Nationals Sweep Cardinals to Win National League Pennant

The Washington Nationals came into the post season as a Wild Card, but now they are National League Champions. The Nationals swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to win the National League Championship Series in dominant fashion and advance to the World Series.

Let’s start with pitching. The Nationals allowed just six runs and 16 hits in the four games. The pitching staff had a combined ERA of 1.25. In this era of starting relievers for an inning and using six or eight relievers, the type of strategy known as “bullpenning”, three of the Nationals four starters pitched seven innings or more, while the fourth pitched 5 1/3. The four starters–Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Anibal Sanchez–got all four victories. It helped that the Nationals never trailed in the series. The Cardinals batted just .130, with an on base percentage of .195.

The Nationals hit .274 for the series. Among the hitting stars was Yan Gomes, who was three for seven in three games (.429) with three RBIs; Anthony Rendon was five for 12 (.417) with a pair of RBIs, and Howie Kendrick, hero of the Division Series vs. the Dodgers, who was five for 15 (.333) with four RBIs in the NLCS. Kendrick was voted the series MVP.

This will be the first World Series for the Washington Nationals franchise, which started as the Montreal Expos in 1969 before moving to DC in 2005. The last time a Washington major league team was in the World Series was in 1933, when the old Washington Senators (today’s Minnesota Twins) lost to the New York Giants four games to one. The last Washington World Series champion, and the only one to date, was the 1924 Senators, who beat the Giants four games to three. The Senators were American League champions again in 1925, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games.

The Nationals will play the winner of the Houston Astros–New York Yankees American League Championship Series in the World Series.