Washington Nationals beat Houston Astros in Game 7 to win franchise's first World Series
They broke all sorts of records to accomplish this. The most amazing is that this World Series is the first in any known seven series sport where the away team won every game.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
For the first time in almost a century, America's best baseball team calls America's capital its home.
The road warrior Washington Nationals captured the franchise's first World Series title, by defeating the mighty Houston Astros, 6-2, on Wednesday night in Game 7.
Washington's triumph capped the first World Series in baseball history in which visiting teams won all seven games.
It was the first championship to go seven games in any major sport — baseball, basketball or hockey — where the winner won all four games on the road.
Houston seemed ready to finally win at home, leading 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning before Washington exploded for three runs.
The Nationals' title-winning rally was capped by Howie Kendrick's two-run homer off the foul pole in right field, stunning the raucous Houston crowd into silence.
Two batters earlier, Houston native and Rice University alum Anthony Rendon put the Nationals on the board with a solo home run off Astros starter Zack Greinke.
Till then Greinke, who has had well-publicized battles with social anxiety and depression , had been the picture of poise, outdueling Washington starter Max Scherzer in a battle between two of baseball's best pitchers.
After Rendon's home run, Juan Soto drew a walk, prompting Astros manager A.J. Hinch to pull Greinke in favor of reliever Will Harris, who surrendered the Kendrick homer.
Soto's RBI-single in the eighth inning and Adam Eaton's two-run single in the ninth inning gave Washington cushion.
Washington Nationals designated hitter Howie Kendrick (47) celebrates with left fielder Juan Soto (22) after hitting a two-run home run against the Houston Astros during the seventh inning in game seven of the 2019 World Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston Oct 30, 2019.Troy Taormina / USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
"The dream came true, and we did it for the fans of Washington," said Ted Lerner, 94, the founding principal owner of the Nationals.
The Nats have played in Washington, D.C., since 2005, following their previous incarnation as the Montreal Expos.
Anthony A. Williams, mayor of the district when the Expos relocated to his city, thanked the team owners.
"Congratulations to Ted, Mark and the Lerner family," Williams tweeted after the final out. "You’ve built a great team for our city and we thank you!"
Thousands of Nats fans held a watch party at their home park Wednesday night and exploded in joy at 11:50 p.m. when Washington reliever Daniel Hudson struck out Michael Brantley to end years of post-season disappointment.
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Amazing series.
That it was, that it was.
It was! I had to root for the Nats! Astros bullpen fell apart in game 7 but they gave it a damn good fight throughout the series. It was an awesome World Series! Unfortunately, someone has to always lose. The "agony of defeat" couldn't be a more true statement. Hats off to Houston!
Congrats Nat fans! Thank you for standing up against Trump. America hears you and our true Patriots are standing with you!
Sidebar: good to see you front and present again Tig!
I became a fan of the Nats fans.
When they got that last out (a swinging strikeout on a beautiful slider). I jumped up and started yelling: "LOCK HIM UP!"
My wife was watching the TV in the living room. She came in the den where I was yelling. She asked me WTF? I told her the Nets just won the world series and she joined me foe a couple of choruses of "LOCK HIM UP!"
I understand that Houston is flooded again even though it didn't rain.
I just can't wait till they actually lock him up! Or when it's just all over with.
I am so sick of him and his romper room bullshit. What a fucking stain on our history and a very hard growing pain. I cannot predict what recovery is going to look like when this charade is over but it stands to reason it will take some time, I have to believe. There are just so many brainwashed into his con game who believe this deep state bullshit.
I predict he will resign after the R's in the Senate tell him they have no choice as they didn't with Nixon either, IF he doesn't stroke out here soon. Pence will pardon, but he exiles out to Russia or Saudia Arabia or where he can't be extradited back to stand trial by SDNY. Want to bet his escape plan has been written some time ago.
He's dumber than a sack of hammers, but he's surrounded by mob scum who will help him. Fascists like to stick together.
America and the world are truly waiting to exhale. I know I am.
My usual insomnia failed me last night. I tried to watch. I remember getting sleepy in the 5th, then woke up to see the party at the Nationals' stadium about 12:15. Dammit.
Baseball usually puts me to sleep! I was yawning at 5th inning too just glad I managed through it. I may catch a few games through regular season, but evidently more of a fairweather friend as I never miss the World Serious.
I played baseball and softball, and love the strategy and so forth. But watching it - meh. I can see why people think it's a boring sport. A few seconds of action, followed by a lot of nothing happening. I really only watched (tried to watch) because if you live in Virginia, you root for the Nats or the Orioles, and it was the World Series.
If it were all diving catches in the outfield, or well-executed double plays, I'd love to watch. But it's mostly battles between pitchers and batters anymore.
I'd even rather watch golf. At least when golf tournaments are aired on TV, they don't show the walk from green to next tee box. They cut to a golfer who's actually teeing off or putting. They usually don't even show the strokes between the tee shot and the approach shot, if it's a par 5.
See, you really are left wing! Must have forgot what it's like being on the left side of the field which is the right side of history.
Yeah, I loved playing it. Getting too old now, but it was a blast to play girls softball. Playing baseball with the boys in the hood. Ahh youth! How fleeting it was and is.
I can appreciate a good shot in golf. In my mind, I keep thinking "I could do that." In reality, I can't.
I played last summer, but that was probably my retirement year. My reflexes aren't what they used to be, and it was co-ed. Some of those guys hit damned hard, and I was scared a few times.
Yeah. I was a star in Little League. Great memories!
So I decided to coach when my son was starting out as a player. Then I starting coaching youth basketball too. When my daughter starting playing softball I coached her team. It was just like coaching boys except I had to teach them how to spit.
I finally hung up my cleats after the company I worked for broke up (we had to "spin off" two other companies). We lost the company softball team and we lost our volleyball team. That was probably a good thing. I had just turned 50 and my speed was declining.
I played lots of sports over the years (NCAA wrestler in college) but my fondest memories are my Little League years.
Golf! Loved it but truth be told, my boobs grew too big and got in the way of my swing a very long time ago. I was better at Nintendo golf anyway. My granddaughter has my clubs now. She's tiny tiny itsy bitsy.
Fun stuff, great story with your kids. Awesome Dad and coach! I love hearing stories like yours. Thanks for sharing those awesome memories!
Careful of those tornadoes! That's scarier than anything. We've had a few funnel water spouts in my neck here this year and last.
When I was about 7, our house had big picture windows that sat high on a hill overlooking the valley and local river below. That yearwe had a huge water spout come up the river. I'll tell you, between seeing that first-hand and then the Wizard of Oz tornado on TV, I suffered nightmares for years!
I've been in their midst out in the midwest before and it was a total mind fuck. I was there a hundred miles as the crow flies when the F5's hit Oklahoma in 1999. Lightening snapping at ground level. Rain splatting sideways. In fact where I was staying, a tornado came down, took out a barn about a mile from me, picked up, same cell dropped another tornado 50 miles away killing 4. I quickly moved back to the NW. Hell with tornado alley. What state are you in?
I bet! Great exercise but not worth getting knocked out over.
I never developed a love of golf like I did of baseball/softball. Probably because I took it up too late and never got any good at it, and it's hard to go golfing to practice where I live. It's 45 minutes any direction to the nearest golf course. I mostly golf to spend time with my dad, who won his state's senior ameteur tour last year.
Like al, he was my coach growing up, in baseball, softball, and now golf.
I was more afraid of having a bad hop knock my teeth out. One of those hard hitting guys hit me a hoppy grounder at second one time. I caught it in the pocket of my glove, and it still hurt.
Lol ya should try pitching you can't even get your glove in front of some of the zingers that come back at you
I was a pitcher. And back in the day, I had really quick reflexes. Saved myself from some pretty bad bruises several times - except that one that caught me right on the shin bone. That was some kind of painful. I was standing there laughing to keep from crying, and limped for a month.
Yeah I've still got a dent and scarring from one of those (happened about 22 years ago). Other than that nothing lasting,
you certainly learned to stay on your toes as a pitcher.
One game I pitched in high school, the other team kept hitting the ball right back at me. I caught several, either in the air or in time to throw the batter out at first, until their coach yelled, "You know she can catch. Hit it somewhere else!"
I gotta quit reminiscing, or I'll end up playing again next spring and get my teeth knocked out.
When I played baseball, my only female teammate hit the ball right back at the pitcher, and it left seam marks on his chest. He was pretty scared of her after that.
I've only seen my dad get teary-eyed twice that I can remember. Once was when my grandmother died. The other time was my last high school softball game as a senior. He was assistant coach.
I was much luckier than you as far as injuries. One broken finger, and some bruises and strawberry rashes. But I now have a bone spur in my right shoulder.
LMAO me too and the last game I ever played (about 5 yrs ago) I broke my damn tibia colliding with the catcher. Still have fond memories of baseball though, lots of good times.
We were both holding back tears. We'd lost at our regional tournament in post-season. If we'd won, we'd have gone on to states, but it wasn't meant to be.
When I joined the team freshman year, they'd won a total of 5 games in 5 seasons, so even making it to a regional playoff was a huge step up for us. Most of our team had never played organized softball until they were 13 or 14, because our town Little League didn't have softball for girls. Two of us had played baseball.
And now you've told your own beautiful story. Thank you for that.
The only time the road team has ever won every game of a best of seven series in any professional American team sport.
I don't know if they have prop bets for that at the sports books, but if they do , anyone who made that bet a couple weeks ago is rolling in dough right now. What are the odds of something that has never happened before happening now? Probably quite high, if not incalculable.
Happy for the Washington baseball fans. Its always fun to see a team win a championship who hasnt won in decades, or in this case the franchise had never won it all before.
I saw a pretty good explanation for that in print this morning though. Either Steven Strasberg or Max Scherzer started all four of the games in Houston for the Nationals.
If only they could do away with umpires.................
Home plate calling of balls and strikes will be replaced with multi-sensor, multi-dimensional automation that will see the trajectory from many more angles than humanly possible and 'see' it in slow motion (compared to a human being) using light and sound. This will (I am confident) be accurate to a six-sigma level. No more crappy calls from the plate (there were a ton of them in this series) and more consistency for both the pitchers and the batters.
Once that is done I suspect first base will be next. It would be nice to eliminate bad calls on the most active base.
I noticed that especially in last night's game. I hope they implement it in the near future. That little strike zone box last night belied some of those strikes..........and a few of the balls.
Game 5 was much worse.
Lock them up!
Congratulations to the Washington Nationals
Congratulations to the Nationals.
Amazing neither team won a home game.
I know the feeling one gets from the first time win of the World Series. And, being an avid Blue Jay fan at the time (I guess I'm still a fan), being there and seeing Joe Carter hit the home run of his life to win the back-to-back World Series victory was for me my most exciting moment in sports.