Cardinals vs. Nationals: Top Highlights, Key Stats and More from NLCS Game 4

The Washington Nationals punched their ticket to the 2019 World Series on Tuesday, completing a clean sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7-4 victory at home in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.

It's the first NL pennant for the Nationals, who await the winner of the ALCS, where the Houston Astros hold a 2-1 series lead over the New York Yankees.

The Nationals have made it to the postseason five times since they relocated from Montreal (as the Expos) to Washington D.C. in 2005. The first four times, they lost in the NLDS. They looked destined to fail at the same spot this year as a 93-win team pitted against the 106-win Los Angeles Dodgers, but they defied the odds in that series, trounced the Cardinals and will soon be in the Fall Classic.

"I can't put this moment in words," manager Dave Martinez said after clinching the pennant, per MLB.com's Jamal Collier. "I can say this: Often, bumpy roads lead to beautiful places, and this is a beautiful place."

Here's the team the soon-to-be-underdog Nationals will be looking to for inspiration, per ESPN Stats & Info:

After scoring just two runs in the first three games of the series, the Cardinals managed to pick up four with their backs against the wall. It was a decent output, but every run came well after a first-inning implosion that saw the Nationals score all seven of their runs. The Cardinals' meager offensive output was merely the epilogue to a series in which they were consistently overwhelmed.

The Redbirds never held a lead in the series. MLB Stats shows why that was the case:

Those are suffocating statistics, and it includes the four runs allowed by Game 4 starter Patrick Corbin. Anibal Sanchez, Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer were magnificent, and if they stay on form, they will give the Nationals a fighting chance against whichever high-powered AL foe they end up facing. 

The Washington offense can be proud of what it accomplished Tuesday and will need to do more of it to capture the title. Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson allowed seven runs, four of them earned, and got only one out, leaving him with an unsightly 108.0 ERA for the game. 

Hudson was hurt by defensive goofs from second baseman Kolten Wong and outfielder Jose Martinez, the latter particularly painful, per the MLB:

Leadoff hitter Trea Turner then broke the game wide open in his second at-bat of the inning:

The Cardinals worked hard to keep a shred of hope alive. Martinez atoned for his early sin with this double that brought the Cards within three:

But the bats went quiet again, and Nationals park erupted with joy as Daniel Hudson was brought in to close the game and seal the series.

It's heartening for Washington that they were able to put together an offensive outburst without getting much out of NLCS MVP Howie Kendrick, who has been magnificent in the playoffs at the age of 36.

But as good as the starting pitching is, eight-inning streaks without any runs will be too much to overcome against the Astros and Yankees, especially with the former able to trot out the likes of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke to start games on the mound.

The Nationals showed they know how to back up strong starting pitching with early runs, but to win the World Series, this team will have to do more of what they did against the Dodgers and win games late with clutch hitting.