2019 World Series
The 2019 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 2019 season. The 115th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Houston Astros and the National League champion Washington Nationals. The series was played from October 22 to October 30. Washington upset the favored Astros, four games to three, to secure its first title in franchise history and first in the capital city since the 1924 series. Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg was named the World Series Most Valuable Player after earning two wins in the series.
The Astros had home-field advantage because they had the better regular-season record. It was the third World Series in which home-field advantage was decided by the regular-season records of the American and National league champions, a practice that started in the 2017 Major League Baseball season. It was the first World Series in which the Houston Astros had home-field advantage. The series was played in a 2–3–2 format, with the Astros hosting Games 1, 2, 6, and 7; and the Nationals hosting Games 3, 4, and 5.
For the first time in any of the major North American sports leagues, the visiting team won all the games of a seven-game championship series, surpassing the previous high of five. The road team outscored the home team 49–14 in the seven games played. Washington won despite scoring only three runs at home. It was the sixth straight World Series in which the visiting team clinched the championship and the fourth consecutive seventh game of a Series won by the visiting team.
With the Nationals being from the National League East, this marked the sixth World Series in a row to have been won by teams from separate divisions in Major League Baseball.
For the third straight year, MLB sold presenting sponsorships to all of postseason series. As with the 2017 and 2018 World Series, this World Series was sponsored by YouTube TV and was officially known as the 2019 World Series presented by YouTube TV.
Background
This was the first World Series appearance for the franchise that began its existence as the Montreal Expos in 1969, and moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005 to become the Nationals. The Nationals were also the last team from the 1969 expansion class to earn a trip to the series. Also, after their World Series appearance, all National League teams had played in at least one World Series. The only American League team that has yet to play in a World Series is the Seattle Mariners, who were part of the 1977 expansion. Prior to this series, the Astros and Nationals had never played each other in a postseason series, even though Houston played in the NL from 1962 to 2012 before moving to the AL West in 2013. In fact, the Nationals are the only team the Astros have faced in the World Series that they have never faced in a pre-World Series playoff round, since the Astros have faced the White Sox, Dodgers, and Braves during at least one playoff round prior to the World Series. The Astros and Nationals did not play an interleague game in 2019, and last faced each other during the 2017 regular season. The two teams share a spring training site in West Palm Beach, Florida, and opened the 2019 spring training schedule against each other. This was the second World Series to feature two expansion teams, the first being in between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets. The Astros were deemed as heavy favorites to win the title.Washington Nationals
The Nationals finished the 2018 season with an 82–80 win–loss record, and started the 2019 season with a 19–31 record. Second-year manager Dave Martinez began to receive public pressure to be fired by the Nationals. The team engineered a turnaround and finished the season in second place in the National League East, four games behind the Atlanta Braves, ending the year with a 93–69 record. The Nationals were one of two teams to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card team from the National League. Martinez had missed three games in September for a cardiac catheterization procedure to treat angina.The fourth-seeded Nationals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers at home in the National League Wild Card Game, recovering from a 3–1 deficit in the eighth inning to win 4–3. The Nationals then upset the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers, who had won the previous two National League pennants, in the National League Division Series. The Nationals were behind two games to one, and won their second and third elimination games of the postseason to take the best-of-five series. The postseason series win was the first in Washington Nationals history. In the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, the Nationals swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to secure the first pennant in franchise history. It was the first World Series appearance for a team from Washington D.C. since, including 33 seasons that the city did not host an MLB team.
Houston Astros
In the prior two seasons, the Astros had won the 2017 World Series, the franchise's first World Series championship, and lost the 2018 American League Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox. The Astros finished the 2019 regular season atop the American League West—their third consecutive division championship—with a 107–55 win–loss record. Their 107 wins were a franchise record, and the most in MLB for the season.The Astros entered the postseason as the overall #1 seed. Their first opponent in the postseason was determined by the American League Wild Card Game, which saw the Tampa Bay Rays defeat the Oakland Athletics. In the best-of-five American League Division Series, the top-seeded Astros defeated fifth-seeded Tampa Bay in five games, with each game of the series being won by the home team. The Astros' opponent in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series was the second-seeded New York Yankees, who had defeated the Minnesota Twins in their playoff series, three games to none. In the ALCS, the Astros and Yankee split the first two games, followed by the Astros winning two-of-three games played at Yankee Stadium. Game 6 in Houston was then won by the Astros, giving them the series win, four games to two. The Astros' ALCS victory advanced them to their third overall World Series appearance, and second in three years.
Summary
Matchups
The below game summaries include a line score of each game, showing the runs scored by each team during each inning. Various baseball terms appearing in the summaries can be found in the glossary of baseball terms. The performance of pitchers in a game is often summarized by wording such as "two runs on three hits while striking out four batters", indicating how many runs and hits the pitcher allowed and how many opposing batters the pitcher struck out.Game 1
Before the national anthem sung by Nicole Scherzinger, a moment of silence took place in honor of umpire Eric Cooper, who had died on October 20. Former Astro Brian McCann threw out the ceremonial first pitch to former teammate Evan Gattis. Max Scherzer started for the Nationals, while Gerrit Cole started for the Astros. With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, Yuli Gurriel hit a two-run double, giving the Astros a 2–0 lead. In the top of the second inning, Ryan Zimmerman hit a home run to cut the Astros' lead to 2–1. Juan Soto led off the top of the fourth inning with a home run to tie the game, 2–2. Soto became the fourth-youngest player to hit a home run in a World Series; Andruw Jones in 1996 was the youngest to date. Adam Eaton batted in a run in the top of the fifth inning, followed two batters later by a Soto two-run double, giving the Nationals a 5–2 lead.Scherzer exited after pitching five innings, having allowed two runs on five hits while striking out seven batters. Cole went seven innings, allowing five runs on eight hits while striking out six. After Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin pitched a scoreless sixth, George Springer led off the bottom of the seventh inning with the 14th postseason home run of his career, off Nats relief pitcher Tanner Rainey. He also broke a World Series record held by Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig, with a home run in five consecutive World Series games, dating back to Game4 of the 2017 World Series. The Astros loaded the bases later in the inning with two walks off Rainey and an infield single off Daniel Hudson, but Hudson struck out Yordan Alvarez to prevent any more scoring. In the bottom of the eighth inning, pinch hitter Kyle Tucker singled, advanced to second on a fly ball by Aledmys Díaz, and Springer batted in another run with a double, pulling the Astros to within one run, 5–4. Sean Doolittle, the Nationals' fifth pitcher of the game, got the final out of the eighth inning and retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth, concluding matters when Carlos Correa lined out to Víctor Robles to preserve the win. Doolittle earned his second save of the postseason and the underdogs took the series lead, marking the first time in franchise history that the Nationals won a World Series game.
Game 2
Gymnast and Houston native Simone Biles threw out the ceremonial first pitch of Game2. The starting pitchers were Stephen Strasburg for the Nationals and Justin Verlander for the Astros. After a walk and a single to start the game, Anthony Rendon batted in two runs with a double. Alex Bregman tied the game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first. In the top of the second inning, Verlander recorded the 200th postseason strikeout of his career, surpassing John Smoltz and setting a new MLB record.Leading off the top of the seventh, Kurt Suzuki hit a home run to put the Nationals ahead, 3–2. Verlander exited one batter later; he was charged with four runs on seven hits while striking out six batters, and was later assessed the loss. Washington scored five more runs in the seventh off Ryan Pressly, extending their lead to 8–2. With a six-run lead, Strasburg was removed before the bottom of the seventh, having held the Astros to two runs on seven hits while striking out seven. In the eighth inning, a two-run home run by Adam Eaton plus a run batted in by Asdrúbal Cabrera extended the Nationals' lead to nine runs. A ninth-inning home run by Michael A. Taylor off Chris Devenski pushed the lead to 12–2. Astro Martín Maldonado hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth off relief pitcher Javy Guerra, but there was no further scoring as the Nationals completed their eighth consecutive playoff win.