Nationals Win 7-2, Rendon, Strasburg Force Game 7

Through seven minutes after the 8 pm E.T. Wednesday night, when Justin Verlander threw the first pitch of Game 6 to Washington’s Trea Turner, the 2019 World Series had recorded one lead change, zero home wins, and the lowest TV ratings in series history. What it needed, at least from the perspective of a non-partisan observer, was a little action, a little controversy, a little red blood in its veins. It got precisely that. This World Series is going to Game 7 tonight in Houston, and all it took to get there was two lead changes, five RBI from Anthony Rendon, a six-minute “replay” review, a managerial ejection, and quite possibly the best-traveled bats in Fall Classic history. That and 8.1 terrific innings from Stephen Strasburg.

In a moment of what we in the writing business call “foreshadowing,” the very first play of the game — a Turner groundball to Alex Bregman at third base — resulted in a replay review. The call on the field (out at first) was swiftly and uncontroversially overturned, and Turner took his base — and then a second — on his way to scoring the first Washington run of the game on an Rendon single to right (also, as it turns out, a sign of things to come). In a less eventful game, or one in which the final score was reversed, we might make more here of Dave Martinez’s decision to use Adam Eaton (and a bunt) to move Turner over in this inning; as we are consequentialists, we will not.

That first Nationals lead was itself overturned fewer than 10 minutes later, when a José Altuve sacrifice fly and a mammoth Bregman home run in the bottom of the inning put Strasburg on his heels and the score at 2-1 going into the second. Somewhat more importantly, given what was to come, Strasburg took just 13 pitches to get through his inning; Verlander threw 17. The next inning, which was scoreless for both clubs, added 7 and 12 to those totals. The third — also scoreless, though featuring a lively threat from Juan Soto — added 15 and 25, and by the time the fourth inning drew to a close, Verlander had thrown nearly 40% more pitches than his counterpart, and 75 on the game. He was, quite clearly, tiring.

That wear became evident when Eaton — no longer limited by the bunt sign, apparently — and Soto homered in turn in the fifth to put the Nats up 3-2 and make Game 6 the first World Series contest since last year’s Game 3 with multiple lead changes:

From that point forward, the game continued much as it had before until the top of the seventh inning. Verlander kept popping Nationals hitters up. Strasburg kept gutting it out near the bottom of the strike zone. And then, with nobody out, Trea Turner came to the plate for the fourth time on the night with Yan Gomes on first base and Brad Peacock on the mound for Houston. It only took one pitch for all hell to break loose, and to kick off the action-packed segment of the only inning from this game we’re likely to remember a decade from now:

What followed was complicated enough that we’ll be writing an entirely separate post about it for you to read later today (Update: Here it is!), and infuriating enough — at least for the Nationals and their fans — that Martinez went to the trouble of getting ejected from the game over it even after his team ended up exiting the inning with a three-run lead. For the purpose of this recap, know only this: Turner, despite conducting his journey from home to first much like most every runner does, was called out. That left Gomes back at first (he had advanced when the ball skittered away) with one out, rather than having runners on second and third with no outs, for Adam Eaton and then Anthony Rendon.

Eaton popped out against Will Harris, who came in to relieve Peacock, but Rendon — who already had an RBI on the night — took the second pitch he saw from Harris out to left for what had to be among the most satisfying home runs in Nationals history. It was the first home run — indeed the first run of any kind — allowed by Harris since August 30 (!), and constituted the middle third of what turned out to be a historically productive night for Rendon. After a relatively weak start to the series — just four hits in 20 at-bats, and no home runs — Rendon ended up becoming only the second-ever third baseman to drive in five in a single World Series game. This, of course, after Alex Bregman earlier this week. Baseball, folks! Quite simply the best.

That homer, like two-run, add-on double provided by Rendon again in the top of the ninth, turned out to be inconsequential to the final result (the Soto homer was the difference in the game). But the pause in the action allows us to reflect for a moment on the other star of this game: Stephen Strasburg. The 31-year-old was good but not great in starting Game 2, allowing two runs and seven hits across six innings, but he was brilliant last night, retiring the last 10 Astros he faced and seeming to improve as the night went on. Strasburg relied heavily on his curveball, throwing the pitch 42% of the time, and supplemented that pitch with a changeup (16% of the time, almost exclusively down) and his usual two fastballs about a quarter of the time each. He looked particularly impressive going change, curve, curve to strike out Altuve swinging in the bottom of the fifth:

It’s not in that highlight reel, but Washington played terrific defense all night, substantially contributing to the Nationals’ win. Crucially, with runners on second and third and two outs — after that brilliant strikeout of Altuve — Strasburg got Michael Brantley to hit what looked like a sure base hit up the middle on the third pitch of the sequence. It wasn’t to be: Turner, who seemed to be in the middle of everything, got to the ball in time and threw to Ryan Zimmerman in time to record the out and end the inning. The game was only one run apart at that point; without Turner’s strong play, and Strasburg’s pitch to generate it, this game could easily have turned the other way. But the Nationals’ ace came through.

His team could not have needed it more. The Nationals’ series and season seemed lost Sunday afternoon when Dave Martinez announced that Max Scherzer wouldn’t be able to start, and when Joe Ross gamely but predictably gave up four runs in six innings of work to send the team to a 3-2 deficit. Strasburg’s long and brilliant outing has reversed that dynamic, saving the Nationals’ bullpen from all but 11 Sean Doolittle pitches and setting up Scherzer for a start Wednesday night against Zack Greinke. It remains to be seen whether the neck and shoulder spasms that kept Scherzer out Sunday will play into his performance tonight, but at least on paper, that pitching matchup seems as close to a push as you’re going to get in Game 7 of the World Series. (The ZiPS Postseason Game-By-Game Odds have the Nationals’ odds of winning at 48.2% compared to the Astros 51.8%.) It makes for great television.

Speaking of great television, one final note before we wrap this thing up: If you didn’t catch the game, you may see some news today about Alex Bregman, Juan Soto, and bat-holding. That’s because Bregman, for reasons not entirely obvious to most but in any event none of our business, held onto his bat all the way past first base after hitting his first-inning home run, then dropped that self-same bat in the dirt near first base before continuing to round the bases. That prompted Soto, in turn, to hold on to his bat after hitting his home run, and generated much discussion and hilarity online thereafter. Bregman, somewhat oddly, apologized for his behavior after the game, which in the view of this author was wholly unnecessary. If I hit a home run in the World Series, I’d be holding onto the bat a decade later. Let the kids play.

That’s exactly what they’ll do tomorrow night. Same time, same place, same teams. Game 7, for all the marbles. For a chance at a first-ever title for the Nationals. For a second title in three years for Houston. After all the drama of Game 6, that’s what the Nationals and Astros earned for all of us in Houston Tuesday night: One more day of baseball before we head into a cold winter without it. One more tomorrow. Good. I don’t want to go home just yet.