Yesterday, October 30th 2019, the Washington Nationals made history, winning game seven of the 2019 World Series, 6-2, to win the first pennant in franchise history, and to bring to D.C. the first World Series title since 1924, when the Washington Senators (later relocated to Minnesota to form the Twins) upset the Babe Ruth led Yankees to win the American League, and wen on to win the World Series against the New York Giants. But the uniqueness of the 2019 World Series doesn’t end with first ever title for the Nationals. It goes far beyond that.
The World Series began with two games in Minute Maid Park, with Washington taking the first one in a nail-bitter. In Game 2 the bullpen completely imploded for the Astros after Verlander and the Nationals took a 2-0 Series Lead. They headed home needing to win two out of three to close the series.
It didn’t happen. The bats went silent for the Nationals, losing the three games with a combined score of 19-3, scoring only a single run in each of the games in the home-stand. Houston seemed poised for a comeback victory.
Or so it seemed. Stephen Strasburg pitched all but two outs of the game, allowing only two runs, on route to the World Series MVP title. Strasburg, 31, the first pick of the 2010 MLB Draft, ended his playoffs with a 1.96 ERA in six games started, 2.51 in the World Series, to lead the Washington Nationals to their first World Series championship, sealed last night in Houston, despite the best effort from Zach Greinke.
Seven games, 22 home runs, 63 runs scored and not a single win for the home team in the seven game series. You may think that’s odd, pretty unusual. Well, you may want to say it’s historical – it is indeed the first time it has happened. Never has a series decided in seven games resulted in seven losses for the home team.
In the hundred-plus year history of the World Series, the least amount of wins for the home teams in a seven game series has been two. And even if you extended this weird occurrence to series decided not in seven but in six games, you also wouldn’t be able to find such thing happening. In fact, only three times in MLB history has the home team won only once in six games in the World Series, most recently twenty-three years ago when the New York Yankees, after losing twice at home to open the World Series, won all three in Atlanta, and finally won game six at home in Yankee Stadium against the Greg Maddux led Atlanta Braves.
The other two instances where this has occurred were in 1923, when the Yankees of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig won game 5 at home before closing the series with a win at the Polo Grounds; and in 1906, the third ever World Series, when, in an all-Chicago matchup, the White Sox won the sixth and final game.
In a year where the TV ratings were the lowest since 2012, even though game 7 was the most watched baseball game in two years, fans who went to Minute Maid Park and Nationals Park might think it would be a great year to stay at home to watch the World Series.
A Moment In Sports History 