If someone wrote a Hollywood script about the 2019 Washington Nationals, the baseball team punctuated the ending with an emphatic exclamation point to wrap up the 2019 World Series in Game 7 Wednesday night in Houston.
The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros, 6-2, at Minute Maid Park in Houston to cap one of the more strange and improbable World Series on record. For starters, no team won at home, so the road team won every game—the first time in 115 seasons of World Series. It's also the first time any of the major American sports—NBA and NHL included— have seen a road team win every road game in best-of-7 championship series. The NFL does not play series.
Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals was named MVP of the World Series, and the Washington Nationals won their first-ever world title since becoming a National League city. Strasburg won two games in the Series, both on the road in Houston.
The last time the city of Washington won a World Series title was in 1924 when the Washington Senators wrapped up the title as an American League team. That win also took all seven games after legendary pitcher Walter Johnson threw four innings in relief.
For a quick recap of the game: Houston's Yuli Gurriel launched a home run in the second inning to give the Astros a 1-0 lead. Gurriel scored again in the fifth inning when teammate Carlos Correa hit a liner into left field to make it 2-0.
Washington had a big seventh inning with a pair of home runs. The first was a solo homer from Houston native Anthony Rendon—who attended Lamar High School and Rice University—to give the Nationals their first run of the night. Then came a two-run blast to right field from Howie Kendrick to score him and Juan Soto and give the Nationals a 3-2 lead before the seventh-inning stretch.
Soto singled in the eighth to give Washington a 4-2 lead. The Nationals opened their lead to 6-2 in the top of the ninth, then held on to hold Houston scoreless and win the World Series title.
Here are some of the many weird, fun and fascinating facts surrounding the 2019 World Series:
- Two former Cy Young winners (Washington's Max Scherzer and Houston's Zack Greinke) faced off in Game 7 of a World Series for the first time.
- Zack Greinke had five assists in Game 7, the most by a starting pitcher since Hall of Famer Greg Maddux in Game 2 of the 1996 Series.
- The 1996 Series was the last time a manager (Bobby Cox, Atlanta) had been ejected from any World Series game until Washington's Dave Martinez was thrown out of Game 6 Tuesday night after vehemently arguing a judgment call by the umpires.
- Two models were indefinitely banned from Major League Baseball stadiums after flashing their breasts behind home plate, and on national TV, during Game 5 in Washington.
- The road team won each of the first six games/all seven games—the only time in postseason history for any of the American sports leagues of NBA, Major League Baseball or the NHL.
- Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander, who has a Hall of Fame resume, went 0-2 this series, pushing his all-time mark in World Series starts to 0-6 (0-2 with Detroit, 0-4 with Houston).
- Astros third baseman Alex Bregman carried his bat all the way to first base, and even beyond, after hitting a homerun in Game 6. Later that game, Soto of the Nationals did the same, but dropping his bat short of first base.
- The Astros were only the sixth team in Major League baseball history to win 100 or more games in three-consecutive seasons.
- The Nationals were 12 games under .500 (19-31) near the end of May, but came back as the Wild Card. They won a Wild Card Game, a division series and championship series to get to the World Series.
- The Nationals became the fourth-straight road team to win Game 7 of the World Series.
- The Nationals had a former superstar, Bryce Harper, who became a free agent after the 2018 season and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2019. Harper watched as the team in which he became a star became world champions.
- President Donald Trump was booed while choruses of "Lock Him Up" echoed from Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., during Game 5.
