For the first time since moving to Washington D.C. in 2005, the Washington Nationals made it to the World Series. Not only did they make it to the World Series, but they also won the World Series. This is a great feat for them, but it means so much more than just that.
The Nationals have called Washington D.C. home since 2005, however, they have been a franchise since 1969.
In 1969 four expansion teams joined the league as a measure brought by Major League Baseball to help restore the game’s former glory. One of the team’s in the expansion was the first professional team to be based outside of the United States, the Montreal Expos. The Expos time in Montreal was not a successful one, in 36 seasons they only made the playoffs one time (1981) and lost in the NLCS.
Finally, in 2005 the Expos moved their franchise to Washington D.C. and renamed themselves the Nationals, this would be the first team in Washington D.C. since the Washington Senators moved to Texas following the 1971 season. Since the move to the capital the team has been fairly successful. In 15 seasons in their new home they have made the playoffs a total of five times.
Before this season they could never make it past the NLDS when they made the playoffs. This year they changed that, making it to their first NLCS and their first WS appearance. Not only did they make their first appearance in the World Series, but they managed to grab their first title after a grueling seven game series against the Houston Astros.
Winning their first championship in franchise history was not the only history that the Nationals would be a part of though, both the Nationals and Astros created history in this series which made for one of the more entertaining World Series in the past decade.
This series had a lot of team and individual firsts, the first series in which the road team was victorious in every game, the first series where the champion club won every game on the road, and maybe most impressively, the first time Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander lost back-to-back games all season long. This might be the most impressive because this is exactly the hump that the Nationals needed to get over in order to win the series.
However, the most intriguing stat comes that neither team won a single matchup in their home ballpark. The Nationals won their first ever World Series and yet they have still never managed to win a home game in the World Series.
That is a mindboggling statistic, that changed the history of the game forever.
Throughout the whole series there were multiple people who had a chance to win the series MVP for the Nationals if they were to win the series. They did and up winning the series and the MVP went to the player who most deserved it, Stephen Strasburg.
Juan Soto, Anthony Rendon, and Adam Eaton all had great series and had a legitimate shot of becoming the WS MVP, however, Strasburg was unreal not only in the WS but in these whole playoffs. Strasburg in the simplest form was the reason that the Nationals won the World Series.
Strasburg was 2-0 in the series with a 2.51 ERA, 14 strikeouts, and four walks over 14 and 1/3 innings in the series. In game six Strasburg was able to go eight and 1/3 inning, which allowed the Nationals to save Max Scherzer for game seven in the decisive game. One can argue that Soto and Rendon did more for the Nationals over their seven games, but Strasburg gave everything he could over his two games which earned him the MVP.
The World Series victory created history for the Nationals franchise and for baseball in Washington D.C. The last championship to go to D.C. was in 1924 when the Senators defeated the New York Giants in a seven-game series, and the last World Series to take place in D.C. was in 1933 when the Senators lost to the Giants in five games.
This series meant everything to both the franchise and the fans of the Nationals, but this glory may have come at a cost. Both the World Series MVP, Strasburg, and the potential regular season MVP Anthony Rendon are both free agents after this season. This means that both of these players could potentially be gone after this season which is tough for the Nationals but extremely worth it.
Even if they lose these players after the season, this franchise will never hold anything against these players for what they did on their path to help the Nationals win a historic World Series against one of the best teams in the game’s history in the Houston Astros.
The Capital city has had a lot of reason to cheer in the past couple years for sports when we look at the Capitals in hockey, the Mystics in the WNBA, and the Nationals in baseball. The baseball scene may be a little rough depending on what happens in free agency the next couple of seasons, but they will never forget the run they took to capture the World Series title.