Baseball fans, are you ready for the most exciting time of the year? The World Series is finally here and the matchup consists of two teams that took different paths to get here. Let’s take a look at the 2019 World Series preview.
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals will be making their first World Series appearance in franchise history. The team, riddled during the regular season with bullpen woes, have caught fire at the perfect time. They won nine of their last 10 games to finish off an improbable postseason run and haven’t looked back since. They entered the postseason as the first Wild Card team and defeated the Brewers in the Wild Card Round. Next, they upset the defending NL Champion Dodgers in five games before sweeping the NL Central Champion Cardinals in the NLCS. They enter the World Series with a 17-3 record in their last 20 games; riding their strong starting pitching who has compiled a 2.04 ERA in the postseason.
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros look to reclaim the magic they had in the 2017 World Series when they won their first title in franchise history. The Astros regular season was dominant as they finished with a 107-55 record, the best in the MLB. The postseason hasn’t been as smooth, though. They were pushed to the brink of elimination in the Divisional Round when the Tampa Bay Rays forced a Game 5. The New York Yankees gave them a run for their money in the ALCS as the series went to Game 6 before José Altuve hit a walk-off 2-run homer off Aroldis Chapman to secure the series. Led by outstanding pitching and a lineup that led the MLB in average, on-base percentage, and slugging, the Houston Astros are the clear favorites to raise the World Series Trophy.
Historic Pitching Matchups
The story in this World Series is the pitching. Both teams have dominant starters that are fun to watch. This could possibly be the best pitching talent ever seen in World Series history. This is the first time since 1945 that the World Series will have six pitchers who finished in the top-20 in ERA. Both pitching staffs finished one and two in strikeouts in the regular season and five of the top-10 strikeout leaders reside in the two cities.
The Houston Astros will go with a 3-man rotation in Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, and Zack Greinke. Cole and Verlander will finish one and two in the AL Cy Young voting, while Greinke if he had not been traded, would have finished in the top-ten. The Nationals top three starters are Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Patrick Corbin. All three will finish at the top 10 in NL CY Young voting and have been untouchable throughout the postseason. Game 1 will set the tone for the series with a marquee matchup of Cole and Scherzer. That was the 2019 World Series preview.
Prediction:
Washington Nationals in 7.
3 Comments
Great article!!
Very nice article with lots of knowledge and informative information
Eddie’s column was instrumental in our deciding to watch the World Series, which we hadn’t done in many years!