National champs: D.C. rallies again to win World Series (updated)

HOUSTON - It had to happen this way. It could not have happened any other way.

If the Nationals were going to win the World Series, if they were going to deliver Washington its first Major League Baseball championship in 95 years, they were going to have to do it the same way they had done it all season long - and especially all postseason long.

They were going to have to get a courageous pitching performance from one of their two aces. They were going to have to come from behind - and late - in a winner-take-all October classic. And they were going to have to trust the back end of their bullpen to hang on and finish off the biggest victory by a ballclub from Washington since 1924.

So when it happened, when it actually happened, when Max Scherzer gutted out five innings without his best stuff, when Anthony Rendon and Howie Kendrick homered during a stunning seventh-inning rally, and when Patrick Corbin and Daniel Hudson combined to pitch four innings of scoreless relief, when the Nationals mobbed each other at the center of the diamond upon sealing a 6-2 victory over the Astros in Game 7 of the World Series, it just felt right.

"This is the most 2019 Nats thing ever," reliever Sean Doolittle said. "Another elimination game. Another come-from-behind win."

Sure, the Nats could've won this any of a dozen other ways. They could've taken advantage of their two wins here to begin the series and hit a little better at home last weekend to finish this off sooner. They could've scored early tonight and then rode Scherzer all the way to victory.

But that's not how this team has done it, not as they climbed out of the depths of a 19-31 start, and certainly not this month during a remarkable playoff run. The Nationals had already won four elimination games this October, coming from behind every single time. If they were going to pull this off, they were going to have to do it again.

"Coming from behind? Oh, yeah," managing principal owner Mark Lerner said inside a joyous, champagne-soaked clubhouse. "It would've been too easy taking the lead and then holding the lead."

And so despite trailing 2-0 in the seventh and showing no signs of life against Houston's Zack Greinke, they somehow found a way to stay in - and then finish - the fight.

Rendon got things rolling in a positive direction when he launched a one-out homer off Greinke into the Crawford Boxes in left field, trimming the deficit in half and etching his name into the World Series record books. The Houston native became only the fifth player ever to hit a home run in both Games 6 and 7, joining Mickey Mantle (1952 and 1964), Roberto Clemente (1971), Allen Craig (2011) and the Astros' George Springer (2017).

"The fact we could do it here, in our hometown and in front of our friends, in our city that we were born and raised here, it's awesome." Rendon said.

The crowd of 43,326 at Minute Maid Park began to grow restless after the solo homer, only more so when Greinke walked Juan Soto, prompting manager A.J. Hinch to signal to his bullpen. With Kendrick at the plate, in came Will Harris, the right-hander who had not been scored upon in his first 10 postseason appearances but served up Rendon's seventh-inning homer in Game 6.

Kendrick, whose 10th-inning grand slam in Game 5 of the National League Division Series already ensured he'd never have to buy another drink in D.C., Maryland or Virginia for the rest of his life, added yet another signature moment to his October 2019 resume. He went with Harris' 0-1 fastball down and away and poked it down the right field line, the ball carrying just enough and staying straight just enough to clang off the foul pole and leave this ballpark dead silent.

"I was just saying: 'Stay fair! Stay fair! Stay fair!" Ryan Zimmerman said. "We got some breaks this year. That ball stayed fair."

As Kendrick danced around the bases, tens of thousands of hearty fans who braved the rain to watch the game on the big screen at Nationals Park turned delirious. Their favorite veteran professional hitter had just connected for only the second lead-changing home run in the seventh inning or later of Game 7 of the World Series, joining the Pirates' Hal Smith from the 1960 classic better known for the walk-off homer Bill Mazeroski would hit one inning later.

The Nationals - yes, the Nationals - now led Game 7. And yet there were still nine outs to record, and the question loomed: Who would record those nine outs?

The answer: Corbin would step up first with the biggest of his five postseason relief appearances (all sandwiched around three starts) and churn out three scoreless innings, permitted by manager Davey Martinez to toss 44 pitches on three days' rest to maintain the lead.

"I saw when Max's pitch count got a little higher, maybe there was a chance," Corbin said. "They called down. I knew I was coming in for the sixth there. I didn't know if I had one batter, a couple batters or three innings. Just tried to be ready, and Davey kept asking if I felt good. I told him I did."

Soto's two-out RBI single to right in the eighth added a very important insurance run, and then Adam Eaton's two-run single to center in the ninth provided even more breathing room for Hudson, who was entrusted with a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth.

Hudson, the 32-year-old journeyman acquired from Toronto at the trade deadline to help save what had been the majors' worst bullpen, then recorded the three most important outs in franchise history, striking out Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley to secure not only a World Series championship but to complete one of the most remarkable October runs in baseball history.

"That was so awesome, man," Hudson said. "That's what you play for. That's what you work so hard for throughout your life, throughout your career. To be in that moment, to be on the mound with everybody looking at you when you get the last out in Game 7 of the World Series ... man, I'll never forget that moment."

There were so many moments throughout this run. The Nationals went 5-0 in elimination games. They won three winner-take-all games, each time trailing by two runs in the seventh inning or later. They are the first team ever to win all four road games in the World Series.

"These guys, we stuck together," Martinez said. "They believed in each other. I believed in them. And I told them before the game: 'Hey, I want you guys to just treat this as just another game. We made it this far. Just play one more game. One more 1-0.' And they did that tonight."

Leading the way throughout were Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg; the Nationals went 10-0 this postseason when either of the two aces pitched, Strasburg earning series MVP honors after going 2-0 with only four runs allowed in 14 1/3 innings to cap off a brilliant 5-0 postseason.

"I think everything happens for a reason," said Strasburg, famously shut down before the 2012 postseason to protect his surgically repaired elbow, now one of the most successful pitchers in postseason history. "I think I've really just become a stronger pitcher through all the adversity that I've had to go through."

There's a certain kind of anticipation that only comes in the buildup to Game 7, and that sense was evident throughout Minute Maid Park all afternoon and into the evening as the players took batting practice and fans began filing in. The proceedings reached a fever pitch as Baseball Hall of Famers Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell took the field for the ceremonial first pitch, then as actor Matthew McConaughey called out, "Play ball!"

The first six games of this series were defined by early offense, usually in the first inning. But Game 7 saw both starters post zeros in the opening frame, much to delight of each dugout.

From the beginning, though, it was clear that Greinke was far sharper than Scherzer. The Astros veteran cruised through his first inning on eight pitches, then induced a double play grounder out of Kendrick to highlight a 12-pitch top of the second.

Scherzer, on the other hand, came out firing, with a fastball that consistently registered 95-97 mph to alleviate some concerns about the state of his neck and shoulder. But the Nationals ace's command was pretty clearly off, and he wasn't able to put away hitters like he so often does.

The Astros' first run, via Yuli Gurriel's leadoff homer in the second, didn't come on an egregiously poor pitch. Scherzer's 2-1 slider was down at the knees. But Gurriel was able to go down and drive it to left, getting impressive backspin to make the ball elevate over the high wall and into the Crawford Boxes.

Then began a slog of a night for Scherzer, who kept getting into trouble but kept finding a way to emerge with minimal damage. He gave up three hits in the second, put two more runners on base in the third, two more in the fourth and then three more in the fifth.

The most telling evidence that Scherzer was off? Through three innings, he had recorded only two swings and misses (none via a fastball) and had yet to strike anybody out.

"I never felt like the situation of the game ever was going to wear me down," Scherzer said. "I was going to continue to execute pitches."

Somehow, he kept the Astros from scoring again, at least until there were two outs in the fifth. With his pitch count about to reach triple digits but nobody warming in the Nationals bullpen, he hung a slider to Carlos Correa, who ripped the ball down the third base line. Rendon nearly made a spectacular diving stop, but the ball glanced off his glove and caromed into foul territory as Gurriel scored from second base to make it 2-0.

Scherzer would finish out the inning, recording a key strikeout of Robinson Chirinos to end the rally right there. He walked off the mound having thrown 103 pitches while allowing two runs despite 11 baserunners.

"Hey, Max is a bulldog," Martinez said. "We saw him earlier. His location wasn't as crisp as he wanted it to be. He fought through some unbelievable innings and he kept us in the ballgame. That's all we can ask from Max."

He was far from his best, but Scherzer gave his team a chance to win Game 7 of the World Series. The rest would be up to the other 24 guys on the roster. They would have to find a way to come from behind with the season on the line once again, this time to capture the ultimate prize.

They wouldn't have had it any other way.

"How proud I am of my teammates," Scherzer said. "Never say die. Just stay in the fight. Everything that we lived through. Everything we pulled through this past month. I can't describe it better than seeing what we have, and the moments that we all shared. It wasn't just one guy. It wasn't just one moment. Everybody had a moment."

And because of that they'll forever be remembered, not simply as champions, but as a particularly special breed of champions.