Colin Maruscsak, Staff Writer |
With the baseball season finally at its end, let’s take a look back at the final series that gave the Washington Nationals their first World Series Championship.
With the Houston Astros having home field advantage, the first two games to begin the seven-game series took place in Houston. The Astros wasted little time, scoring two runs in the first inning off a double hit by Yuli Gurriel. The Nationals didn’t back down however, scoring five unanswered runs. Juan Soto, the Nationals left fielder, hit a two-run-homerun to left field to put the Nats up 5-2. The Astros refused to give up, scoring a run in both the seventh and eighth innings, however they were not able to fully comeback, leaving the final score of game one 5-4 Nationals.
The Nationals kept their momentum going in game two beating the Astros again at home, this time by a score of 12-3. In the first inning, the game was tied at two apiece, and it remained close with neither team scoring any runs until the seventh inning, when the Nationals scored six. However, they didn’t stop there, scoring three in the eighth and another in the ninth.
Looking forward to the end of the series, no teams were able to secure a home victory as games three through five were at Nationals Park. Games four and five resumed with the high scoring action as the Astros won both games by overwhelming margins. Alex Bregman had a fantastic outing in game four with five RBI, leading the Astros to an 8-1 victory. In game five, George Springer had a great game with two hits and two RBI, scoring two runs himself. With a 7-1 victory in game five, the Astros returned home up 3-2 needing one win to claim the World Series championship.
In game six, the Astros came out early, scoring two runs to the Nationals one in the first inning. The Nationals came back in the fifth inning, scoring another two runs which put them ahead 3-2. In the seventh inning, there was tension on the first base obstruction call against Trea Turner. Turner was called out initially, and even after review the umpires concluded he was inside the bag, called him out, and kept the runners at their original positions. The Nationals manager was furious and ended up getting thrown out of the game after arguing the call. However, the batter after Turner, Anthony Rendon, hit a deep homerun to give the Nats an even bigger lead, which soothed Nationals fan’s spirits over the potentially series-changing call. The Nationals went on to win 7-2, giving fans an intense all-or-nothing game seven at Minute Maid Park.
Game seven was a true battle, with both teams starting successful pitchers in Max Scherzer and Zack Greinke. The game started out with the Astros taking a lead in the second inning and holding that lead till the top of the seventh when Anthony Rendon’s solo shot and Howie Kendrick’s two-run homer gave the Nationals a 3-2 lead. The Nationals kept up the pressure scoring three more runs in the last two innings which secured their 6-2 victory and first World Series Championship.
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