Nationals' Treasure

Congratulations to the Washington Nationals, World Series champions! During this entertaining World Series and the postseason series, the Nats more than a few times reminded us of our own Giants in their championship years, battling back against adversity, taking merciless advantage of late-inning pitching changes, and winning the World Series on the road.  And congratulations to former Giant Dave Martinez, manager of the world champions. Martinez, by trade an outfielder, stepped in to play first base in 1994 after the Giants realized they'd been unable to replace Will Clark. He wasn't Will, but he was well good enough to help the Giants back into contention before the strike and lockout ruined everything. Now 55, he outmaneuvered one of the best, Houston's A.J. Hinch, when it counted.

It was a Game Seven that should have been remembered for a great pitching performance by Zack Greinke, who over six near-perfect innings finally justified the Astros' Big Midseason Trade. But after Greinke opened the seventh by giving up a leadoff homer to the unsinkable Anthony Rendon and walking the amazing, just-turned-21 Juan Soto, manager Hinch pulled him in favor of ace reliever Will Harris. And we had immediate flashbacks to 2002 Game Six, Dusty Baker, Russ Ortiz, and Felix Rodriguez. Felix had worked all five games when he was summoned back then; Harris had worked four before last night's appearance, though only four innings. In any case, the result last night was not as ugly as it was back then, but it was equally emphatic: Harris gave up a game-changing two-run homer and Washington took the lead they'd never lose. Fittingly, Howie Kendrick, whose grand slam in the tenth inning of NLDS game five knocked the entire baseball universe off its axis and jump-started Washington's amazing post-season run, delivered the blow.

Greinke, both for his achievement and for the might-have beens, overshadowed Max Scherzer's gutsy five innings, over which he stranded ten runners while allowing only two to score,  Patrick Corbin's own trade-justifying three shutout innings, and Daniel Hudson and his perfect ninth. Add series MVP Stephen Strasburg's two wins-- both on the road, in Game Two to set the Astros into desperation mode, and in Game Six to halt Houston's just-regained momentum-- and the wild-card Nats had just enough to overcome the overpowering Gerrit Cole, the disappointing Justin Verlander, Game 4 hero Jose Urquidy, and, finally, Greinke. It was indeed a fight, and the Nationals finished it.

So Washington City gets its first world champion since 1924, and it's about time. This benighted franchise had never won a postseason series of any type, excepting only the abbreviated NL East playoff after the strike-shortened 1981 season, when they were the Montreal Expos and were managed by Dick Williams. Thirteen years later the Expos were 74-40, best in baseball, when the other strike was called, ruining that season. Montreal never recovered. Eleven years later they landed in Washington, at old RFK Stadium, which even the beloved Redskins had abandoned years before.

It was that September, in 2005, that a rookie named Ryan Zimmerman made his MLB debut for the newly-christened Nationals. For years he was the lone star on a bad team. Then he endured the disappointments of 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017, when his team lost in the first round each time. He was in the dugout in October 2014 when former Giant Matt Williams made that ill-fated pitching change in the ninth inning of NLDS game two-- and was still in the dugout nine innings later when the Giants won that game in the 18th and doomed Washington to another postseason letdown.

Five years later, now 35 and the team's senior member, Ryan Zimmerman celebrated with his teammates in Houston, a world champion at last. As any Giants fan can testify: brother, it was worth the wait.