Nationals Continue the Sports Joy in D.C.

Fans arrived at bars and restaurants around Nationals Park more than five hours before the game, conspicuously leaving work early for the moment the team would bring the World Series back to Washington for the first time in 86 years.

“In Washington, we kind of got used to heartbreak,” said Trish Gilbert, who, with her husband, John, has been a season-ticket holder for nearly a decade. “But then came the Capitals, and then what about the Mystics? Things are changing.”

The Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018 after years of failing to live up to their potential. And last weekend, the Washington Mystics won the WNBA championship. The Mystics’ star player, Elena Delle Donne, threw out the first pitch for Tuesday’s game to loud cheers.

Nationals manager Dave Martinez said his team was inspired by those victories and that he “wanted to be a part of that, too.”

“I said, this is going to happen,” he said, describing what he had told his players. “It’s going to happen in our world, in the baseball world. It is. We’ve just got to believe.”

Ask the Nationals exactly how they rebounded from their dismal start, when some players had heard that Martinez might be fired and the whole team would be traded, and they will give you dozens of answers.

It’s the pitching, they said. With Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez and Patrick Corbin, they have a stinging rotation with some of baseball’s best arms.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/sports/washington-nationals-zimmerman-parra.html?emc=rss&partner=rss