Six dates that were actually more important than May 24, 2019

Well, it's May 24. And as everybody knows, May 24 is the most important day in Nationals history.

Or something like that.

Look, there's nothing wrong with noting the low point of a most improbable season. It serves as an obvious demarcation point that separates the wretched first portion of the 2019 campaign from the glorious five months that followed. And as has been said over and over since then, there really aren't many other teams in major league history that came back from such an inauspicious start to win the World Series.

So the Nats have every right to commemorate today's anniversary.

However, let's be clear about one thing: Nothing happened on May 24, 2019, that suggested the Nationals were any more likely to win the World Series than the day before. That game, a Friday night home opener against the Marlins, was ugly with a capital U.

Kyle McGowin got the start and was knocked out after four innings. Joe Ross pitched in relief and gave up three runs, raising his ERA to 9.22. Matt Grace, Tony Sipp and Kyle Barraclough were among those who came out of the bullpen. Sean Doolittle opened the ninth giving up a homer and a single and brought the go-ahead run to the plate before escaping with a 12-10 victory that required 3 hours, 59 minutes to complete.

All the Nationals did on May 24 was avoid a disastrous loss to a terrible team.

So when did they really turn their season around? When did they actually prove they had the ability to do something special? It's not that simple. It can't be pinpointed to one specific date. Instead, it was a gradual process that included several noteworthy steps along the way.

Let's look back at a few of the most significant moments post-May 24 that actually made us believe in the 2019 Nationals ...

MAY 29: NATS 14, BRAVES 4
Record: 24-32
After taking three of four from the Marlins, the Nationals had begun to right their sinking ship. But the two-game sweep of the Braves that followed was more impressive. It came against the division leaders. And it was capped by an absolute rout in Atlanta that saw the Nats open up a 14-0 lead in the fifth inning. This game also saw Aníbal Sánchez come off the injured list and toss six innings of one-hit ball to earn his first win of the season after a wretched 0-6 start. The veteran right-hander would go 11-2 with a 3.42 ERA the rest of the way, solidifying his position alongside his three elite rotation mates.

JUNE 19: NATS 6, PHILLIES 2; NATS 2, PHILLIES 0
Record: 35-38
Both ends of this doubleheader sweep over the Phillies were notable. In the opener, Gerardo Parra walked up to the plate to the unlikely strains of "Baby Shark" for the first time, trying to snap an 0-for-22 slump. He wound up doubling and homering to lead the Nats to victory, and a phenomenon was born. Later that evening, Max Scherzer took the mound with a broken nose and black eye, 24 hours after a freak bunting accident during batting practice. He looked gnarly, but he pitched brilliantly, shutting out Philadelphia over seven innings. And now the 2019 Nationals were starting to develop a key characteristic: physical and mental toughness. Scherzer set the tone that night. Others would follow his lead the rest of the way.

JULY 3: NATS 3, MARLINS 1
Record: 44-41
What was so special about this game? It was a fairly ho-hum victory, with Stephen Strasburg dominating the Marlins for the umpteenth time in his career and Brian Dozier and Matt Adams homering. The significance of this win was where it left the Nationals in the standings: tied for a wild card berth. Yes, only 40 days after falling to 19-31, the Nats were in playoff position. They would remain there the rest of the season.

AUG. 25: NATS 7, CUBS 5 (11 innings)
Record: 73-57
As well as they played all summer, the Nationals still left plenty of observers doubting their legitimacy. Why? Because they were mostly feasting on inferior opposition. Then came a weekend series at Wrigley Field that dispelled that notion. What looked at the time like a potential wild card game preview turned into a one-sided affair. The Nationals swept the series behind a lineup that suddenly looked unstoppable. During an 11-game stretch, they scored 104 runs, going 9-2. And they still showed resiliency. In the series finale in Chicago, they survived a back-and-forth affair that included blown leads in the sixth and eighth innings. Then they won it in the 11th on Anthony Rendon's fourth hit of the day. Inside the clubhouse afterward, there was a swagger not seen previously during the season. These guys were legitimately good, and they knew it.

SEPT. 3: NATS 11, METS 10
Record: 78-59
You know what happened on this Tuesday night on South Capitol Street. And if you left the park or turned off your TV after the Mets scored five runs in the top of the ninth ... well, as Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler so eloquently said on their radio broadcast: "You blew it!" The Nationals stormed back in the bottom of the ninth to win, with Kurt Suzuki's three-run homer off Edwin Díaz the final dagger through New York's chest. The seven-run rally in the ninth was the largest in club history, and it proved this team should never have been counted out, no matter how bad things looked.

SEPT. 29: NATS 8, INDIANS 2
Record: 93-69
Technically speaking, there was nothing at stake in Game 162. The Nationals had already clinched home field advantage in the wild card game. And they'd already eliminated Cleveland from the American League pennant race. But even with nothing on the line and several regulars resting, the Nats stayed in the fight and went 1-0. In doing so, they completed a perfect 8-0 homestand to end the regular season. And they became the first team in 105 years to make it all the way from 12 games under .500 to 24 games over .500. None of this would matter if they couldn't emerge victorious over the Brewers in a winner-take-all showdown two nights later. But as they prepared to enter the postseason, the Nationals felt as good about themselves as they possibly could. From 19-31 to 93-69, they had fought their way back from the brink of disaster and had given themselves a chance to cement their place in baseball history.