Matt Slocum/Associated Press

HOUSTON — This is how you draw it up. Max Scherzer making a roaring comeback just in time for Game 7 on Wednesday night. A guy who needed his wife's help to even get dressed Sunday now stomping and snorting and pronouncing himself fit to go. Humbaby!

You bet this is how you draw it up: Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, winner-take-all following Washington's 7-2 Game 6 win Tuesday. Next up Game 7, with every pitch high-stress, every plate appearance crucial. Cancel your plans tonight and order the pizza; man oh man are we in for some kind of finish.

Except...

This can't be how you draw it up, can it? Six games in and...

• For the first time in World Series history, the home team has not won a single game.

• For the first time in World Series history, a team won a game after its manager was ejected. Say hello to Washington's Davey Martinez, only the ninth manager to get the ol' heave-ho in 115 World Series' and the first since Atlanta's Bobby Cox way back in Game 6 of the 1996 Fall Classic.

• For the first time in World Series history, not one, but two players were featured toting their bats all the way to first base following home runs in Game 6 before handing them off to the first base coach as if he was running some kind of in-game coat/bat check. Now understand, we cannot verify this piece of history via some stats service like those above, but trust us, we're in a new age covering new frontiers. It has never happened. Babe Ruth didn't do it. Mickey Mantle, Tony Perez and Derek Jeter didn't do it, either.

• Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander has now lost his last four consecutive starts when his team had a chance to clinch a playoff series, the longest such streak in MLB history, according to Stats by STATS.

• And finally, the controversial call that caused Martinez to blow like an overheated '99 Mustang radiator, with plate ump Sam Holbrook ruling Trea Turner out at first base for running inside the baseline with one on, none out and the Nationals clinging to a 3-2 lead in the seventh.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

Hoo, boy. Following five mostly ho-hum games that provided just one lead change and produced less drama than the average order at your neighborhood Starbucks, suddenly this title bout outgrew Game 6 and is spilling over into Game 7.

"I don't know that there's a lot of explanation or any fancy quote," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said late Tuesday night. "We have a great opportunity [Wednesday] to play a home game, Game 7 of the World Series.

"Maybe not how we drew it up in terms of how we got there. But it doesn't take away the opportunity we have to win the World Series."

No, definitely not how you draw it up...and yet, exactly how you would draw it up. The drama, the emotions, the unexpected twists.

"This series has been very weird," Hinch said.

"It's weird, really," Martinez said. "I mean, we can't explain it."

"Really weird," Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle chimed in, in case not everyone quite got the point.

Start with Turner beating out a nubber just in front of the plate with Yan Gomes on first base to start the seventh inning and the Nats clinging to a 3-2 lead. They thought they had runners at second and third when pitcher Brad Peacock's throw sailed into right field. Except, Gurriel's glove collided with Turner as he crossed first base and caromed to the ground.

The rule, as read postgame by Joe Torre, MLB's chief baseball officer: "In running the last half of the distance from home base to first base, while the ball is being fielded to first base, he runs outside (to the right of) the three-foot line, or inside (to the left of) the foul line, and in the umpire's judgment in so doing interferes with the fielder taking the throw at first base, in which case the ball is dead; except that he may run outside (to the right of) the three-foot line or inside (to the left of) the foul line to avoid a fielder attempting to field a batted ball."

In layman's language, what that means is the runner essentially must run in the baseline box that is in the dirt the last several steps to first. Turner was just to the left of it, near the edge of the grass.

So, yes, the umpires technically had the law on their side.

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

But Peacock's throw was so wide that it carried Gurriel's glove into the baseline and into Turner. And Turner stepped on the bag with his left foot, indicating he was mostly on the proper side of the line with the bulk of his body.

"I don't know the rule. I don't know what the explanation was. I'm guessing it's going on right now, right there," Turner said, nodding toward a clubhouse television showing a press conference down the hall at which Torre was speaking. "I'm sure I'll hear it eventually. If that's the rule, so be it. I'm just glad it didn't have an effect on the game."

That's another key point: Two batters after all hell broke loose and calm was restored (well, sort of), Anthony Rendon walloped a two-run homer to boost Washington's lead to 5-2. Which in many ways was a terrific thing because now, whatever your interpretation was of the Holbrook call, what Rendon did mostly removed the umpire's fingerprints.

"Sports in general, I don't think you ever want it to hinge on anything other than the players," Turner said.

But there were two more things involved here. One was a long delay immediately after the Turner call as Martinez argued and then used a loophole to get a replay review. The play technically was not reviewable because it was a judgment call. So Martinez informed the umpires the Nationals would protest the game.

Which isn't allowable, either, for the same reason: You cannot protest a game over a judgment call. However, Torre told each manager before Game 1 that a "rules check" was allowed, so Martinez used that to protest and force officials to look a second time at the play.

Even with Torre and MLB officials sitting in a field-level box, however, chaos prevailed, and the game was delayed for four minutes and 22 seconds.

"I didn't know what they were doing," Hinch said. "And then the explanation for me was they couldn't get ahold of people. They were, like, 10 feet away from me. If they would have just told me, I'd have walked over there and told them they're right here."

Torre admitted that things spun out of control for too long.

"It shouldn't have been that long," Torre said. "I don't know if it was the noise or whatever it was. I know we had a hard line in our box, and we had trouble reaching people because we tried to make some calls and we couldn't do it. It should never be that long. That's unfortunate. And certainly, we have to take ownership of that. But it shouldn't have been that long."

Meanwhile, Hinch had summoned Will Harris to replace Peacock after Turner's at-bat, and Harris was forced to stand around and wait during the long delay. Rendon's homer came on Harris' second pitch.

Tim Warner/Getty Images

Even after that, the Nationals dugout, already feeling it got jobbed on some ball-strike calls in Game 5, was still furious. And Martinez let it all out during an epic argument after the top of the seventh while "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was playing. Yeah man, keep the World Series weird.

This fury came from a man who was hospitalized for five days in September for a heart issue significant enough that he underwent a cardiac catheterization, was ordered to stop drinking coffee and has been advised to sit down during games. He also defied doctors' orders for more time off when he returned to his team in Miami on Sept. 20.

"I was fired up. We were fired up in the bullpen," Doolittle said. "I don't know about the guys in the dugout, but when your manager comes out and is willing to have your back in an elimination game in the World Series...he was that fired up, man. And he's a pretty even-keel guy, pretty positive guy overall. He just had, like, a heart procedure a month-and-a-half ago."

Bench coach Chip Hale looked like a pro wrestler as he tried to hold Martinez back from the umpires, but Hale had all he could handle.

"We gotta work on Chip," Doolittle quipped. "Chip's gotta get in the weight room. [Davey] was throwing him around, man. He looked like he was ready to play defensive end, man. He was going to get to the quarterback no matter what."

"I've lost 20 pounds since last year," Hale protested via text to B/R when Doolittle's comments were relayed later Tuesday night. "So I lost my leverage."

Adding to the drama, Scherzer was throwing in the bullpen at the time. After promising pregame that it was too soon to use Scherzer, Martinez admitted afterward the Nationals were going to call on him late in this game if it was tied or if they were ahead by one. At the time of the Turner controversy, they were ahead by one.

"To be honest, the last three innings there were a lot of phone calls," Doolittle said, referring to the dugout-to-bullpen hotline. "I'm not exactly sure, I forget the situation, but there was a time before Tony [Rendon] hit the [two-run] homer where he was pretty close to going into the game."

Now, Scherzer will get that chance opposite Houston's Zack Greinke in Game 7 in this "Can Any Home Team Win Even One Stinkin' Game?" World Series. It makes no sense. Houston during the regular season sizzled at home, going 60-21. Washington went 50-31.

And yet, they're both oh-fer in their own cribs in this World Series.

But then, odd things are happening by the minute. Bregman smashed a solo homer in the first Tuesday night and, yes, hauled his bat all the way to first before attempting to pass it off to first base coach Don Kelly, who was so surprised he let it drop.

Four innings later, Soto jackhammered a homer off Verlander and, hilariously, did the same thing. Touche.

By game's end, nerves were frayed enough that not everybody saw the humor.

"[Bregman] shouldn't carry the bat past first base," said Hinch, normally an agreeable sort, curtly. "Soto shouldn't carry it to first base, either."

Bregman, in fact, apologized afterward.

Some, though, got big chuckles out of the whole thing.

"I thought that was in good fun," Doolittle said. "Knowing Soto, I don't think there was any malice behind it. And playing against Bregman for a long time, I don't think there was any malice behind what he did, either. There are just a lot of emotions in the game. It looked to me like he jogged the whole 90 feet and then wasn't sure what to do with his bat.

"Those are two exciting young players in the game. I'm Team Bat Flip; you guys know that. So I think, I don't know, I thought it was fun. Two exciting young players with a little back and forth there."

Now, the back and forth will commence for one more epic evening. Scherzer vs. Greinke, with Houston ace Gerrit Cole available in relief. Lefty Patrick Corbin is ready to go in relief for Washington, a city that last won a World Series title in 1924. Houston is trying to win its second in three seasons.

"I've never played in a Game 7," Turner said. "I've pretended as a kid many times—Wiffle ball, competing with friends—but I think it's going to be a little different than what I envision in my head.

"Because a lot of things in life are different than what you envision in your head. We're going to have fun. It's winner-take-all, everything we've ever wanted."

No, not quite the way you draw it up...but in so many ways, exactly the way you draw it up.

"We're in great shape [Wednesday] because of what he did tonight," Doolittle said of starter Stephen Strasburg, who held the Astros to two runs over 8.1 innings. In five postseason starts (six games) this year, Strasburg has a 1.98 ERA.

He indicated he probably will not be available for any relief in Game 7 because, as he said, "I pretty much emptied the tank."

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

On the other side, the Astros were working hard to take away the positives.

"If I had told you the series was going to be 3-3 going to a Game 7, I don't think there's a person in the building that would have assumed that all road teams were going to win," Hinch said. "We've just got to make sure that last one is not the same."

One game, nine innings...and no guarantees. The Nationals now have faced elimination four times this postseason, have trailed in each and have won 'em all: The Wild Card Game against the Brewers, Game 4 and 5 of the Division Series against the Dodgers and now Game 6 of the World Series against the Astros.

After starting 19-31 this season, the comeback kids keep coming back.

"I think it's so fitting that this team is taking this thing to a Game 7," Doolittle said. "It's the most 2019 Nats thing ever."

And Scherzer?

"Max will pitch until his neck decides he can't pitch anymore," Martinez said, and that's surely another World Series first, a manager allowing a pitcher's neck to dictate terms of engagement.

"I can't see myself telling Max, 'You're only going to go 75 pitches.' He's going to want to go out there and go as long as he can."

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.