell apart.
“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,” Houston manager AJ Hinch said.
Washington pulled away after taking the lead, with Adam Eaton adding a tworun single in the ninth.
Zack Greinke was in control until Rendon — a Houston prep and college star — hit a home run to cut the Astros’ lead to 21 in the seventh.
When Soto followed with a oneout walk, Hinchmade a move. He’d had Gerrit Cole warming up in the bullpen earlier, but this call was for Will Harris.
Kendrick connected on the second pitch, slicing a drive that hit the screen attached to the rightfield foul pole.
For Kendrick, another timely blow. At 36, playing on the oldest team in the majors, the journeyman earned the NL Championship Series MVP award against St. Louis after hitting the winning grand slam in the 10th inning of the deciding Game 5 in the Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
Then again, this was nothing new for the Nationals.
Washington rallied in the eighth to beat Milwaukee in the wildcard game and took the last two to beat Los Angeles in the NLDS, setting up a sweep of the Cardinals in the NLCS.
“The way this game went is the way our whole season went,” said Zimmerman, the last player left from the 2005 team that debuted in Washington.
Game 7 was a classic duel from the start.
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 20 in the fifth.
Scherzer was done after the fifth, but he had done his job to keep it close. Only a few days earlier, the threetime Cy Young Award winner had been unable to lift his right arm because of nerve irritation near his neck.
Daniel Hudson, released by the Angels in March, closed out the win 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 celebration.
The Astros had breezed to the AL West title, edged Tampa Bay in a fivegame ALDS and topped the Yankees in the ALCS. They played through a frontoffice fiasco, which led to the firing of an executive for a profane rant at female reporters during a clubhouse celebration after winning the ALCS.