World Series: Juan Soto leads charge as Washington Nationals hang on in Game 1
The youngest player in this 2019 World Series played anything like a youngster leading the Washington Nationals to a Game 1 win.
The Washington Nationals star left fielder came up huge in Game 1 of the World Series driving in three of their five runs on their way to a win.
Washington was able to steal Game 1 of this World Series on the road and will now have Stephen Strasburg ready to go in Game 2.
In what is sure to be the first of many great pitching matchups in this World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, we saw Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole struggle early.
The Washington Nationals squandered a first inning opportunity as Trea Turner singled to leadoff the game and then stole second, but was stranded after a failed bunt attempt and two strikeouts.
Scherzer almost got out of a first inning jam after allowing the first two runners to reach, but gave up a two-out double as the Astros took an early 2-0 lead.
There was nothing more fitting than the longest tenured Washington Nationals player, Ryan Zimmerman, to score the first run of the World Series for Washington when he hit a solo home run in the second.
And then a guy 15 years younger than him, Juan Soto, tied things up in the fourth with a solo home run.
Kurt Suzuki got things going in the fifth with a leadoff walk. Victor Robles followed that up with a single, and then Adam Eaton brought a run home with a bloop single.
And then Soto delivered again with another beautiful at-bat that ended with a 2 RBI double to the opposite field to give the Nats a commanding 5-2 lead.
Scherzer had to battle in this one and was pulled after just 5 innings. But he only allowed those 2 first-inning runs and had 7 strikeouts while earning the win.
Patrick Corbin came on for the sixth and struck out two in a scoreless inning. I thought Corbin might come back out for the seventh, but Dave Martinez brought in Tanner Rainey who gave up a solo home run to the first batter he saw (George Springer) to make it a 5-3 game.
Daniel Hudson had to come on for Rainey in the seventh to put out a fire, leaving the bases loaded. He created trouble of his own in the eighth and was a couple of inches away from giving up a game-tying home run to Springer.
Sean Doolittle had to come on to get the final out of the eighth and then closed the door in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning, including a strikeout of Alex Bregman.
Next. 3 keys to winning World Series. dark
It wasn’t pretty down the stretch and Dave Martinez had to use all his bullets out of the bullpen, but the Washington Nationals held on to win Game 1 5-4.