Nationals Secure Home-Field Advantage for Wild Card Game
By Ryan Flores
With the Washington Nationals taking down the Cleveland Indians on Saturday, they secured the all-important home-field advantage for their Wild Card battle against either the Milwaukee Brewers or St. Louis Cardinals.
It's enough to have to face Max Scherzer at all, but now the Cards or Brewers will have to face the lethal right-hander at home, where he's had absurdly dominant numbers during his five-year tenure with the Nationals. It's almost unfair.
The Nationals have secured home field advantage for the Wild Card Game. Opponent still TBD but Tuesday’s game will be in DC.
— Brittany Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) September 28, 2019
92 wins. What a story.
It's odd to see a 92-win team secure home-field advantage for the Wild Card, especially with the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays still battling for that privilege in the American League with 96 wins apiece. Nevertheless, this is well deserved for the Nationals. At one point they were 12 games under .500 and looked to be lost with other NL teams dominating.
The NL wild card game will be played at Nationals Park, 8 p.m. Tuesday. It’ll be the 4th winner-take-all game there in 8 years. (Nats lost the previous 3.)
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) September 28, 2019
This surprising run by the Nats is widely fueled by the teams second-half resurgence, as they've posted a 44-27 record down the stretch. With great play from Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, Stephen Strasburg, Juan Soto and Anthony Rendon, it's no wonder they were able to lock up a playoff spot.
If the starting pitching continues to dominate, the Nats could prove to be a very tough out this October.