Game Seven, 2019 World Series

Nationals at Astros, 5:07 PM PDT, TV: Fox

Ah, Game Seven. I wrote this five years ago on my blog, and I see no reason to change my mind.

There’s no more dramatic phrase in sports, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve said so before and I’ll say it again: Game Seven is evocative of heroics on the field in do-or-die circumstances: Bill Mazeroski’s and Joe Carter’s home runs, Sid Bream’s slide, Carlos Beltran’s strikeout, Luis Gonzalez’s dribbler off Mariano Rivera, Koufax’s gutty 10K, three-hit shutout on two day’s rest … so many instances of melodrama.

Today’s edition offers two former Cy Young Award winners, righthanders Max Scherzer for the visiting Nationals and Zack Greinke for the Astros. I’m sure Scherzer will be on a very short leash with all hands on deck to relieve him if the neck spasms which prevented him from starting yesterday recur. Greinke dodged and weaved for 4 2/3 innings in Game Three of this series in a game the Astros eventually won.

Nationals lineup:

Astros lineup:

89 thoughts on “Game Seven, 2019 World Series

  1. In my email just now:

    Irresistible: Dodger Fan Succumbs to Nats. “What’s the most powerful thing in the world?” Tyrion Lannister asked in the closing episode of Game of Thrones. “A story.”

    Well, sometimes. Other times, not, as Stalin pointed out when he asked how many divisions the Pope had.

    But if ever there was a sports story with the power to sweep away all reservations, it’s that of the Washington Nationals, whose World Series victory last night culminated a story that’s all but irresistible.

    I can say that with some authority, as I’ve been a Nats resister for some time. Nothing against them, but having spent nearly the entire second half of the 20th century in Los Angeles, I’m first and foremost a Dodger fan. The team brought big-league ball to L.A. when I was eight, changing my life for the better. Sandy Koufax was my boyhood deity, and that’s as close as I’ve ever come to a theistic perspective.

    So I was rooting for the Dodgers when the Nats came from behind in the final game of their postseason playoff with L.A. and moved on to play the Cardinals and then the Astros. But after a team comes from behind again and again (and again and again), snatching victory from defeat just when you think they’re goners, it’s impossible not to be swept up in their story.

    The Greeks knew this, albeit in a darker mode: The key to most of their tragedies was peripeteia, the sudden reversal of fortune, as when Oedipus discovers—well, you know that story, his own hubris engendering one helluva reversal of fortune. The Nats brought about their own peripeteia, too, not through hubris but through grit and ability and mid-season acquisitions. But by adhering to the laws of Greek drama—establishing one narrative (they’re losing! they’re toast!) and reversing it in the final innings (they’re up! how’d that happen?!)—and repeating this story damn near every time they took the stage, their tale finally became irresistible.

    Washington was already united in its loathing of Trump; today, it’s united in something far more joyful. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON

    from The American Prospect

    • Yeah, if ever there were a city starved for a sports champion, it would have been DC. Then, in the space of two weeks, they got the WNBA title and the World Series. Just a year after the Caps won the Stanley Cup, too!

  2. Don’t know if I commented on this 5 years ago or not but Joe Carter was Game 6. Other than that – a very large yes to everything you said about Game 7.

  3. Gotta sign off. Wife calling for dinner and I no longer have a good excuse. Great being with you guys and gals this year!

  4. You know what they say – a series doesn’t truly begin until the home team wins a game.

    1 inning left for that to happen.

  5. With 2.5 innings left In Game 7 – how do you choose the World Series MVP? Who’s your pick?

  6. Even without knowing who wins this year – I would be a happy camper if every World Series result was flipped this decade.

    • To be clear, I would take Texas, Texas, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City, NY Mets, Cleveland, LA, LA, Wash/Houston over San Fran, St. Louis, San Fran, Boston, San Fran, Kansas City, Chicago Cubs, Houston, Boston, Wash/Houston.

  7. 1-0 now but there has been a lot of late inning runs this series. This game could still end up 8-3.
    For either team.

  8. At this rate, will be tough to get two more innings out of Max. You could say he had extra rest, so…