Nats find identity during pennant run
set the example for the team’s younger players to follow.
“I think the mixture of people that we do have is what makes us so good,” said Kendrick, the NLCS MVP. “The chemistry that we do have, we understand each other.”
The Nationals have relied on that pitching staff, specifically their starting pitchers, to get to this point. In the NLCS, Sanchez, Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg didn’t give up a single earned run in 212⁄3 innings.
“It’s great, but it’s not just the starting pitchers, it’s everybody. Everybody has a hand in this,” Scherzer said. “You can give starting pitchers credit, but it’s also been the offense, defense, baserunning. We’re clicking and firing on all cylinders and that’s what makes it so much fun.”
What wasn’t fun was missing the playoffs last season. And bowing out early in previous years. After winning four division titles in six years from 2012 to 2017, the Nationals needed to earn a wild-card berth just to make the playoffs this year.
But being the underdog for a change served as a rallying cry. In both the wild-card game and the Division Series, the Nats had to come from behind to win.
As the players and coaches were popping champagne bottles and guzzling beer out of the National League championship trophy, no one noticed the absence of a player who occupied one of the large lockers on the left-hand side of the clubhouse for the previous seven seasons.
Bryce Harper never got to experience this kind of celebration during his tenure in Washington. Though it’s unfair to say his leaving as a free agent over the winter and signing with the division-rival Philadelphia Phillies was a factor in the Nationals getting over the hump, it’s also fair to wonder what kind of an impact it did have.
Anthony Rendon stepped forward and became an MVP candidate at age 29. Left fielder Juan Soto blossomed into a full-fledged star in his first full season in the majors. Adam Eaton and Victor Robles each played over 150 games at the other two outfield spots.
And a large chunk of the money the Nationals didn’t spend re-signing Harper instead went toward a six-year, $140 million contract for free-agent left-hander Patrick Corbin, who was the winning pitcher in Monday’s NLCS clincher over the St. Louis Cardinals.
“The roster that Rizzo and the front office put together, it’s just next man up,” shortstop Trea Turner said.