Pinch Me: Washington Nationals Win the World Series
by Mike Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief of the Great Geek Refuge
September 9th, 2015 I wrote an article about my favorite sports moments. Why is the date of importance? Because the article was written on the heels of a Washington Nationals collapse of epic proportions. They were in a pennant race with the New York Mets and had given up a HUGE lead. I was distraught. It was just another example of my favorite baseball team choking under the pressure. “Maybe they just weren’t as good as the media thought they were. Maybe they’re not as good as I thought they were,” I thought to myself as I cursed another lost season full of hope. Here’s a line from the article:
I want my son to see that kind of passion and loyalty (referring to the Red Sox 2004 World Series run) and know that no matter what happens, no matter how many leads the Nats blow, no matter how many times the Capitals lose a Game 7… you stick with your team. You root for them because they're yours and sometimes, not always, that hope and faith in your team pays off.
Today is that “sometimes.” The Nationals are the 2019 World Series Champions! It almost seems surreal, like it all didn’t happen. But it was NOT a dream, it did happen, in total defiance of the norms in the sport. What are those norms? Well, baseball in recent years has become a game of analytics. It’s all about what the statistics say, and many of the teams who use this style of management have been successful. This championship defied logic and analytics. There were so many times that, as statisticians would tell you, the likelihood that the Nats would win a playoff game when they were down going into the 7th or 8th inning, let alone a playoff series when they were heavy underdogs, was improbable at best. The Nationals didn’t listen to any of that non-sense. They’re old school. Their manager, Davey Martinez makes decisions with his gut from time to time, a big no-no in the new statistically based “moneyball” era. To crystalize the Nationals attitude during the run, I’ll let Ryan Zimmerman, the longest tenured DC player say it best.
It’s been said a thousand times by a thousand different writers, reporters and the like, but the Nationals were at one point 19-31. This is the worst record of any team who turned it around and won the World Series. It’s an amazing stat that shows how against-the-odds this championship truly was. In fact, because we DC sports fans are so starved of success, we compared the Nationals run in the playoffs to the 2018 Capitals Stanley Cup run. I chronicled my reasons for why the Caps run was so meaningful as well, but really…these were not similar in any way other than both teams had made the playoffs in years past, and they unfortunately had collapsed under the weight of heavy expectations.
The Washington Capitals made the playoffs in the 2018 as the #1 seed in the Metropolitan Division, the overall #2 seed behind the Atlantic Division Tampa Bay Lightning. Their run in the playoffs, while impressive and magical, was not an underdog story. They finally lived up to the potential DC sports fans and sports writers across the world had seen. When pushed to the brink, they found a way to respond instead of folding. They exorcised their woes of playoffs past and finally hoisted a Stanley Cup.
The Washington Nationals were underdogs early on. There were high hopes early in the season, with some predicting a playoff run from them but after falling 12 games under .500 in the end of May, that looked unlikely. Then, something clicked. A team that had been battling injuries all year started getting healthy. The normally tense, nervous and skittish Nats of the past were gone as new additions Gerardo Parra and Anibal Sanchez brought a level of relaxation to their play. They looked like they were having fun! They looked like they enjoyed being on this team together. The Nats started doing things like post-home run dances in the dugout, hugs with the normally frosty Stephen Strasburg and a special extra dance for Howie Kendrick and Adam Eaton…which can all be seen in the video below!
As a fan, watching these guys play early in the season I thought “maybe this isn’t their year, but man it’s fun watching them play!” Their bullpen was historically bad so it really didn’t look like they wouldn’t make any noise at all. And then…they started winning. A lot. Bringing in free agent Gerardo Parra mid-season had a huge impact. He hit a grand slam in one of his first at bats as a National! They went on a tear after that day in May when they were 19-31 and quickly became the best team in baseball from that date. They picked up vital pitching help at the trade deadline to sure up the bullpen. They started making noise and were putting themselves in a spot where they could make the playoffs as a Wild Card team. Oh and this started happening, too: Baby Shark.
This magical run to get to the Wild Card didn’t stop with a loss to the other Wild Card, the Milwaukee Brewers and the lament of “oh well, at least they turned around this awful season. We’ll get ‘em next year!” The Nationals took on Milwaukee and down 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th, loaded the bases against the best closer in baseball. 2nd year phenom, Juan Soto smoked a line drive to right field that got past the Brewers right field and scored 3 runs, giving the Nationals the lead.
They next had to face off against the best team in the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series (NLDS). The Dodgers were heavy favorites but the Nats managed to hang around. They took them to 5 games (the maximum in a DS series) and won on a grand slam home run, after being down 3-1 until the 8th inning. They carried that momentum into the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and took apart the St. Louis Cardinals, sweeping them in 4 games. They then faced the heavily favored Houston Astros, the biggest favorites to win a World Series match up in decades. But apparently, the Nationals players don’t read newspapers or the internet because they came back in 4 different games when down against Houston and beat them. AND ALL OF THOSE WINS WERE IN HOUSTON!!! No team has ever done that, in any sport that has a best-of-seven playoff set up.
Now, don’t get it confused. This was not some squad of rookies and cast-offs. The Nationals got incredible performances from their core of All-Star caliber players both in the regular season and playoffs. Let’s start with pitching.
Max Scherzer, a free agent acquisition in 2015 brought a tenacity and toughness to this team that had never been seen before. He was famous for pacing around the mound before an inning, cursing at himself and then dominating his opponent at the plate. His intensity gave this team an edge when he pitched, even if he didn’t have his ace stuff. In the NLDS against the Dodgers, he looked sharp. Against the Cardinals, he took a no-hitter into the 7th. Against the Astros in Game 1 he was good…but not great. You could tell he didn’t have his ace stuff working. But this dude fights through adversity like no other. In Game 7 against the Astros, after being scratched in Game 5 because he COULDN’T LIFT HIS ARM, he managed to get a cortisone shot and had enough treatment that he pitched in the final game of the season. Think about that for a second: 3 days before Game 7 he couldn’t lift his pitching arm, but he still went out there anyway. That’s how much of a competitor this guy is. He fought through, kept the Nats in Game 7 and they paid off his toughness and adversity by clawing back in that game and winning the series. A half crippled Max Scherzer is better than some pitchers at full strength. Damn.
if you can read lips, I think he said “you’re my favorite guy, and my mother and father’s too.”
Stephen Strasburg shattered all the whispers that he would never live up to the hype of being the #1 overall draft pick in 2009. His career had been marred by injuries and questions of his durability but in the last few years, he was overcoming that. He had a stellar playoff performance against the Cubs in 2017. This year though, Strasburg was on another level. He finally put it all together and when all was said and done, he had accumulated 5 of the Nationals 10 wins in the playoffs! Because of his dominance in the World Series, he took home World Series MVP honors. More importantly, as previously mentioned, the way this team gelled was important for Strasburg as well. He looked like he was actually having fun playing baseball!
If you listen carefully, you can hear “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men play as Sanchez, Parra and Strasburg slow dance in the dugout.
While we’re talking about pitchers, let me make sure I mention the other 2 studs who pitched for the Nationals: Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez. I had already mentioned Sanchez’s impact as far as off the diamond in helping to loosen up the clubhouse but also help bring them together. He also came up huge when the Nats needed a big start from someone not named Strasburg or Scherzer. In Game 1 of the NLCS against the Cardinals, he pitched 7 2/3 innings of no hit baseball! He was electric, completely shutting down a St. Louis team who in their last game hung 13 runs on the Atlanta Braves. That other guy? Corbin? Oh, no big deal. He was only 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA (8th in the NL) in 33 starts, in which he struck out 238 batters. Yawn. On top of that, Corbin won Game 4 of the NLCS, came in from the bullpen throughout the Dodgers NLDS series and in the World Series. Now, that may not seem significant but it is not an easy task for a starter to just come in in the middle of the game and pitch. Starting pitchers and relief pitchers have completely different routines for getting warmed up, different mindsets, etc. It did not phase Corbin as he was masterful. He shut down the Astros in Game 7 after relieving Scherzer who had limited the heavy hitting Houston lineup to only 2 runs. The Astros did not score again in the game and Corbin earned the Game 7 win.
Corbin and Sanchez
Their bullpen, which was iffy at best for most of the season was something that worried most Nats fans once they made the playoffs. However, Manager Davey Martinez used Corbin strategically and had strong performances from Strasburg and Scherzer. If the Nats could get to the 7th or 8th with a lead, the shutdown combo of Daniel Hudson and Sean Doolittle were a precursor of “another Curly W in the books” as radio play-by-play duo Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler are famous for saying.
Doolittle was the Opening Day closer for the squad. However, due to the shaky other bullpen contributors, he was overworked early in the season. A knee injury limited his effectiveness and many worried that he wouldn’t get his electric stuff back by the start of the playoff run. The Nats made a smart move at the trade deadline and picked up Daniel Hudson from the Toronto Blue Jays and he was a breath of fresh air. Doolittle and Hudson made a lethal 1-2 punch for the 8th and 9th innings, sometimes coming in during the 7th inning if they were needed. Not only were they amazing pitchers, they were also amazing people. Hudson wife went into labor and he was a paternity list scratch for Game 1 of the NLCS. Every hot-taking talking head was questioning his dedication to baseball. Doolittle responded perfectly in defense of his closing partner.
“If your reaction to someone having a baby is anything other than, ‘Congratulations, I hope everybody is healthy,’ you’re an asshole.”
Boom. He could have been bitter: he essentially lost his job to Hudson, but he defended him, he congratulated him, he rooted for him. Not only was Doolittle a staunch defender of his teammates, he’s also a Star Wars nerd and wields a lightsaber for every series-clinching celebration. Plus, he’s hilarious. Take a look at the video below as proof.
I literally could do this for every player on this roster. There wasn’t a single player that didn’t have some sort of positive impact during their run to the World Series. Zimmerman came up with clutch hits and amazing defensive prowess. Picked up at the trade deadline, Asdrubal Cabrera was excellent defensively and had timely hits. Trea Turner was a rock at shortstop and when he got on base, was a headache for opponents. Victor Robles played solid defense in center and had a few crucial hits and his backup Michael A. Taylor homered in St. Louis when filling in for the injured Robles. Catchers Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki were great behind the plate and came up big when timely hits were needed. Suzuki hit a go-ahead home run off Justin Verlander in Game 2 that proved to be the game winning tally. I left 4 players off this list though for one reason: they were the biggest contributors when it came to crucial hitting for the Nats in the playoffs. Adam Eaton, Anthony Redon, Juan Soto, and Howie Kendrick. These 4 players are the reason why the Nationals are World Series Champions.
I stated before that every player on this roster was integral to their World Series win, but those last 4 came up the biggest. Adam Eaton had a monster World Series. He hit .320 (8-for-25) with four walks, two home runs, five runs, and six RBIs. His bases loaded 2 run double in the 8th inning of Game 7 of the World Series put the game out of reach for the Astros and allowed Hudson to pitch the bottom of the 9th with very little stress. Anthony Rendon hit .276 in the World Series with 2 home runs and 8 RBIs, leading the team. He was also clutch all October, hitting .328 and was part of the Game 5 rally against the Dodgers when he homered off of Clayton Kershaw, sparking their unlikely comeback and win. Juan Soto had a coming out party of sorts this playoff series. His 8th inning 3 run double against the Brewers in the Wild Card game kicked off this whole playoff run. During the World Series he hit .333 with 3 home runs and 7 RBIs, scoring 6 runs as well. In that crucial Game 5 against the Dodgers, he followed Rendon’s home run off of Kershaw with one of his own, tying the game and sending it to extra innings. Plus, in Game 6, after Houston’s Alex Bregman caused a fervor by carrying his bat all the way down the first base line after hitting an early home run, Juan Soto mimicked that celebration after his own home run. His response? At the :42 second mark.
That leaves us with by far, the best story of this season and especially the playoff run: Howie Kendrick. The man has been around the league. He started with the Los Angeles Angels and played there for 8 seasons before joining the crosstown Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2016 he was traded to the Phillies but didn’t say in Philly for long. The Nats got him in a trade in 2017 for essentially nothing. He did a lot for the team, becoming one of their most consistent hitters. Unfortunately early in the 2018 season, he ruptured his Achilles tendon and was done for the year. He came back this year healthy and was crushing the ball. He hit .344 with 17 HRs and 68 RBIs. As the playoffs started, because of his hot bat Kendrick got put into the lineup every night. It worked well against Milwaukee in the Wild Card game as he was 1-3. Against the Dodgers in the NLDS, Kendrick struggled. His bat went cold and he had caused several errors. The Nats fought hard and forced a deciding Game 5. They were down 3-1 early but stormed back in the 8th to tie it and forced the game into extra innings. In a moment that you couldn’t have written more dramatically, Kendrick comes up to bat with the game tied in the top of the 10th. The bases are loaded and Kendrick hits a grand slam home run to the deepest part of Dodger Stadium. The guy who was the “Buckner” of the Nats 2019 playoff run came through with the biggest home run in Nationals history to this point (sorry Jayson Werth’s 2012 Game 4 shot, this one was bigger).
Kendrick didn’t stop there. He was the NLCS MVP, hitting .333 in the series against the Cardinals, racking up 4 RBIs. The World Series rolled along and who else but Kendrick came up big when his team needed him? With the Nationals down 2-1 in Game 7 of the World Series, Kendrick steps up to bat with Juan Soto on first base. There will come a time when I am an old man and I won’t remember everything that happened in my life. There will be certain keystone senses that will be burned into my brain: the way my grandparents house smelled, the taste of my dad’s homemade chicken enchiladas, they way my wife looked when we first met, seeing my son born. Those are all things I will never forget. Another one is the sound a home run makes when it rings off of a foul pole to put my favorite team up in the deciding game of the World Series. Listen for yourself. 1:56 mark.
There are the traditional things everyone wants to see when a team wins a championship. They want to see the last out. They want to see the team celebration. I’m not like most. I’ve watched Kendrick’s home run at least a dozen times since October 30th when the Nationals won the World Series. In retrospect, it won the World Series. In the moment, I thought they needed some insurance runs, and they got those courtesy of an Adam Eaton 2 run double and a Juan Soto RBI later in the same inning. But Howie Kendrick won that game for Washington. He won them the NLDS against the Dodgers. He was the NLCS MVP. This dude was so clutch. I just want to see his highlights over and over. And…he has the two biggest home runs in Nationals history. Period.
Speaking of those unlikely highlights, in this guy’s opinion, here is when I knew the Nationals weren’t going to quit, ever. The Nationals got hosed by the umpires on a garbage call. Nationals Manager, Davey Martinez decided to get his money’s worth and jumped out of the dugout and tell the umpires exactly what he thought of the call. Now, mind you, at this point the result of the call was inconsequential. Anthony Rendon hit an “eff you” 2 run home run to put the Nats up by 3, but Davey was still incensed. This showed that Davey embodied what the Nationals stood for: he was gritty, he would never stop fighting for his team and would protect his guys. That’s the kind of guy you want to play for. That’s the kind of manager that makes players stick around. It was unlike any other thing we’ve seen from a DC sports team. We see them make bad decision after bad decision and not back their players. Davey backed his guys and took a huge risk in doing so. Mind you, he had to have a heart procedure near the end of the season and was told to “manage sitting down.” That’s incredible. See it for yourself here. 5:30 mark.
After Davey showed how much he cared about this team and his players, you didn’t need a Game 7 win to love this guy. You didn’t need a World Series win to know that this guy definitely was the right one to be managing this team. But that’s what the Nationals did all year: they played for each other. They went that extra mile. They gutted through adversity and found a way. After Davey nearly had another heart condition after his yelling match with the umps, the team responded in Game 7 by never once quitting. They played for Davey who fought for them. They played for Max who took cortisone shots and physical therapy just so he could pitch in a World Series Game 7 because he didn’t want to let his teammates down. They picked each other up and rode to the promised land together.
The Washington Nationals are the world champions of baseball. It was not an easy path for them. They were 12 games under .500 at one point in the season. They were decimated by injuries to key players like Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon and Ryan Zimmerman. Their bullpen was a disaster. There were rumblings that they needed to fire their manager. They never once gave up. You never heard from “anonymous clubhouse sources” that players were not listening to Martinez. They knew they were a good team even if everyone else didn’t. They brought in players to help while their injuries mounted, and those players brought “Baby Shark” with them. They started dugout dances after home runs. They wore stupid sunglasses as good luck charms. Maybe you’re a Yankees fan, or a Braves fan, or a Dodgers fan, or even an Astros fan. You can’t hate the Nationals. They were fun as hell to watch. They were old school in their approach but they brought about a newer phrase from a player that is no longer with them. Bryce Harper, former Nat turned Philadelphia Phillies outfielder said that he wanted to make baseball fun again. That must have rubbed off on them. The Washington Nationals made baseball fun. They won a championship and had a blast in doing it, and they brought the fans along for the ride. Like Davey Martinez said “bumpy roads lead to beautiful places,” like a championship parade down Constitution Avenue in DC. No, this wasn’t a dream, this was just a team that didn’t know how to quit.
