BASEBALL

2019 World Series Preview & Analysis

6 years ago - Sportingbase

The 2019 World Series will begin on Tuesday night from Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. For the second time in three years, the Houston Astros are making a World Series appearance, and their opponent will be the Washington Nationals.

This will be the first World Series appearance in the history of the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise, which began play on April 8, 1969. The Expos would then move south of the border to the American capital city in 2005.

The Nationals enter the 2019 World Series as the underdog even though they just swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games to win the National League Championship Series. The Astros meanwhile needed six games to beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Both the Nationals and Astros have two outstanding starting pitchers. Washington has Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, while the Astros can counter with Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander.

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Where the Astros have the decisive edge is with their offense. It is significantly more dangerous than the Nationals. Washington does have third baseman Anthony Rendon, who is batting .417 in the post-season, but will need Howie Kendrick, Victor Robles and Yan Gomes to continue to overachieve.

The Astros offense is quite simply one word and that is dangerous. From first through seventh, Houston is as prolific in scoring runs as any team in baseball, and there is no doubt that George Springer, Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley, Yuli Gurriel, Carlos Correa and Yordan Alvarez will not be intimidated by any of the Nationals pitchers.

Houston and Washington did not play each other in the regular season. The Astros had a record of 107 wins and 55 losses in winning the American League West, while the Nationals finished second in the National League East with a record of 93 wins and 69 losses.

My pick is the Astros in six. But before you bet all of your money on the Astros, remember that the Nationals have been a spoiler already in the National League playoffs, as they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in the divisional series.