WASHINGTON -- Ryan Zimmerman spoke to his father recently and thought back to the ninth inning of the National League wild-card game, which by this point felt like a lifetime ago. He identified that moment as the first time, across 1,709 games in 15 major league seasons, that he forgot to breathe.
On Tuesday night, in the final innings of an eventual pennant clincher, it happened again. The lead was shrinking, the pressure was mounting, the anticipation was escalating. Zimmerman thought about all those years with the Washington Nationals -- the last-place seasons, the early exits, the annual disappointments -- and what an achievement like this would signify.