We go back and take a look at the greatest postseason run of all-time that led to the Washington Nationals World Series championship.
Not only did the Washington Nationals win the 2019 World Series, but they did so in such an epic fashion that it has to be considered one of the greatest postseason runs of all-time.
Forget that in the World Series alone they were +195 underdogs and that 37-of-46 experts on MLB.com picked them to lose, what they did throughout the entire postseason was legendary.
NL Wild Card Game: The Nationals were down 3-1 going into the eighth against one of the best closers in the game in Josh Hader.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Juan Soto delivered a bases-clearing single (aided by an error on the right fielder) and the Nationals went on to win 4-3.
NLDS: Going up against the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers, the Nationals fell behind 2-1 in the best of five series.
In Game 4 they fell behind 1-0 in the first but then rattled off seven unanswered runs to win 6-1.
And then in Game 5 they were down 3-0 going into the sixth inning and 3-1 in the eighth. They got back-to-back home runs from Anthony Rendon and Soto to tie it up in the eighth. And then NLCS MVP Howie Kendrick sent the Nationals into the NLCS with a 10th inning grand slam.
NLCS: Well, the Nationals just dominated here.
World Series: Again, going up against a team that was heavily favored to win, the Nationals took a 2-0 series lead only to lose three straight and fall behind in the series.
They fell behind 2-1 early in Game 6 but then scored six unanswered runs to win 7-2 and stay alive.
And then in Game 7, it looked like all was lost as the bats were silent for six innings and they were down 2-0 with Gerrit Cole lurking in the bullpen.
But then Rendon struck again with a solo home run to break the ice, and Kendrick came through again with a 2-run home run to give them the lead and eventually the World Series as they won 6-2.
It really is incredible to look back and see just how the Washington Nationals won the 2019 World Series.
They were counted out on May 24 when they were 19-31. But they rallied to win 93 games and earned the top spot in the NL Wild Card.
In the postseason they won five elimination games after trailing in all five of them.
They took down pitchers like Hader, Clayton Kershaw, Jack Flaherty, Cole, and Justin Verlander (x2).
Dave Martinez pushed all the right buttons with the pitching staff, basically having to rely on just six pitchers throughout the entire postseason.
As John Smoltz said during Game 7, there are bigger underdogs to win a World Series, but none of them went through what the Nationals had to go through.
This truly was the greatest postseason run in the history of the game, and something Nationals fans will look back at and enjoy for a long time.