The Washington Nationals Sweep In Houston, Win The World Series
The oldest team in baseball is the last one standing as the Washington Nationals defeat the Houston Astros in game seven of the 2019 World Series 6-2.
Patrick Corbin comes out of the pen to get the victory and Will Harris is saddled with the loss.
The Astros got on the board first in this one as Yuli Gurriel clobbered a Max Scherzer pitch into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a 1-0 lead.
They were able to strike again in the fifth as Correa knocked in Gurriel with an RBI single to make it 2-0.
The pitch count for Scherzer was on the rise and he would ultimately be taken out of the game after he worked out of a 1st and 3rd, two-out jam in the fifth allowing just that one run.
Zack Grienke, on the other hand, was masterful, not overpowering but really did a great job at keeping Washington hitters off-balanced. He was through six innings and allowed just one hit so naturally, he was headed back to the bump in the seventh but that's when things went sideways for Houston.
Grienke got the first batter Adam Eaton to groundout to short but then he made a mistake on a changeup and Anthony Rendon made him pay with a shot to the Crawford Boxes. A walk to the next batter Juan Soto ended the night for the right-hander having only thrown 80 pitches and Will Harris entered.
A seemingly surprise move from manager A.J. Hinch first not to stick with one of his aces on a low pitch count and leaning on a reliever who had thrown a ton this post-season.
Needless to say, the move backfired as the first batter Harris faced, Howie Kendrick, took a pitch low and away, kept his hands back, weight balanced and put a home run off the right-field foul pole. 3-2 Nats.
The Nationals added another run in the eighth and then two more in the ninth for additional insurance as A.J. Hinch never deployed Gerrit Cole. Daniel Hudson entered the ninth for Washington and shut the door 1, 2, 3 and the Nationals were World Series Champions.
Stephen Strasburg was named the Most Valuable Player.
Strasburg was 2-0 in the World Series sporting a 2.51 ERA through 14.1 innings, walked three batters while striking out 14 Astros.