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Come Fan with UsFriday, June 19, 2026

The moment that decided the 2019 World Series demands a deep rewind

It’s always nice when a historically dumb team gives us a chance to celebrate.

This is a bit of a David and Goliath story. Not because the Houston Astros were bigger and stronger than the Washington Nationals, but because the Nationals were so bad at the start of the 2019 season (19-31 in May) you could equate their chances of success to those of a child fighting a giant. And you could equate the Astros’ chances of success to the giant because they won 100+ games three seasons in a row. And a championship in 2017.

By all accounts, the Nationals were not supposed to be in the World Series and the Astros absolutely were. But here we are in game 7. David was giving Goliath a run for his money. Or whatever they used back then. Lambs?

Goliath was a Megazoid made up of 7 all-stars including a trio of aces Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and the newly acquired Zack Greinke.

How’d they do it? Well, they used an injured Max Scherzer, a doubted Stephen Strasburg, a… actually, there’s no negative adjective for Juan Soto he was pretty loved so we’ll just say… a young Juan Soto and a 34-year-old veteran a little over a year removed from an Achilles rupture combined to form a sort of Megazoid of their own. A team, I guess is what I’m trying to describe.

To fully understand how the Nats took down the Astros, how the weak took down the mighty, how the underdog took down the overdog, and how the child took down the giant, we have to rewind.

Zipzipzizpzip (rewind noise)

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