Harris doesn't shy from role in Game 7, thrilled to join Nats

Will Harris could've let the memory of Game 7 linger, could've decided the best way to forget about the championship-changing home run he surrendered was to get as far away from the two teams that were involved in that moment.

But that's not Harris' style. When the Nationals came calling this winter, and certainly when they offered a three-year, $24 million deal to the man who gave up the homer that won them the World Series, he didn't hesitate to embrace the idea.

"Everybody I talked to had nothing but great things to say about Washington," the 35-year-old reliever said today during a conference call after his signing became official. "And I think professional athletes in general have a sense that one moment can ruin a lot of positive things you've done for a really long time, which is really silly that we feel that way. To get myself out of that mode of thinking, and that Washington was something that was going to be really good for me and my family, it was something that I really needed to move past to have this all work out. It didn't take me very long."

The clip of Howie Kendrick's score-flipping homer in the seventh inning of Game 7 will be shown forever in D.C. And that means Harris' pitch - a well-located cutter on the lower outside corner - will be shown forever as well. But the right-hander won't cringe when he watches it. He'll always give Kendrick credit for the swing instead of regretting the pitch he threw.

"Like I said after Game 7, he just made a championship play for a team that went on to win a championship," Harris said. "It was more a tip-of-the-cap thing for me. There's no bitterness or anything like that from my end. Would I have liked for it to go another way? Of course. But there's a lot of moments in my career you wish would've gone another way, and you just can't do it. That's just the way it is. That's sports. I'm looking forward to playing and maybe one day get myself back into that situation and maybe it'll go differently."

The Nationals would love to give Harris that opportunity. After surviving the 2019 season with one of the majors' worst bullpens, general manager Mike Rizzo elected to make an aggressive move this winter to sign one of the sport's most consistently effective relievers to the kind of three-year deal he rarely has handed out during his decade in charge of this organization.

Rizzo did so because he believes in Harris' ability to keep doing what he's been doing for some time. Over the last five seasons, the veteran owns a 2.36 ERA (third best among all qualifying major league relievers) and 0.987 WHIP (fourth best). And he's coming off a dominant year in which he posted a 1.50 ERA across 68 appearances.

Harris' repertoire is pretty simple. He throws a low 90s cut fastball that bores in on left-handed hitters' hands and moves away from right-handed hitters' bats. And he throws a curveball that breaks both horizontally and vertically, allowing him to be successful against hitters from each side of the plate.

He has altered his usage of those pitches just a bit over the years, but mostly remains the same pitcher he's always been. And in a profession that sees so many others struggle to maintain performance from year to year, he's been a pleasant exception to the rule.

"I've kind of been the same pitcher and done a lot of the same things that I've had success with for a long time," he said. "For me, it's all I've ever known, the way I do it. I haven't added any pitches, subtracted any pitches. ... My recipe for success has kind of been the same. I don't know if it's cliché to say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I've never felt really the need to change."

Harris figures to serve primarily as the Nationals' setup man, occasionally filling in as closer when Sean Doolittle is not available. He didn't seek any firm confirmation of that, though, and is more than willing to accept whatever role manager Davey Martinez assigns him.

"For me, that wasn't important," he said. "I just want to pitch well, and I want to win games. That was more of my focus. Obviously, a team that wants you is very important. But more so, a team that I was going to feel comfortable, and a team that wants to win. And obviously, a team that's coming off a World Series championship, they're definitely going to check all those boxes."

Yes, there could be an awkward moment or two when Harris shows up to West Palm Beach next month and walks past the Astros' side of the two clubs' joint spring training complex to enter the Nationals' side. At some point, the Game 7 highlight is going to be shown on the scoreboard.

Harris is comfortable with all of it, and he looks forward to formally meeting Kendrick for the first time.

"I have mutual friends, and everybody that I've talked to has said: 'Look man, there's no better guy in baseball,' " Harris said. "If you're going to give one up, that's the guy to give it up to."

And then he'll take the mound and try to keep doing what he did the last five years for the Astros. Except for his final appearance.

"I don't know how to put words into it," he said. "That's the first Game 7 World Series homer I've ever given up, and I plan on it being the last."