Nationals Sweep Cardinals To Advance To The World Series.
The Washington Nationals have advanced to the 2019 World Series thanks to a 4 Game sweep of the St Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. The Nationals beat the Cardinals 7-4 in game 4 thanks to a 7-run first inning on Tuesday night.
The Nationals are the 4th team in MLB history to advance to the World Series after being 12 games below .500, the Nationals were 19-31 at the end of May and this was a team that was minus Bryce Harper when the season started. It's also the first World Series in 86 years for the Nations Capital of Washington DC.
Howie Kendrick, does that name ring any bells to you, he was the hero in game 5 of the division series against the Dodgers when he hit the Grand Slam. Kendrick was named NLCS MVP going 5-for-15 with 4 doubles and 4 RBI'S and he hit .333 along the way. Kendrick has been nothing but red hot since game 5 against the Dodgers.
The Nationals are riding a 6-game postseason winning streak and they now can sit back and relax and wait to see who they will face in the World Series, will it be the Yankees or Astros, we will have to wait and see.
But what happened to the St Louis Cardinals, they were red hot against the Atlanta Braves and they came back to beat the Braves in five games in the league division series.
In the NLCS the Cardinals were outscored 20-6 in the four game sweep and the hitting was a nightmare for St Louis. I have seven hitters that got my attention, after what I saw I was thinking did they miss the boat or something.
Paul Goldschmidt-He hit .260 during the regular season, he went 1-16 in the NLCS with 9 strikeouts that's a .063 BA, WOW!!!!.
Marcell Ozuna- He hit .243 during the regular season, he went 3-16 with 8 strikeouts. OUCH!!!!.
Tommy Edman- He hit .304 during the season, he went 0-14 in the NLCS with 5 strikeouts, Send him back to the minors.
Kolten Wong- He hit .285 during the regular season, he went 2-14 in the series, That's a .143 BA if your keeping score at home.
Paul DeJong- He Hit .233 during the season, he went 3-12 with 6 strikeouts, that's a .250 BA.
Jose Martinez- He hit .269 during the season, he was one of the very few bright spots for the Cardinals, He went 5-10 with 2 strikeouts.
Yadier Molina- He hit .270 during the season, he did have a home run, but he only went 2-12 during the LCS and did strikeout once.
The Cardinals hit .207 as a team after hitting .245 during the regular season. The Cardinals we not in it at all as they never led in the series against the Nationals.
Here's my take..
The Nationals are just riding on all the momentum at the moment as they sit back and wait to see who they face in the World Series starting next Tuesday night. The Nationals can thank Howie Kendrick for them getting closer to the promise land as they will battle either the Yankees or Astros in the World Series.
Since the Nationals knocked out the 106 win LA Dodgers in the division series what makes you think they can beat either the Astros or Yankees. I said the other day that the ALCS will go the distance. But at the moment everything is going the Nationals way. But anything can happen and it usually does.
Bottom Line..
