Washing Nationals’ Road to the Ring

By Cameron Young

If I told somebody who follows baseball two months ago that the Washington Nationals were going to beat the Houston Astros in seven games in the World Series, they would have laughed in my face. Theirs is the ultimate underdog story. After losing superstar outfielder Bryce Harper in the offseason, the Nats began their first fifty games of the season with a record of nineteen wins and thirty-one losses. Washington rallied in the dog days of summer to barely clinch the last spot in the National League Wild Card. They then went on to win all five Elimination games they faced. Finishing this with beating the Astros, this year called the best team of the century, in seven games, including a game seven on the road. Now, the Washington Nationals are the Baseball Champions of the world. As Tim Kirkjian would say, “It’s just baseball!”

The Nats’ road to the ring was anything but easy. To begin their magical playoff run, they were faced with a gut-wrenching, one run win against a tough Milwaukee Brewers team. But this was nothing compared to what they were about to face.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, a heavy favorite to win the National League, and even the World Series. The Dodgers fell short in the Series a year previous, and this was their revenge season. After being down 2 to 1 in a five-game series, the Nationals had no tomorrow. But the Nationals starting pitching had something to say about the Dodgers returning to the world series. With Dominant performances from Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, The Nationals pulled off the series upset of the year.

The now-hot Nationals then moved on to the National League Championship series against the St. Louis Cardinals, where they dominated all phases of the game to sweep the Cards in four games. Sending them to an opportunity to win their first World Series ever for the Nationals.

The rest is history. Even after they made the impressive run to the World Series, everybody, including myself, predicted that the star-studded Astros would dominate the Nats. But the team embraced all of the doubt. Winning all three of the away games in the first six games of the series, Stephen Strasburg was scheduled to be on the bump for game seven. He once again dominated the once invincible Houston Astros lineup. The Nationals, against all odds, became Baseball Champions of the world.