Nationals Win First-Ever World Series Game

They beat Houston Astros 5-4
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 23, 2019 12:34 AM CDT
Nationals Win First-Ever World Series Game
Houston Astros starting pitcher Gerrit Cole gets ready to throw against the Washington Nationals during the first inning of Game 1 of the baseball World Series Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, in Houston.   (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Juan Soto and the Washington Nationals quickly derailed the Cole Express. A 20-year-old prodigy with a passion for the big moment, Soto homered onto the train tracks high above the left field wall and hit a two-run double as the Nationals tagged Gerrit Cole and the Houston Astros 5-4 Tuesday night in the World Series opener in Houston, the AP reports. "After the first at-bat, I just said, 'It's another baseball game,'" Soto said. "In the first at-bat, I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit shaking in my legs." Not even a history-making home run by postseason star George Springer—and another drive that nearly tied it in the eighth inning—could deter Washington. The MVP when Houston won its first crown in 2017, Springer set a record by connecting in his fifth straight Series game.

Ryan Zimmerman, still full of sock at 35, also homered to back a resourceful Max Scherzer and boost the wild-card Nationals in their first World Series appearance—tres bien for a franchise that began as the Montreal Expos in 1969. Soto finished with three hits and a stolen base. In the eighth, Springer put a charge into a drive to deep right-center field, and it appeared as though he might've hit a tying, two-run homer. Springer took a couple of hops out of the batter's box to watch, and had to settle for an RBI double when the ball glanced off the glove of a leaping Adam Eaton at the fence. Heavily favored at the start, the 107-win Astros will try to get even Wednesday night when Justin Verlander faces Stephen Strasburg in another matchup of aces.

(More World Series stories.)

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