Nationals' Offense Suddenly Disappearing at Home in the World Series is Historically Awful

What happened to the Washington Nationals? What happened to the team that won eight straight postseason games, knocking off the Dodgers and sweeping the Cardinals and slicing and dicing the Astros at Minute Maid? Well, after five World Series games, their 2-0 advantage is suddenly a 3-2 deficit-- and you can chalk that up to their offense vanishing into the DC air against all explanation.

Following their their 7-1 defeat Sunday evening in Game 5, the Nats' run diferential in the series at home fell to a staggering -16. Only three teams in MLB history have ever been worse in that regard.

It's hard to imagine that this had too much to do with Max Scherzer's back locking up on him. The team only put up one run on four hits in Game 5 after posting the exact same numbers in Game 4. MVP candidate and regular season RBI leader Anthony Rendon is hitting a paltry .222 for the series, as is Howie Kendrick, whose red-hot heroics were a prime driver of the Nats' path to the NL pennant.

In racing to the Fall Classic, Washington famously found ways to skid the Dodgers' and Cardinals' respective surges to a spectacular halt. Now, in the seeming friendly confines of the Beltway, the very same thing is happening to them. And the timing could not possibly be worse.

The good news is that Tuesday night's Game 6 in Houston could wipe away all this damage and tie the series for the NL champs, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 in Texas. But if you believe in momentum, the odds are squarely stacked against a team that looked like a speeding freight train just one short week ago.