Washington Nationals Win First World Series Title

The 2019 World Series finally reached a conclusion on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The Washington Nationals won their first World Series title in the history of the franchise. They defeated the Houston Astros in the seventh and deciding game by a score of 6-2. The Nationals started out as the Montreal Expos and eventually moved to Washington. This is the first title for the city of Washington since the Senators won the World Series way back in 1924. It was a very interesting series because the road team won all seven games.

The Astros took a 2-0 lead in the game, but they were unable to score any more runs. Washington was able to rally from that deficit on the strength of home runs by Anthony Rendon and Howie Kendrick. Rendon’s was a solo shot to put the Nationals on the board in the seventh. Kendrick’s blast came with a man on and gave Washington a 3-2 lead. The World Series victory is interesting because it comes the year after the Nationals lost superstar outfielder Bryce Harper to the Phillies as a free agent. The success that the Nationals had without Harper shows that one player does not determine the success or failure of any team.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the Nationals now that the season is over. Anthony Rendon is their best offensive player. However, he is going to be a free agent. He will not command a $330 million contract like Harper did. However, he will be offered a very large contract. Only time will tell if Washington will be willing to pay more than any other club to retain their star player. The team did offer Harper a $300 million contract in an effort to keep him. However, a lot of the money was deferred for many years. That made Harper decide to sign with the Phillies.

The seventh game of the World Series was started by Max Scherzer for the Nationals and Zack Greinke for the Astros. Both guys pitched very well. Scherzer ran up a very high pitch count early in the game. However, he was able to hang in there and prevent the Astros from having a big inning to blow the game open. Scherzer battled until Greinke was taken out of the game. This allowed the Nationals to finally break through and take the lead against the bullpen of the Astros.