Prof: Hi folks. Scout is on assignment today so it’s just your friendly neighborhood Professor here with a recap of Game Five. My apologies for being M.I.A. the last few days; I had a business meeting in upstate New York and these people do not understand the importance of baseball. But I was able to follow along with this game.
No one team should have all that power.
Houston Astros at Washington Nationals
Game Five – 2019 World Series
Who would have thought that home cooking wasn’t where it was at in this series? Not me. I was convinced that heading into Nationals Park, the Nats would have sewn this one up. However, the Astros had other plans. Houston went into this game with clear eyes, lead by Gerrit Cole. It was supposed to have been another pitching duel for the ages, but as reported by our resident Nats fan SomeGuyinVA, Max Scherzer was scratched due to neck and back spasms. Now, this is a man who hyped himself up like a demon in the meaningless All Star game, and has pitched with a broken nose. Imagine what kind of pain Scherzer was in to take himself out of what is probably the most important start of his career.
So instead of Mad Max vs the Cole Train, we got Cole vs…. Joe Ross. OK then.
Houston got off to a big start early, with a two run Yordan Alvarez homer in the second inning. In the fourth, Carlos Correa hit his own two run homer, bringing along with him – you guessed it – Yordan Alvarez.
Along the way, Cole struck out nine Curly Dubs. He gave up one run, a solo dinger to Juan Soto, but that was it. Afterwards, the hits just kept on coming for Houston. A Yuri Gurriel single drove in George Springer, and then George brought the heat with a Springer Dinger of his own, another two run bomb in the ninth inning.
This was the last home game for Washington for the year, and I’m sure they wanted to go out on a high note. Instead, they have to return to Minute Maid Park to gut out two more away wins. Can they do it? Is it even possible? No World Series was ever won by a team who won every game on the road. The only thing I do know is that I can’t count the Curly Dubs out. This team has had about a dozen rabbit’s feet in their collective pockets. Can fortune shine on Strasburg, Rendon, and the gang once more, and again?
Find out this Tuesday, when Stras and Verlander meet up for Game Six in Houston.
Final – Houston 7, Washington 1
Fan Interference 
Strasburg gives them a chance to at least force a game seven, but the lack of hitting over the past three games by the Nats will make that point moot unless they reverse course there.
1-21 with RISP over the last three games, and the hit was Rendon’s comebacker off Harris’s leg in Game 4, so it didn’t even produce a run. They were so ineffective offensively last night that they only had one runner in scoring position all night, when Soto reached third in the 2nd inning, and of course they went 0-2 in that inning.
If the Nats can’t come back and win the Series, Game 3 is the one they should lament all winter; when you have ten guys reach base against a starting pitcher in 4 2/3 innings, you damned well better score more than one of them.
Regardless of what happens Tuesday and/or Wednesday (if necessary) I’m still proud of my team, but damn those Astros are good.
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The Nats have been great, it’s undeniable.
But they’ve also been hot. Red hot. (LAD fans have been debating this for a week: can being hot lead to being complacent? The current fandom here is: crying for the immediate departure of Dave Roberts; excoriating Kershaw, who for all his greatness simply can’t compete under high pressure; and WONDERING IF A LACK OF DIVISION COMPETITION MAKES THE LAD SOFT IN BIG GAMES.) Teams that get THAT hot can come to depend on the hotness, and not the underlying talent. The Nationals had an historic run to reach the playoffs, finishing what, 10-2 or 11-1 the last two weeks? They took the wild card, only to get soundly beaten. Washington takes Game 2, then gets soundly beaten AGAIN. They take Game 4, then take an improbable leap to tie and then win the trip to Houston. Where they promptly beat the AL champ twice. Running at 14-4 they finally find a few kinks in the hose and the flood of victories dribble to a stop.
The good news is, as a long-denied team they have an advantage. Recent years have seen historic failures like the Cubs and yes, Houston, achieve their apotheosis. Good luck, Nationals, we’d like to see you take the last two. Especially given recent events in the Houston clubhouse vis-a-vis female reporters, and the front office decisions that made those events possible, even likely.
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Hopefully the Nats will be back in control now that they’ve retaken home field disadvantage.
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Also 2 beer gut almost became an F-I legend. If that ball had been a little lower we could have had a HBHRiD.
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I don’t mean to piss on anyone in particular’s parade but, sheesh, this has been one dull World Series. The only way it could have been more boring would be if Cleveland were one of the teams.
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Went in hopeful of a series full of epic pitching duels. The opportunity was there, but it’s not materialized. From that standpoint it’s a bit of a disappointment, but still: any baseball is better than no baseball.
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Agreed, Raysfan. Game 1 in particular I had been seriously anticipating but it was kind of a let down.
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“…any baseball is better than no baseball.”
A Feesh fan might consider that comment optional at best.
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Back when the Rays were called the Devil Rays, the joke was “It’s really cool to be able to watch professional baseball teams play the Devil Rays.”
Sadly that predicament now applies to the Marlins. Hope for your sake that changes in the not too distant future.
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You can always take the 5th.
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@Rays: the problem is that the universe is expanding and taking the future with it. We’ve heard a rumor that the Feesh plan to protect Lewis Brinson from R5 by keeping him on the roster. Stuff like that merely accelerates the formation of singularities.
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No argument from me on this.
Suspense requires an uncertainty of outcome; so far, the two biggest questions of this Series are:
Will the Astros take advantage of this opportunity? Yes
Will the Nats mount a rally here? No
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Just saw a news release: the Pirates have fires long time GM Bob Nutting. Since their season ended, they have fired their pitching coach, their hitting coach, the manager (Clint Hurdle), the GM, and the team president. I hear they’ve beaten all the rugs and sprayed every room with Febreze. It’s about as thorough a house cleaning as can be.
A new team president has been hired, Travis Williams. He spent 11 years as the COO of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, so I guess he knows the area at least.
Any Pirates fans out there with comments?
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I’m not a Pirates fan – I’m averse to coal smoke and rust, too – but after the way the Bucs have been playing for the last decade or so they should have washed the rugs with Nature’s Miracle too.
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Uhhh, I meant Neil Huntington. Bob Nutting is the main owner. I’ve heard some Pirate fans wish he could be fired too though.
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GGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOO
NNNNNNNNNNNAAATTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I love it – Hair Hitler must have sat there cracking his teeth. Suck on it, you traitorous SOB.
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