The Washington Nationals are truly starting over. Today, they hired 33 year old Blake Butera to replace Davey Martinez as the club’s manager. However, things were a lot different six years ago. On this
day in 2019, the Nationals reached the top of the baseball mountain. They won their first ever World Series in a thrilling Game 7.
Against all odds, the 2019 Nationals got it done. From 19-31 to a World Series title. October 30th, 2019 was the day that Nationals baseball peaked. It has been rough since, but that one day makes all of this rebuilding easier to stomach.
Heading into that Game 7, the Nationals were underdogs like they had been all season long. The Astros were seen as one of the best teams of the decade. They had 3 Hall of Famers in their rotation and one of the deepest lineups in MLB history. Sure, the Nats had fought valiantly to force a 7th game, but the mighty Astros were surely going to finish the job.
They were at home and had Zack Greinke on the mound. The Nats also had their ace pitching in Max Scherzer. However, he was not 100%. A few days prior, the Nats ace was scratched from his Game 5 start after waking up with extreme neck pain.
Scherzer was healthy enough to pitch in the winner-take-all game. However, his start was bumpy. The Astros put a ton of pressure on him and crowded the bases for all 5 innings of his start. As a crafty veteran, Scherzer was able to get out of most of those jams. He gave up a solo homer to Yuli Gurriel and gave up a run in the 5th inning, but he limited the damage.
The future Hall of Famer did not have his best stuff at all, but he was able to weather the storm against an elite lineup. Performing without your best stuff is the sign of a truly elite pitcher. When pitchers are on their A game, plenty of them can have great starts, but surviving when you don’t have it is what makes elite pitchers elite. Max Scherzer did just that on the biggest stage against a truly elite offense.
Despite Scherzer’s gutsy effort, he was not getting any help from his offense. While Scherzer did not have his A game, Greinke did. He was just carving up the Nats lineup with ease. The command and sequencing Greinke had that night was truly special. As an older player, Greinke did not have big time velocity anymore, but he knew how to pitch.
He was getting so many ground balls that night, especially back to himself. The amount of ground balls to the pitcher that game was just ridiculous. Through six innings, Greinke looked untouchable. He had only allowed one hit and one walk. It was getting demoralizing because it looked like Greinke could do it all night.
As we know now, the dam broke in that 7th inning. The first guy to come through was a player who was so clutch that entire postseason in Anthony Rendon. As he had done so many times, he delivered and hit a solo home run to give the Nationals a jolt of life.
After Greinke walked Juan Soto, AJ Hinch had seen enough. He pulled the trigger and went to his bullpen. It was a quick hook that cost the Astros. While Will Harris had been reliable for them in the playoffs, he was used heavily and beginning to wear down. However, Hinch trusted his guy with a run of right handed hitters coming. The first guy he was tasked with facing was Howie Kendrick.
After an Achilles tear in 2018, Kendrick’s career looked to be in jeopardy. He was in his mid-30’s and coming off a major injury. However, he bounced back and had the best offensive season of his career. He had already come up clutch in the NLDS, launching the series deciding grand slam in game 5.
The grizzled vet came through again, with the most famous doink in Nats history. On an outside cutter, Kendrick launched it the other way and nailed the foul pole for a two run homer. He went nuts as he rounded the bases and celebrated with the joy of a child in the dugout. It was a truly beautiful moment I will never forget.
Of course, the Nats were not out of the woods yet. They still had to deal with the mighty Astros lineup and add some insurance runs. The Nats $140 million man Patrick Corbin took care of the lineup. Corbin tossed the three biggest scoreless innings of his life.
Offensively, the Nats exposed a shaky Astros bullpen, scoring one run in the 8th and two runs in the top of the 9th. Now with a four run lead, the finish line was in sight in the bottom of the 9th. The Nats were now ready to turn to their closer Daniel Hudson.
Like so many players on the Nats, Daniel Hudson’s road to this moment was not straight-forward. After a great season as a starter in 2011, Hudson was either hurt or mediocre at best from 2012-2018. However, something changed in 2019. After a strong start to the season with the Blue Jays, the 32 year old Hudson was traded to fix a leaky Nats bullpen.
He did just that and gave the Nats a solid back end of the bullpen alongside Sean Doolittle. Now was Hudson’s chance to close the show. He did just that, carving through the top of the Astros lineup like butter, with a pop up and two strike outs.
After finishing off Michael Brantley with a 3-2 slider, Hudson fired his glove in the air in celebration as the Nats came charging towards him. They had done it, the Washington Nationals had won the World Series. The Nats magic carpet ride of a season ended with the ultimate glory.
That day feels like yesterday, but also a million years ago. So much has changed in the last six years. Nobody from that team remains and the Nats have struggled to find an identity post-2019. Hopefully Paul Toboni and Blake Butera can change that because I miss winning baseball in DC. It was such a fun season and October 30th, 2019 is a day I will never forget as long as I live.
