On October 30, the Washington Nationals ended their season by winning the World Series championship, the first time in their team’s history. However, the path to victory was not a smooth journey; with so many ups and downs, this team has gone through several major obstacles in just one season.
Last off-season, the Nationals lost Bryce Harper, one of their star players. The team thought Harper was necessary player in order to go far into the playoffs. Some Nationals fans were heartbroken that he didn’t stay with the team.
Early on in this season, Nationals shortstop Trea Turner broke a finger, and the Nationals weren’t able to truly fill the big gap in the lineup where Turner once was. The team’s management called up its top prospect, Victor Robles. He started off doing well, batting ninth in the order.
Many other Nationals players were injured early in the season, including Most Valuable Player (MVP) candidate and third baseman Anthony Rendon, 21-year-old Juan Soto, and Nationals veteran Ryan Zimmerman. Soto missed ten games due to back spasms early in the season. Zimmerman was injured two times this season, although both were minor injuries. Combined, these injuries completely derailed the Nationals during the start of the season.
Around the same time as these injuries, second-baseman Brian Dozier had a terrible first six games in which he had two hits for his 22 times at-bat. He finished the season with a 0.238 batting average.
By May 24, the Nationals had 19 wins and 31 losses.
“They should’ve fired the manager. I knew the team was good, but they just can’t put the pieces together,” Walter Johnson High School freshman Ian Rudolph said mid-season.
When the Nationals got to full strength, they couldn’t be stopped. Rendon was in his prime, and he led the league with 126 Runs Batted In (RBIs). He finished the regular season with a 0.319 batting average–the fifth-best in the MLB–despite missing nine games due to his injury.
Soto had one of the best seasons for a player that young ever. He finished the season batting 0.282 with 110 RBIs and 34 home runs even though he missed ten games due to his injury.
When Trea Turner was healthy, he was a great lead-off hitter. He finished the regular season with a 0.298 batting average. Despite missing 39 games due to his broken finger, he came in fifth for stolen bases.
Ryan Zimmerman only played 52 games in the regular season, but he played every single game in the postseason.
Despite various injuries, the Nationals had the best pitching rotation in the National League. Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Patrick Corbin are all good enough to be the ace on a baseball team. Their average Earned Run Average (ERA) is 3.16, a remarkably low number. Without this rotation, there would’ve been no chance for the Nationals to make the postseason.
The Nationals’ fourth pitcher, Anibal Sánchez, finished the regular season with a 3.85 ERA, which is still incredibly good.
When the Nationals snatched the first wildcard spot in the postseason, the team was coming off of a 74-38 streak.
After beating the Milwaukee Brewers four to three to take the wildcard, the Nationals went on to defeat both the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals in five-game series, making it into the World Series.
The Astros were coming off of an amazing season with 107 wins and 55 losses, the best record in the MLB for the 2019 campaign, making the World Series an incredibly grueling fight.
This series was historical. Unlike any other championship series in any of the three major sports, baseball, basketball and hockey, the away-team won every single game in the World Series. It completely redefined home-field advantage.
Stephen Strasburg was the World Series MVP after pitching in game two and game six. In game two, Strasburg pitched six innings and only gave up two runs and led the Nationals to a 12-3 victory. In game six, Strasburg pitched an incredible 8.1 innings and only gave up 2 runs in that game too, leading his team to a 7-2 victory.
This was the first-ever World Series the Nationals have either won or been a part of.
The Nationals have Strasburg and Rendon as free agents this season. If they get resigned, the future looks very bright for the Nationals, but if they depart then Nationals will lose two players who played a very large part in the team’s World Series run.
Article by Andrew Plotnick of Walter Johnson High School
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons