One Last Gerrit Cole Gem for Astros Caps Disastrous Day for Nationals

The fifth game of the 2019 World Series was supposed to be an epic, earth-rumbling rematch between aces Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer.

But once the Washington Nationals had to make Scherzer a late scratch because of neck spasms, Game 5 played out precisely as expected. Cole pitched brilliantly, and the Houston Astros rolled to a 3-2 series lead with an effortless 7-1 victory at Nationals Park.

Houston's offense mostly came courtesy of slump-busting two-run homers by Yordan Alvarez and Carlos Correa off Nationals emergency starter Joe Ross, plus another by George Springer off closer Daniel Hudson.

But just like so many games throughout the Astros' season, which began with 107 regular-season wins and is now on the cusp of ending in the club's second championship in three years, Game 5 of the World Series was The Gerrit Cole Show.

After stumbling to the tune of five earned runs in Houston's Game 1 loss, the 29-year-old got his revenge on Sunday by allowing only three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts over seven innings.

Despite getting swings and misses on only 13 of his 110 offerings, the right-hander didn't give Nationals hitters much to actually hit. He had his fastball touching 100 mph and his curveball and slider on a string—and with better command than he had in Game 1, to boot.

This could be the end of the line for Cole in 2019. If so, he's put a dandy of a finishing touch on a season marked by a 2.39 ERA, 373 strikeouts and 59 walks across 249 total innings.

Regardless of what happens during the rest of the World Series, Cole's immediate future likely contains an American League Cy Young Award. He'll also make his first foray onto the free-agent market, which will almost certainly result in him surpassing David Price's pitcher-record seven-year, $217 million contract.

In short, both Cole and the Astros have to like where they are right now. It's good to be them.

The Nationals? Less so.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Had Scherzer been able to start Game 5, the Nationals would have been countering Houston's likely Cy Young Award winner with a pitcher who's actually won three such awards.

Yet it says a lot that even Scherzer, who notably pitched through a broken nose back in June, was simply in too much pain to take the hill for Game 5.

"I'm as disappointed as I possibly can be not to be able to pitch tonight," Scherzer told reporters earlier on Sunday, according to MLB.com's Jamal Collier. "It's Game 5 of the World Series. I've pitched through so much crap in my career that that would be easy to pitch through at this point. This is literally impossible to do anything with."

If the cortisone shot Scherzer, 35, was given does its job, he might be able to take the ball if the series goes to a Game 7. But the emphasis there is on the word "might," and not just because Scherzer could still be in too much pain to pitch.

The Nationals must first snap their three-game losing streak, and that's not happening until they rediscover the essential ingredients that initially had them pointed in the direction of the franchise's first World Series title.

Namely, that's starting pitching and clutch hitting. Through Game 2 of the World Series, the Nationals were getting a 2.23 ERA out of their starters and frequent hits with runners in scoring position out of their offense.

But as is wont to happen with any team displaying an apparent knack for big hits, their clutch gene has suddenly vanished. The Nationals went into Game 3 hitting .314 with runners in scoring position for the entire postseason. Since Game 3, they have only one hit in 21 at-bats in such situations.

For their part, Anibal Sanchez, Patrick Corbin and Ross combined to allow 12 earned runs over 16.1 innings in Games 3, 4 and 5. Throw in further poor work from the Nationals' oft-humiliated bullpen and you get the gist of how they blew the 2-0 lead they earned in Houston by getting outscored 19-3 in three games at home.

The obligatory "could be worse" spin on the Nationals' predicament is that they'll have the right guy on the mound for Game 6 at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday. That's Stephen Strasburg, a three-time All-Star with a career postseason ERA of 1.34.

Yet the Astros will be countering with Justin Verlander, who's nearly matched Cole with a 2.77 ERA, 335 strikeouts and 53 walks in 253.1 total innings of his own this season. The 36-year-old also boasts a career 2.72 ERA in potential postseason clinchers.

Even if Strasburg and the Nationals overcome Verlander and force a Game 7, they'd still be up against yet another ace in the person of Zack Greinke. They'd also be likely to face Cole again. Though he'd be pitching in relief, there's little reason to think that experience would be any more pleasant.

If Scherzer can make a miraculous, Schilling-esque recovery over the next couple of days, not all will be lost for the Nationals. But if such a recovery proves to be as impossible as it seems, the task of conquering Game 7 would fall to Johnny Wholestaff.

To their credit, the Nationals have proved themselves a resilient bunch. They won 93 games in the regular season despite starting out 19-31. And they didn't get to the World Series without first finding themselves on the brink of elimination in the National League Wild Card Game and in the Division Series.

Right now, however, whatever magic allowed the Nationals to do all that has seemingly run out. Their latest postseason journey appears destined to end the same way all the others have.

In disappointment.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.