Ryan Zimmerman, on reaching the World Series without Bryce Harper: "Bryce Harper is a phenomenal player. One of the best players I've ever played with. That's the business part of this game. You can't keep everybody. We would love to keep him, we would love to keep anybody who's been a really good player here. That's just not how it works out. He's a big part of why we're here today, as well."
Nationals starter Max Scherzer: "It just seems like everybody wants younger and younger players and everybody wants to forget about all the old guys. We see it in free agency. We're not dumb. The fact that we're the oldest team and we went out and won the National League pennant just shows you that old guys, we bring a lot of value to clubhouses."
Did MLB de-juice the ball right before the playoffs? 53eig.ht/2oO06kF
Still can't believe the @Nationals are going to the World Series! Will try not to cry when I talk about it on tv. I… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The Nationals are going to "La Playa."
With a lightsaber in one hand and champagne bottle in the other, Sean Doolittle is winning the Nats' NLCS celebration
Max Scherzer: (Perpetually) pumped.
Nationals! World Series bound.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez, from the stage: "Often bumpy roads lead to beautiful places, and this is a beautiful place."
The Nationals have advanced to the World Series.
The 2019 National League champion Washington Nationals
For the first time in franchise history, the Washington Nationals are going to the World Series. For the time since 1933, the World Series will be played in the nation's capital. The Nationals scored seven runs on just 21 pitches in a wild first inning and held on for a 7-4 victory -- the Cardinals even had the tying run at the plate when they loaded the bases in the eighth -- but with chants of "Let's go Nats!" echoing in the stadium, Daniel Hudson had a 1-2-3 ninth and the celebration was on.
The Nationals, 19-31 on May 23, are headed to the World Series. They are the fourth team in history to get there despite being 12 games under .500 at one point. And they did so in dominant fashion, never once trailing the Cardinals in this NLCS. The Nationals have now won 16 of their last 18 games. DC has its first World Series team since 1933.
The Cardinals team hit .130 in the NLCS. National League pitchers in the regular season as a group? hit .128
And exhale, Nationals fans. After Daniel Hudson worked his way out of an eighth-inning bases-loaded jam, Washington is three outs from the franchise's first World Series appearance.
Several Astros pitchers told me they were showered with beer and almost hit by beer cans thrown from the stands into the visitor's bullpen. An Astros staff member said he saw a woman get hit by a beer can in the back of the head and apparently she had to be taken to get medical attention.
Bases loaded, two outs, three-run game in the eighth, and Daniel Hudson gets Matt Carpenter, the second-to-last player available off the Cardinals' bench, to ground out. Three outs left for the Nationals.
An ominous sign if you are a Cardinals fan. The Equipment Van is parked outside their clubhouse.
In the "anything can happen, because it's baseball" category, the Cardinals bullpen has kept the team in the game. Ryan Helsley and Giovanny Gallegos each threw two scoreless innings. The Cardinals will now face Sean Doolittle as Dave Martinez likely tries to get the final nine outs from Doolittle and Daniel Hudson. You also wonder: Is Max Scherzer a potential option for a batter or two if needed?
That's a huge sixth inning for Tanner Rainey. Not just to get the game into the seventh for Sean Doolittle and Daniel Hudson, who have had the last two nights off, but to potentially establish himself as a third trusted reliever going into the World Series. Dude throws 100.
Patrick Corbin struck out 10 through the first four innings, but allowed 3 additional runs and threw 32 pitches in the fifth. He's at 94 pitches, with four innings left and a three-run lead to protect. Will be interesting to see how Dave Martinez plays it the rest of the way.
The mood at Nationals Park went from countdown to celebration time to there's still plenty of baseball left to play as the Cardinals have suddenly made NLCS Game 4 interesting by cutting into the Nationals' lead.
Didi Gregorius, who went 0-for-4 and left 5 men on base, took full responsibility for the loss to the Astros tonight: “I didn't come through for the team when I had the opportunity, so I think that's why most of the game was on me. I was the one that failed, not the whole team.”
The Nationals are well on their way to joining the 2015 Mets and 2012 Tigers as the only teams in MLB history to never trail in a four-game LCS sweep. Of course, neither of those teams went on to win the World Series.
The Nationals scored 7 first-inning runs, 3 of which were unearned. They cranked out 6 hits and sent 11 batters to the plate. They are on another level right now.
