By Jordan Long
The Washington Nationals are off to their first World Series in franchise history, completing a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Nationals have been one of the hottest teams in the Major League postseason. Let’s take a look back at their run to the World Series.
The Nationals ended the regular season at 93-69, 4 games back of the Atlanta Braves in the National League East Division. They were the 1st Wild Card team and hosted the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card game. The Brewers held a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th inning. Washington scored 3 runs in the 8th to end the Brewers’ season.
It was off to the National League Division Series against the L.A. Dodgers. It took 5 games for them to beat the Dodgers. In game 5 it took extra innings for them to come away with a 7-3 victory. The winning runs came from Howie Kendrick who hit a grand slam off of Dodgers’ pitcher Joe Kelly in the top of the 10th inning, earning their spot in the National League Division Series.
Washington was an underdog to the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis was supposed to win the series. That didn’t happen. Washington’s pitching never allowed the St. Louis offense to get going. St. Louis scored a total of 6 runs in the series, including 4 in game 4 after they were down 7-0. With that Washington is off to the World Series.
Washington played their best baseball of the season to this point. Pitchers are doing their job and not allowing base hits. Even if a runner is on, Washington doesn’t allow them to score. Opposing teams hit into double plays, fly balls, or even groundouts. The total team ERA is 2.90.
The starting pitching is going deep into games. They are finding their spots which makes it difficult for hitters to smack the baseball. The starting pitching ERA is an outstanding 2.04. The bullpen has struggled to keep teams from scoring with an ERA of 4.76.
The Washington offense is doing their part. Hitters are smacking base hits with runners on to add to the lead. Their team batting average is .243. Washington has also added 8 home runs. The pitching and the hitting are the reasons why they have made it to the World Series.
Now that they advanced to the World Series, they await the winner of the ALCS which will either be the New York Yankees or the Houston Astros. No matter what, the World Series will start on October 22nd giving the Nationals a week to wait.
That can be a long time before playing. Teams who have to wait a while before playing the World Series don’t do too well in the fall classic. The 2017 L.A. Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs in 5 games. Their opponent in the 2017 World Series was the Houston Astros who knocked off the New York Yankees in 7 games. Houston defeated the Dodgers in 7 games to win the World Series. In 2015, the New York Mets swept the Chicago Cubs on their way to the World Series. They ended up losing the series to the Kansas City Royals in 5 games. Kansas City needed 6 games to get past the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Nationals will practice while they wait for their opponent. They can try to play simulated games at their stadium. Those are not real games though. Hopefully, when the World Series begins, the Nationals don’t look rusty. If they do with all the time off, it could be a short series for them.
Leave a Reply