Long layoff no big deal for Sánchez, and he's ready to go in Game 3

Tonight the Nationals host a World Series game for the first time in their franchise history. Nats manager Davey Martinez has selected veteran right-hander Aníbal Sánchez to face off against Zack Greinke and the Astros.

This will be Sánchez's third start in the postseason. He started Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, going 7 2/3 shutout innings and allowing one hit in a 2-0 win over the Cardinals. He is 1-0 with a 0.71 ERA over 12 2/3 innings with 14 strikeouts and only five total hits allowed.

He has not pitched in a game in two weeks. But that does not seem to bother him as he prepares for this crucial game. He compared the layoff to the one he had between his last regular-season start, which he made Sept. 25 against the Phillies, and the Oct. 6 National League Division Series matchup against the Dodgers.

"Back to the outing when I threw against Dodgers, was the same amount of day that I didn't pitch before that day," Sánchez noted. "I threw against Phillies two weeks before that game, so now we understand the same amount of days.

"I just think most of the time, like right now, probably you need to rest because I've been throwing baseball since February, probably January. So right now, it's not something that's going to affect you. So for me, I'm fine with the rest."

The Nats are Sánchez's third team in three seasons. He spent 2012-2017 with the Tigers and 2018 with the Braves before being signed by the Nats for 2019. He spoke Thursday about struggles in 2016 and 2017 with the Tigers and how he kept believing he could still pitch. His ERAs of 5.87 and 6.41 those two campaigns were the worst season totals in his career. Back then, he decided he would try one more time in 2018 when the Braves gave him a shot.

"Those years wasn't easy for me, wasn't a great moment," Sánchez admitted. "Something that, I don't want to say I don't want to remember. I working hard those years, too. But you know what? The result wasn't there. And for me, I just taking one more year was last year, 2018. And they give me the opportunity to be here right now. For me, my offseason '17 and '18 was, I don't want to quit if I don't try my best.

"So I remember I sign with the Twins and I got released, and after that I say, OK, whatever happens is going to happen. I don't going to force anything. I got an opportunity with the Braves and show that I can still pitch on this level, and now I'm here."

A native of Venezuela, Sánchez has worked hard in perfecting his English over the years. One of the many reasons the Nats have bonded so well is the communication between their players and their manager. Sánchez was asked how good Martinez's Spanish is, considering it's the manager's second language.

"It's good. It's really good," Sánchez said. "He's got really good Spanish. He can communicate in that language perfectly. I think he can express better than in Spanish than I am in English. He's really good. He's really good. Dave, he's special. He's special."

Just as 2018 was a redemption season for Sánchez, 2019 was a season when the right-hander had to fight through an early hamstring injury and an 0-6 start. On May 29, he returned with an impressive six shutout innings in a 14-4 victory against the Braves. It was the start of a win streak of eight straight decisions.

"If you watch the whole game that happened early in the season when I was pitching, everything was there," Sánchez said. "Everything was the same, until I came to the (injured list). Couple of errors, couple base hits, couple situations, couple running on base. Those little things change a lot. Like I remember that I lost four games, 2-0, 2-1, so those games."

Sánchez said that in those early games the breaks were not going his way. So he kept focusing on his approach, kept believing that he had the repertoire to gets hitters out.

"I got, like, an injury with my leg," Sánchez said, referring to a hamstring problem. "I remember I didn't pitch for, like, 10, 12 day before my first game of the season. I got hit on the leg. A lot of things (were) going on on the team early in the season for me to compete harder for the second half. But I didn't do something, like, special, like I try to figure out what I had done before the IL and after. Everything was the same."

Now he looks to put a capper on an amazing 2019 in the biggest game in his career tonight against the best team in the American League.

Long layoff between starts? No big deal for Sánchez. He was going through a full bullpen session as late as last night, all a part of his normal routine.

"He throws a lot," Martinez told reporters in Houston. "He threw a sim game and got up to 80 pitches between his bullpen work and the sim game. He's ready to go. He's had this happen before to him, and it didn't seem to affect him. So he gets it, he's a professional, he kept himself ready. He's been engaged this whole time.

"He has an unbelievable way to prepare before each game as far as starting hitters and what he wants to do and how he wants to attack hitters. As you know, he's got -- I might be short, but he probably has 27 different pitches. He's going to probably use them all. But he competes. Like I said, just like his teammates, he goes out there and competes."

* Happy Birthday to Juan Soto, who turns 21 today. Here is a picture of Soto as a toddler in his native Dominican Republic: