Photo from Google Images
The Washington Nationals haven’t been employed in October in 79 years. The Nationals are one of two MLB franchises, and the only one in the National League, that has never played in a World Series (the Seattle Mariners are the other) and after the monumental meltdown of game five, World Series dreams will remain a dream.
Crazy things started to happen in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) the past few months. The Nationals AND the Orioles were both playing postseason baseball, Teddy WON his first President’s race, talk of a beltway World Series packed bars and fans came out of hiding to root for the Nats and O’s. Was the district becoming a sports town? Baseball was being talked about at the office water cooler and fans were showing their Natitude!
I love the game of baseball and I was pumped when I found out I had a ticket to game four Nats/Cards. Pimp seats, a sold out crowd, and a great game of postseason baseball is a fans dream. With the game date being 10-11-12 it was only fitting that it was a 13 pitch at-bat in the bottom of the 9th for Jayson Werth to blast the Rawlings 406 feet to left field for a walk-off home run to force game five and giving Jayson Werth his 14thwalk-off home run in the post season since 2004. It was awesome to experience a walk-off homer in the postseason, simply awesome!
Game five the Nats took an early 6-0 lead and people were booking flights to San Fran for NLCS. After all, no team has ever come back by six runs in an elimination game. But after the third inning, the Nationals bats only scored one more run for the rest of the game. Before you knew it was 7-5 in the top of the 9th. My stomach turned, I’ve seen this horror story; 2011 game six Rangers/Cardinals- same score, same Cardinal comeback.
Deep down, I kept thinking Davy Johnson would make the crowd go nuts by sending in benched pitcher, Stephen Strasburg for ONE pitch to end this game. Instead, Drew Storen struggled on the mound.
Something about the Cardinals being down 7-5 in the 9th with two outs and ONE strike away in an elimination game that motivates them to magically manage to come back and win, crushing the hopes and dreams of a Championship starved city and franchise. How the Cardinals scored four runs with one out- even with one strike away twice seems like a game you watch in the movies, not live in postseason baseball. Natitude quickly became Sadatude.
How could the sports gods be so cruel? Players and fans were left shocked and in disbelief that the comeback happened against them and their postseason dreams were officially over. Instead of rushing out of the stadium, fans stared at the field and grown men wiped their eyes. Players didn’t leave the dugout. No one wanted to accept that game five would end in a monumental meltdown of epic proportions.
