Story Courtesy of MLB.com

The 2019 Washington Nationals should be remembered for their resiliency. Every time they seemed down, like they dug themselves in too big of a hole, that there were no more comebacks to be made, they somehow found a way. On the way they retrained a fan base that had so often expected heartbreak in October to dream again, to remember what it feels like to believe.

The season nearly slipped away in May, but these Nationals refused to allow it. They trailed in all five elimination games this month, yet they found a way to win them all. In a way, that made Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night seem like a microcosm for the season — the Nats’ offense looked lifeless as they trailed into the seventh inning, until all of a sudden they found life. So maybe it had to be this way for a team that made a habit of taking the hard way out. And now for the first time in franchise history, they can call themselves champions.

The Nationals won the World Series on Wednesday night, knocking off the favored Houston Astros, 6-2, in the decisive Game 7 to win their first championship. They did it by overcoming a 3-2 series deficit to become the first team in MLB history to win all four games on the road to clinch a series.

“Everything that we’ve been through over this past month, you can’t describe a better team than what we have,” Max Scherzer said. “The moments that we all shared. It wasn’t just one guy, it wasn’t just one moment, everybody had a moment. Everybody stepped up.”

The Nats arrived in D.C. in 2005 and revived baseball in a city that had been without it for three decades. They transformed from also-rans into perennial postseason contenders, but their failures in October only offered a tease of what it would be like if they ever reached the pinnacle of the sport. It all made the moment that much sweeter.

That much sweeter for the thousands of fans in Houston who filled the lower-level seats near the visiting dugout after the game, celebrating the team as they filed into the dugout to celebrate. More than 1,400 miles away, fans packed into Nationals Park for a watch party and worked themselves into a frenzy on the final out.

“There’s no better place than this right now,” manager Dave Martinez said.

Remember that this Nationals team wasn’t even supposed to be here, rebounding from such a disappointing start that would have crumpled many teams. The details of that comeback have been cited repeatedly this month, but they’re worth revisiting. After falling to 19-31 on May 23, Washington ripped off the best 80-game stretch in club history. On the way to 93 wins, the Nats secured the top National League Wild Card slot, earning their spot in October on a different path than any previous Nationals team and then traveling farther down that road than any who came before them.

That road included five potential elimination games and three winner-take-all contests. The Nats trailed the Brewers by two runs in the eighth inning of the NL Wild Card Game, staring down Josh Hader and just six outs away from an early offseason, but they survived. They trailed 2-1 in the NL Division Series against the heavily favored Dodgers, but they responded to win the next two games, including a Game 5 in Los Angeles where they trailed, once again, by two runs in the eighth inning with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. That stretch began one of the most blissful runs for any team in MLB postseason history, eight consecutive victories to knock off the Dodgers, steamroll past the Cardinals in the NL Championship Series and capture the first two games of the World Series in Houston.

And then once again the Nationals found themselves with their backs against the wall, down 3-2 in the World Series against the juggernaut Astros and needing to win Games 6 and 7 on the road. But they were not interested in becoming a footnote to the making of a dynasty.

“We stunk,” right fielder Adam Eaton said, thinking back to the start of the season. “But for us, it’s like you fail early, you come together as a group, you struggle as a group to be able to succeed later. You learn from the mistakes. … All of a sudden we start to accelerate and then when our backs are against the wall, it’s like, ‘Well, we’ve done this before.’ We stunk in April and May and everyone counted us out. We’re used to this, this is nothing new.”

To win this championship, the Nationals were carried by their stars.

Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg pitched in 10 games this postseason and the Nats won all 10 of them. Seven years after a shutdown, Strasburg rewrote his own postseason legacy and was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. Two days after Scherzer needed help dressing himself, he gutted through five innings of two-run ball without his best stuff in Game 7. Patrick Corbin, the third member of this dominant rotation trio, spent most of the month pitching out of the bullpen, helping to turn the team’s weakest link into a strength. Aníbal Sánchez might have had the best start all month, just missing out on a no-hitter in Game 1 of the NLCS.

That model built around starting pitching was crafted by general manager Mike Rizzo, who saw the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks ride the arms of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson to a title and believed in the value of a rotation ,ever since.

“We have a really good process of how we do things and I would say that we have been a really good team since 2012,” Rizzo said. “It’s time we’ve gotten to the top of the mountain and I just feel happy about it.”

And then there was Juan Soto introducing himself to a national audience as a star before his 21st birthday, shuffling and smiling and bat dropping and putting on a performance well beyond his years. Anthony Rendon remained calm and collected even in the biggest moments, and his homer Wednesday night helped ignite the offense, just like he did in Game 5 of the NLDS. Or Howie Kendrick, who tore his Achilles tendon and missed most of last season, delivering two of the biggest home runs in Nationals postseason history, a grand slam in extra innings to beat the Dodgers in Game 5 and a go-ahead two-run homer off the foul pole in right field in the seventh inning Wednesday.

They rallied behind their manager Martinez, who missed a series in September to receive a cardiac catheterization and had to lay off caffeine during this postseason run, even if that didn’t mean taking it easy on umpires.

“It’s not a mystery that we just kept fighting to the end and now look at us, we’re raising the trophy and we’re world champs,” catcher Kurt Suzuki said. “It feels like we had to come back in every game that we won, especially the elimination games. It just says a lot about this team and the character.”

And remember these Nationals for how much fun they had along the way.

How they smashed cabbages on the clubhouse floor after victories — a tradition that began on national cabbage day, they’ll say, as if that makes it more normal. They had a full-on dance party in the dugout to celebrate home runs, where everyone got involved, even the normally stoic Strasburg. They gave awkward hugs and wore colored glasses in the dugout. They got a stadium full of people to clap their hands in unison along to “Baby Shark.”

Their clubhouse champagne celebrations — five in the past month now — included lightsabers and football helmets, random whistles, corn on the cob and bottles of tequila. Scherzer, so giddy for most of the night he could not control himself, smiled when dared to match the Washington Capitals’ celebration after winning the Stanley Cup.

When the Nationals were down earlier in what looked like might become a lost season, black T-shirts were draped over every chair in the clubhouse with red letters that read “Stay in the Fight.” Fast forward to Wednesday night: As the Nats stood on the field at Minute Maid Park for the World Series trophy presentation, they were handed out new T-shirts that read: Fight. Finished.

Jamal Collier has covered the Nationals for MLB.com since 2016. Follow him on Twitter at @jamalcollier.

The Astros, who led the Majors with a club-record 107 wins, are poised to take home some hardware after four players — third baseman Alex Bregman, pitchers Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander and designated hitter Yordan Alvarez — were named finalists for Baseball Writers’ Association of America awards.

Bregman joins the Angels’ Mike Trout and the Athletics’ Marcus Semien as finalists for the American League MVP Award. Alvarez is the favorite for the AL Rookie of the Year Award, joining Rays infielder Brandon Lowe and Orioles pitcher John Means as finalists. Verlander and Cole are finalists for the AL Cy Young Award with the Rays’ Charlie Morton, who was their teammate in Houston in 2018.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said. “We’re going to expect to have at least a couple of victories in the voting. It will probably be a photo finish in the MVP. Just an incredible group of guys being recognized for the individual things they’ve done, and they deserve it. I’ll be pulling hard for them.”

Bregman, who hit .296, led all AL players in WAR (8.4) and walks (119), ranked second in on-base percentage (.423), third in slugging percentage (.592) and OPS (1.015), tied for third in homers (41), was fourth in runs (122) and fifth in RBIs (112). Bregman also started 59 games at shortstop in addition to his 91 starts at third base.

“He’s certainly made a case for it, and especially after Trout got hurt, he put up pretty amazing numbers,” Astros president of baseball operations and general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “We’ll see what happens, but he’s certainly going to get a lot of consideration.”

Cole went 20-5 and led the AL in ERA (2.50), strikeouts (326) and K’s per nine innings (13.8, a Major League record) while throwing 212 1/3 innings. He finished the season on a 16-game winning streak, including a Major League-record nine consecutive double-digit strikeout games. Cole was the fourth player in Major League history to have at least 21 double-digit strikeout games.

Verlander, who is seeking his second Cy Young, went 21-6 and led the Majors in wins, opponents’ batting average (.172), innings pitched (223) and WHIP (0.80) while ranking second behind Cole in the AL with a 2.58 ERA. He reached 300 strikeouts for the first time in his career while throwing his third career no-hitter in a season in which he reached 3,000 career strikeouts.

“It’s going to be a close finish,” Luhnow said. “I don’t know who’s going to win it, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be someone who played for us this year. I’m just holding my breath and anticipating like everybody else. They both deserve it. Maybe they’ll be co-[winners]. That will be nice.”

Alvarez made his debut June 9 and hit .313 with 27 homers and 78 RBIs in 87 games. He led MLB rookies in on-base percentage (.412), slugging percentage (.655) and OPS (1.067), which was the highest by a rookie since Shoeless Joe Jackson (1.058) in 1911. His 78 RBIs ranked as the seventh-highest total through a player’s first 87 games.

“He should get recognition for what he did, but mostly I’m just excited he’s going to be back next year hitting the ball hard for our team,” Luhnow said.

The AL Rookie of the Year will be announced next Monday, the Cy Young winner will be revealed Nov. 13 and the MVP on Nov. 14 – all on MLB Network.

Brian McTaggart has covered the Astros since 2004, and for MLB.com since 2009. Follow @brianmctaggart on Twitter.

The Houston Dynamo have named U.S. Men’s National Team legend and National Soccer Hall of Famer Tab Ramos as head coach, the club announced today.

Ramos, 53, joins the Dynamo after serving as the head coach of the United States Under-20 National Team since 2011 and as the U.S. Soccer Youth Technical Director since 2013. During that time, he led the U-20s to the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 and three consecutive quarterfinal appearances. He was also Assistant Coach to Jurgen Klinsmann including the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil where the U.S. team advanced to the Round of 16.

Regionally, Ramos led the United States to two consecutive titles at the Concacaf U-20 Championships, including the country’s first Concacaf U-20 title in 2017 with a win over Honduras in the final. Ramos followed that up by repeating as champion in 2018 with a 2-0 defeat of arch-rival Mexico in the final.

“I’m excited to join the Houston Dynamo organization and I’m looking forward to the challenge of leading this group of players,” Ramos said. “This is a club that has winning in its DNA, a club with a clear vision for the future centered around development and a team-first mentality, and Houston is a city that has tremendous untapped potential as a soccer market, both on and off the field. This is a fantastic opportunity, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Ramos was one of the greatest and most decorated players in American soccer history. Playing in a variety of roles in the midfield, the Uruguay native earned 81 caps with the U.S. Men’s National Team and represented the United States in the 1990, 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 1995 Copa América and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Ramos was inducted in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005. He was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 1990 and was the Concacaf Player of the Year in 1994 after leading the United States to the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time since 1950.

“I am incredibly excited that we were able to bring a coach with Tab’s résumé and background in to lead our team,” said Dynamo controlling owner Gabriel Brener. “He has a deep understanding of the needs, wants, goals and challenges that our players face, having been an elite player himself; and he has a deep understanding of how to develop young players from his tenure with the Under-20 national team. Most importantly, we believe he will be a great fit within the club culture that we are working to create on and off the pitch.”

After retiring in 2002, Ramos began his coaching career at the grassroots level and has steadily worked his way up the coaching ladder. In 2004 he founded the youth club NJSA 04 in his home state of New Jersey, building it into one of the strongest clubs in the Garden State. He joined the U-20 National Team as an assistant on Thomas Rongen’s staff in 2009.

While serving as the U-20 National Team head coach, Ramos mentored numerous future professionals and national team stars such as Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Paul Arriola, Kellyn Acosta and Matt Miazga, among others. That background of teaching and coaching young players aligns with the culture of development that the Dynamo have created under Senior Vice President and General Manager Matt Jordan’s leadership.

“We are very pleased to welcome Tab to the Houston Dynamo. He brings a wealth of coaching experience to our club, having led the U.S. U-20 National Team program to unprecedented success over the last eight years,” Jordan said. “As we went through the search process, we were impressed with how his approach to the game aligned with our club’s goals and objectives. We are confident that his experience, coaching philosophy, and ability to teach and relate to players make him the right coach to lead our team moving forward.”

On the pitch, Ramos was a trailblazer among American soccer players. He was the first player signed to a contract by Major League Soccer on January 3, 1995 as the then-fledgling league began building toward its launch in 1996. He went on to make 121 appearances for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars from 1996-2002 and was a three-time MLS All-Star.

Prior to joining MLS, Ramos was one of the first Americans to play in Europe, helping to open the door for scores of talented domestic players who have followed in his footsteps. All told, he played more than 270 matches as a professional in Spain, Mexico and the United States.

Ramos spent five seasons in Spain, playing for Figueres in the Spanish Second Division from 1990-92 before transferring to Real Betis in 1992. He helped Betis earn promotion to La Liga in the 1993-94 campaign. After signing with MLS in January 1995, he joined LigaMX powerhouse Tigres U.A.N.L. on loan for their 1995-96 campaign. He was the first American to play for Tigres and helped the club capture its first championship in 20 years when they won the 1996 Copa Mexico.

After a stellar collegiate career at North Carolina State in which he was a three-time All-American and four-time All-ACC selection, Ramos began his pro career with the New Jersey Eagles of the American Soccer League in 1988 and played briefly for the Miami Sharks in 1989 before making the move overseas.

Born in Uruguay, Ramos moved with his parents to Harrison, New Jersey at the age of 11 and later to Kearny, New Jersey. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1982 and earned his Bachelor’s in Foreign Language and Literature from NC State in 2001. He is fluent in English and Spanish.

Ramos becomes the fourth full-time head coach in club history, following Dominic Kinnear (2006-14), Owen Coyle (2015-16) and Wilmer Cabrera (2017-19). Ramos will assume his duties beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 29 and will be introduced to the Houston-area media shortly thereafter.