Oct. 31, 2019

By Lukas Weese

Canadian Baseball Network

As thousands of Washington D.C. citizens woke up on Halloween, candy and trick or treating was not the first thing to come to mind. It was the surreal reality that the Washington Nationals are World Series champions.

This was not supposed to happen. The Nationals were a franchise haunted by recent postseason history. Entering the 2019 playoffs, the Nationals had not won a postseason series in their 15-year existence.

But like a witch’s spell brewing in a cauldron, the ghosts of the Nationals’ past playoff disappointments slowly began to erode. With their backs against the wall, they raised their level of play. From beating the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card to capturing the World Series in seven games against the Houston Astros, the Nationals conquered their previous postseason horrors in dramatic fashion.

“We stayed in the fight. And we won the fight,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez told reporters after his team’s 6-2 victory over the Astros in Game 7.

The last time Washington brought home a World Series Championship was 1924 when the team was known as the Senators. That series would also go seven games. The final game of that series featured Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson taking the mound on one day’s rest and Muddy Ruel scoring the winning run against the New York Giants. The Senators would host another World Series in 1932, but lose to the same Giants in five games.

In the stands as an usher was a young Theodore Lerner. From an early age, Lerner saw the winning culture of a ball team in Washington, and how championships can transform the sports consciousness in the nation’s capital.

When the opportunity came up to own a Washington team, the Lerner family could not refuse. In 2006, owners gave approved the sale of the Nationals, who had moved to the nation’s capital from Montreal, to the Lerner family, and Ted Lerner would play a pivotal role in rejuvenating baseball’s popularity in Washington, D.C.

Showcasing stars such as Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer, the Nationals captured four division titles in six years from 2012 to 2017. The regular season success, however, didn’t translate to the postseason.

It started with the collapse against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, when the Nationals blew a 6-0 lead in Game 5 of the NLDS.

Then it was losing in Game 5 back to back years in the NLDS to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in 2016 and 2017.

Ryan Zimmerman, the longest serving Nationals player, remembers those painful losses far too well, which made this World Series win even more sweet for him.

“A lot of these guys didn’t even ever go through that kind of stuff. So I think it’s a good thing — we’ve moved on to where we’re expected to make the playoffs every year, we’re expected to compete,” Zimmerman told reporters.

After starting 2019 with no Bryce Harper, who signed a 13-year, $330-million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Nationals went 19-31 in their first 50 games. It looked like a lost season. But with fans calling for Martinez to be fired, the team rallied to go 74-38 the rest of the way.

Securing the first NL Wild Card spot with 93 wins, the Nationals immediately faced adversity against the Milwaukee Brewers. Down 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth, 20-year old Juan Soto delivered a bases loaded two-out hit against Brewers ace closer Josh Hader to bring in three runs to give the Nationals a 4-3 lead and eventually the victory.

Soto would eventually hit .277/.373./.554 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in the postseason.

“You look at a 21-year-old kid that's just out there having fun like he's playing stick ball in the backyard. That's who he is. He loves the moments. He loves going up there and picking up his teammates,” said Martinez.

The Nationals did not just rely on the power hitting of Soto to deliver their comeback magic. Unlikely players raised their status in the postseason, most notably Howie Kendrick. The 38-year-old Kendrick was a post-waiver deadline acquisition from the Phillies, a player who still was dealing with the after effects of a ruptured Achilles injury from last season.

In Game 5 of the NLDS, Kendrick became a household name in Nationals lore when he belted a tie-breaking grand slam in the top of the 10th inning to propel the Nationals to their first NLCS. Kendrick would top that in Game 7 of the World Series when he socked a two-run home run in the seventh inning that gave Washington the lead.

“The mindset of everybody in here has been special all year,” said Kendrick to reporters in the clubhouse celebration. “To be able to come back, to be a part of this, is truly special. It made all the work worth it.”

The Nationals’ postseason run was a complete team effort. It could be Soto or Kendrick one night. Or Anthony Rendon in another game, who would hit two home runs and record eight RBIs in the World Series. But it was the two starting pitchers, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, whose legacies came full circle with a world championship.

Strasburg was once shut down by management prior to the 2012 postseason after his Tommy John Surgery. Scherzer could not even dress himself due to neck and back spasms prior to his scheduled Game 5 start.

But when the pressure was at its highest, both pitchers excelled. Strasburg pitched a masterful 8 1/3 innings in a do or die Game 6, registering seven strikeouts and two earned runs on five hits. This, along with his Game 2 victory (six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts) earned him World Series MVP honours.

After sending a text to his manager saying, “I’m good,” Scherzer registered five innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and three strikeouts. Given that he hadn’t pitched since Game 1 of the World Series, Scherzer was solid enough to keep the Nationals in the game, before the comeback occurred.

“The one thing that you can control is your approach and how you handle your business off the field. And when you go out there and compete, it's just about execution,” said Strasburg. “You put in all the work in the offseason, in between starts, to go out there and try and be the best version of yourself. And that's something you can control every time.''

The Nationals went 5-0 in elimination games this postseason and they trailed at one point in all of those contests. And in a season where the conventional way to win was thought to be based off of home runs and power hitting, the Nationals showcased their balanced offence, defence and pitching.

Not even the 106 and 107 wins of the Dodgers and Astros could stop the Nationals from believing in each other and achieving what earlier in the season seemed all but impossible.

It took years of heartache for the Nationals to become champions. It may have been longer than originally planned, but whenever an exorcism of playoff demons occur, it is always worth the wait.