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 14th
walk-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.
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