Nats return to Houston for first time since World Series

Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

It’s hard not to as the Nationals make their first visit to Houston since winning the 2019 World Series in Game 7 at Minute Maid Park. And I don’t really like reminiscing too much about something that happened four years ago.

There have been three different World Series champions since the Nats won it all. And in that time, the Nats have had three straight last-place finishes in the National League East.

The team looks completely different now, too. There is only one player from that 2019 roster currently on the Nats’ active 26-man roster: Patrick Corbin, who coincidentally was credited as the winning pitcher in Game 7 after three shutout innings of relief and will start tonight’s series opener. There are only three other players from that team on this 40-man roster: Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Rainey and Victor Robles, all recovering from injuries.

There are a couple of guys still with the organization. Sean Doolittle and Matt Adams are on minor league deals, trying to work their way back to the majors. But a lot of the big-name players are now gone.

Ryan Zimmerman and Gerardo Parra have retired and rejoined the Nats in some sort of front office capacity. Howie Kendrick, forever known for his two-run home run off the right field foul pole to give the Nats the lead in Game 7, has also retired. As has Brian Dozier, Kurt Suzuki, Adam Eaton and Aníbal Sánchez.

Max Scherzer pitches for the Mets, Trea Turner plays for the Phillies, Juan Soto plays for the Padres, Anthony Rendon plays for the Angels, Michael A. Taylor plays for the Twins, Yan Gomes plays for Cubs and Daniel Hudson, who recorded the last out in Game 7, is with the Dodgers.

That roster breakdown has led this rebuilding period for the Nationals. Now the focus is on CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray and Luis García (you can add the injured Cade Cavalli here, too). At the minor league level, it’s on prospects James Wood, Robert Hassell III, Brady House, Elijah Green and Jarlin Susana.

Davey Martinez is still at the helm, with a few others from his 2019 staff still coaching the Nats at the major league level or in the player development department.

Meanwhile, the Astros are looking to defend their latest World Series title. Since losing to the Nats in 2019, they have reached an American League Championship Series Game 7, won two AL West titles, two AL pennants and Dusty Baker’s first world championship as a manager, with many familiar faces from their 2019 team still on the roster.

But even though it’s often futile to harp on the past, for three days this week it’ll be hard for some in the Nats organization and its fan base to not think back to what happened on that field 1,322 days ago.

When you look above the train track in left field at Minute Maid Park, you’ll see the 2019 AL pennant. But not a 2019 World Series pennant. That one flies at Nationals Park.

You’ll remember the sound of Kendrick’s homer hitting the pole and the silence that fell across the crowd being drowned out by the cheers from the visiting dugout. You’ll remember Corbin’s three innings out of the bullpen. Scherzer grinding through five innings after dealing with severe neck spasms. Strasburg’s MVP performance throughout the series. Rendon’s home runs. Soto’s bat drop. Turner’s defensive plays. Martinez’s ejection in Game 6. Hudson throwing his glove after sealing the championship. Zimmerman’s celebration.

And of course those now famous words from Martinez echoing throughout the ballpark and the D.C. area: “We stayed in the fight. We won the fight!”

The perfect rallying cry for a team who started the season 19-31.

Martinez and Corbin will be asked about their memories tonight. They’ll reflect on them, but then surely turn their attention to the here and now, and even the future.

Although it will come to the forefront this week, the Nationals like to keep 2019 in the back of their minds. Not as a “what could have been.”

But as motivation for the future.

“I wore this ring purposefully,” general manager Mike Rizzo said of his World Series ring while also wearing a championship polo on the day he traded Soto to the Padres. “It shows what we’ve done in the past and what we’re going to do in the future.”