The Nationals’ relationship with October heartbreak is so intimate as to feel like a foundational feature of the club. What this history lacks in duration is recovered in intensity. The sheer variety of agonies—meltdowns! blow-outs! blown calls! missed chances!—cover the miserable truth at the core: The Nationals have never won a postseason series in franchise history, and, all logic and reason and reality of roster construction aside, it feels easy to believe that they never will.
The 2019 wild-card game looked like it would fit this narrative. It would be The One That Strasburg Didn’t Start, or The One That Scherzer Lost In The First, or maybe just The One That Meant Only A Night Of Heartbreak Instead Of A Whole Series’ Worth.