ARE YOU KIDDING ME? — NATS COME FROM BEHIND TO BEAT ASTROS 6-2 & WIN FIRST WORLD SERIES AS HOWIE KENDRICK STRIKES BIG BLOW AGAIN!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Exclusive for Immigrationcourtside.com
Oct. 30, 2010. For more than seven innings, Astros starter Zack Greinke had baffled the Washington Nationals, shutting them out on one hit while nursing a 2-0 lead. He outdueled Nats starter Max Scherzer, who despite giving up seven hits and two runs in five innings kept his team in the game.
With one out in the top of the seventh, Nats third baseman Anthony Rendon hit a home run to cut the margin in half. Following a walk to young superstar Juan Soto, Astros manager A.J. Hinch pulled Greinke and went to reliever Will Harris to face the Nats designated hitter Howie Kendrick.
Kendrick was the hero of Divisional Series win over the L.A. Dodgers and the MVP of the League Championship Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals. But, his World Series had been less than stellar. As he came to the plate, he was sporting an average of just over .200. It didn’t matter. The 36-year-old part-time starter, who was the Nats leading hitter for average during the regular season, drove a Harris pitch down the right field line where it hit the screen just inside the foul pole for a two-run homer that put the Nats ahead to stay 3-2.
With help from Adam Eaton and Juan Soto, the Nats added three big insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Patrick Corbin, normally a starter, but also pitching out of the bullpen in the postseason, threw three scoreless innings in relief for the win. Daniel Hudson closed it out with a thee-up, three-down ninth inning. Then pandemonium broke loose.
So, the Nats completed an amazing resurrection from a 19-31 start to World Series Champs, beating the heavily favored Astros. Lots of credit to Manager Davey Martinez for righting the ship after many were screaming for his head back in May.
Among the interesting facts generated by this Series: Nats became first team in postseason history to win five “elimination games” (they trailed in each one); Nats are the first team to win four Series games on the road; this is the only major sports championship in which the visiting team won every game.
Nats pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who was 2-0 in the World Series and 5-0 in postseason was named the MVP.
Congrats again to the Nats and their organization, particularly the Lerner family which owns the team and brought baseball back to Washington. They join the Caps and the Mystics in bringing recent championships to D.C., and showing that good things can come out of Washington.
