The Nationals had an improbable turnaround to still be playing baseball on Oct. 30, 2019. In a season which they started 19-31, the club transformed from a struggling sub-.500 team to a National League Wild Card underdog to a World Series contender.

That night, the Nats entered a winner-take-all Game 7 showdown against the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston in pursuit of their first championship. It was a battle of aces: Max Scherzer, who had been scratched from Game 5 because of neck spasms, against Zack Greinke, on the biggest stage in baseball.

“I believe in these guys,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “They believe in each other. And the biggest thing for us is never quit. We know that. We were 19-31. We didn’t quit then. We weren’t going to quit now.”

Washington reached Game 7 of the Fall Classic behind different players stepping up each night. In the final game, 36-year-old Howie Kendrick took over the role of postseason hero.

Trailing 2-1 with a runner on first in the top of the seventh, Kendrick sliced a cutter from reliever Will Harris (who is now a National) down the right-field line. It clanged off the foul pole for a homer, and the Nationals claimed a 3-2 lead they never surrendered.

“When they took Greinke out, I said, 'It’s Howie time right here,'” Nats catcher Kurt Suzuki said. “This guy punched out Howie at home, screamed and stared in our dugout, and Howie never forgot that. You couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

The Nationals called upon Daniel Hudson in the ninth to close out the 6-2 victory. His perfect frame ended by striking out Michael Brantley, as he then threw off his glove and raised his arms in celebration.

"Everything that we’ve been through over this past month, you can’t describe a better team than what we have,” Scherzer said.