CAROLYN MULLARKEY
Special to The Leader
Baseball season is finally over and the Boston Red Sox are no longer the reigning World Series champions.
This last series between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals was full of surprises.
At the end of the day, it was just simple, good baseball.
Before going into the series, just upon first glance, both sides had unbelievable starting pitchers, great hitters and undeniable drive to come out on top.
The Nationals surprised everyone in game one.
It was an elite match-up of arguably the two best pitchers in the entire MLB, Gerrit Cole versus Max Scherzer.
Before this point, Cole had not lost a game since May 22, 2019, and the Astros hadn’t lost a game with Cole starting since July.
Statistically speaking only, Scherzer is the best starting pitcher of 2019. He was in for five innings and had seven strikeouts. Scherzer only allowed two runs on five hits and three walks.
But the victory for the Nationals can’t even be credited to him.
The real star of game one was 20-year-old Juan Soto. Not only did he get three hits, but he drove in three of the five runs that night.
Zimmerman also contributed to the big win with a solo homerun off of Cole.
The Astros lost it again in game two.
Verlander added to his sixth loss in World Series starts, despite also breaking the record for the most career postseason strikeouts.
Alex Bregman’s score off an error in the seventh wasn’t even exciting or helpful.
It was all-around a horrible night for Houston at home.
The final score was 12-3 Nationals with a 2-0 lead in the series.
Houston managed to save their season at this point by winning game three declaring at least two more games in this series.
This was the first game the Nats lost since Oct. 6.
It was a long game with the sixth inning ending at over the three hour game mark. What wasn’t meant to be a bullpen game from the Astros sure resulted in a successful night for them.
James, Peacock, Harris, Smith and Osuna threw 4.1 shutout innings.
The final score was 4-1, with the Astros beginning their comeback.
It seemed outrageous going into the series that the Nationals were going to sweep the Astros in four, so game four was a given.
This ended up being the game that tied everything up. Houston proved they were still in the fight finishing them off 8-1. This was greatly due to Alex Bregman’s grand slam in the seventh inning to pile up the final runs.
MVP is definitely a possibility for him, should the Astros win it all. The Nats are definitely going to be feeling the pressure for the rest of the series.
What both teams so far have in common is losing at home and winning on the road.
We’ll see if this holds up when they return back to Houston.
Cole came back to pitch for the Astros in game five.
Scherzer had a reported shoulder injury that prevented him from playing. Cole was on his game and so was the rest of the team.
The final score was 7-1.
They managed to score six out of seven of their runs on home runs. This means Houston has won all of their road games.
The Astros are now in the lead at 3-2, and they are only one win away from their second championship in three years.
Could the Astros take it back and win after a 0-2 loss start?
Will the Nats win it all in Houston and claim the championship for themselves?
Due to printing, this is up to date as of Monday, Oct. 28.
Game six could not be recapped.
Game seven is scheduled for tonight at 8:08 p.m. on FOX (if necessary).