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Nationals make World Series history with perfect road performance

Despite being the largest World Series underdogs in 12 years, the Washington Nationals topped the Houston Astros in seven games to secure the franchise’s first-ever world championship.

On its own, that outcome was a surprising development. But there’s another aspect that makes it downright shocking.

Washington won the series despite never winning a home game at Nationals Park. The Nationals went a perfect 4-0 at Minute Maid Park by winning Games 1, 2, 6 and 7, which makes them the first team in MLB history to win four road games in a single World Series.

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If that’s not outrageous enough, this isn’t just a first for baseball. A road team going 4-0 in a best-of-seven championship has never been done in the NBA or NHL, either.

To get it done, Washington had to defeat both Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander to begin the series.

Considering Cole had gone 25 straight starts without a loss before Game 1, the Nationals had already defied some pretty big odds.

After returning home and losing three straight games to put their title hopes in the balance, the resilient Nationals found a way to bounce back to win two more in Houston to close it out. In doing so, the Nationals also became the first team to win five straight elimination games in which they trailed.

Both teams were dominant at home

We’ll give you one guess which team had the best record at home during the regular season.

If you said Houston Astros, you’re on the money. Houston was the only team to win 60 games at home.

That dominance continued into October. The Astros went 3-0 at Minute Maid Park to eliminate the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS and 2-1 against the New York Yankees in the ALCS.

The Nationals were a tough team to beat at home, too. They won 50 at Nationals Park in the regular season and were 3-1 in October. Add it all together, that’s a combined home record of 118-54 before the World Series and 0-7 during it.

Baseball, man. The more you try to understand it, the less you seem to know.

One would think a home World Series crowd could will its team to at least one victory.

It just wasn’t meant to be in 2019.

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