ST. LOUIS -- They traveled as slow as 66 mph and no faster than 93. Some cut, some ran, some fluttered, and somehow, hardly any of them came back with any authority. Anibal Sanchez -- the forgotten member of a renowned rotation, a statistical marvel at this stage of his career -- baffled the St. Louis Cardinals on a night when it seemed as if the Washington Nationals were destined for defeat.
On the road, with the closer unavailable, with Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin all exhausted from the prior series, Sanchez came four outs away from joining Don Larsen and Roy Halladay as the only men to ever throw a postseason no-hitter.