Nationals headed to World Series after sweep
WASHINGTON — It was the first inning, yet fans kept rising to applaud or yell, to chant “Let’s go, Nats!” and players’ names, enjoying every moment of a sevenrun outburst that eventually propelled their city to its first World Series appearance in 86 years.
And then, as the Washington Nationals were protecting a shrinking lead several innings later, those same spectators, 43,976 strong, stood and shouted and reveled some more Tuesday night, counting down the outs needed to finish off an NL Championship Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
From 1931 to the Fall Classic.
Extending their stunning turnaround, the wildcard Nationals got RBIs from middle-ofthe-order stars Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto in that breakout first inning, and Patrick Corbin’s 12strikeout performance and a trio of relievers helped hold on to beat St. Louis 74 in Game 4 of a lopsided bestofseven NLCS.
“Often, bumpy roads lead to beautiful places,” manager Dave Martinez said, “and this is a beautiful place.”
Now NLCS MVP Howie Kendrick and his teammates get plenty of time to rest before beginning in a week against the Houston Astros or New York Yankees.
“You only learn how to win through mistakes and failures,” Kendrick said. “All those failures paid off today.”
This month alone the Nationals beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL wildcard game after trailing 31 heading to the eighth, and eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers in a dramatic Game 5 in the NL Division Series after trailing 31 heading to the eighth again. Then came this sweep of the Cardinals, outscored 206 in the series.
Corbin, a lefthanded pitcher signed with $140 million of the money that became available last offseason when Bryce Harper left to join the Phillies, was not quite the equal of Washington’s other starters.
Still, he did become the first pitcher to strike out 10 batters in the first four innings of a postseason game and earned the win after allowing four runs in five innings. Then Martinez — who many thought might be fired in May — turned to his NLworst bullpen, a problem this season.
After Tanner Rainey got three outs and Sean Doolittle got five, Daniel Hudson came in for his fourth save in four chances this postseason.
Corbin got this evening started with a 123 top of the first, striking out all three Cardinals with a high, 95 mph fastball.
In the bottom half, Washington put up those seven runs, all charged to rookie Dakota Hudson, who lasted all of 15 pitches — doing to the Cardinals what they did in the previous round, when they scored 10 to open Game 5 of the NLDS against Atlanta.
All the heartache of playoffs past seemed to dissipate during an evening that only briefly was tense for the home team and its supporters: In the fifth, a juggled Cardinals lineup finally awoke, scoring three runs — one more than the team managed to produce in Games 13 combined — to get within 74.
With a man on second and the tying run in the ondeck circle, Corbin came through, striking out St. Louis’ 34 hitters, Paul Goldschmidt and Marcell Ozuna.
Howard Fendrich is an Associated Press writer.