By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 23, 2019 – I woke up this morning in Baseball Heaven – in other words, basking in the euphoria generated by my beloved Washington Nationals’ nail-biting 5-4 victory over the Houston Astros in the first game of the World Series. I describe the victory as “nail-biting” because on far too many occasions our bullpen has allowed teams to come-from-behind this season and defeat the Nationals in late innings.
For a while, after our starting pitcher Max Scherzer was replaced after five innings and the Nationals leading 5-2, I thought it was about to happen again, and I watched the remainder of the game mostly on the edge of my living-room couch in a state of anxiety hoping that our bullpen would not let us down again. It almost did. Tanner Rainey gave up a solo homer and Daniel Hudson gave up a run in the eighth before Sean Doolittle, who was sensational as our regular closer the first half of the season but lost his “magic” in the homestretch, “recorded a four-out save to sidestep a collapse,” as noted in a Washington Post story.
Here’s how the Post described it: “The bullpen tested fate and, for the first time in 86 years, a Washington baseball team took a World Series game.”
I am predicting that we will now go on to become World Series Champions in six games. LET’S GO NATS.
