I have never been so happy to be wrong. I thought my pick of Astros in six was going to come true after an epic collapse at home by the Nationals, but Washington was able to become the first team to win all four road games in a championship series (out of the NBA, NHL, MLB), as well as being the first team to win three elimination/winner-takes-all games in the same postseason. Stephen Strasburg was the World Series MVP, allowing only four runs in the 14.1 innings that he pitched, and racking up 14 strikeouts, as well.
The series started in Houston, where the Nationals took game one 5-4, and blew out the Astros 12-3 in game two. Max Scherzer pitched game one, and Strasburg game two. 21 year old Juan Soto had three RBIs in game one, including a home run off the best pitcher in baseball, Gerrit Cole.
Game two belonged to the Nationals from the start, giving Justin Verlander his fifth World Series loss (0-6 total), and giving Strasburg his first win. Asdrubal Cabrera led the Nats bats in game two, with two hits and three RBIs.
But then the bats went quiet in game three, when Houston won their first game, 4-1. Zack Greinke was the reason for this silence, allowing only one run and striking out six in 4.2 innings. Jose Altuve had two hits and two runs, and hitting right after him, Michael Brantley had two hits and two RBIs.
Game four was much of the same, this time the Nationals losing 7-1, mostly due to the Astros pitching only giving up four hits the entire game, meanwhile the Nationals gave up 13 hits. Alex Bregman had three hits and five RBIs for the Astros, leading the way with Altuve and Brantley again.
At this point I was actually worried, because the two game lead had vanished in less than 30 hours. And game five didn't calm my nerves. The Astros started Gerrit Cole, who gave up three hits and one run in seven innings, while the Nationals started Joe Ross, (Scherzer was out with everywhere soreness) who gave up two home runs and four earned runs in five innings. Soto was the only one who could do anything, and he had two hits and a solo home run off Cole, which means he had four hits in seven at bats against the Astros' ace, including two homers.
Thankfully, Strasburg pitched game six, and he threw a gem of a game, with 8.1 innings pitched and only giving up two runs. Sean Doolittle then got the last two outs to push the series to game seven. Anthony Rendon had three hits and five RBIs, and Juan Soto got some revenge against Alex Bregman.
In the first inning, Bregman hit a dinger off of Strasburg, and carried his bat all the way to first base. So when Soto hit one himself in the fifth, he did the same thing. It looked cooler when Soto did it though.
That brings us to the best two words in sports: game seven. The game started slowly, only two runs scored in the first six innings, both by the Astros. Scherzer gave up those twom but that wasn't very surprising considering the condition his body was in.
But then the seventh inning happened. Rendon hit a sole home run, then Soto walked, and then Howie Kendrick, NLCS MVP, hit a two run shot. The Nationals never looked back. Soto had an RBI single in the 8th, and Eaton had two RBIs of his own in the 9th to seal the win for the Nationals, 6-2. Hudson struck out Altuve and Brantley, and the Washington Nationals became World Series champions for the first time in franchise history.
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