The outcome seemed certain after a seven-run first inning and then became a little less so midway through the game, but it became official late Tuesday evening when closer Daniel Hudson secured the final out of the Washington Nationals’ 7-4 victory over the Cardinals at Nationals Park.
As Nationals players raucously celebrated their dominant National League Championship Series sweep of the St. Louis, the franchise failures of the Seattle Mariners gained a new level of ignominy even though their 2019 season ended weeks ago.
With the Nationals headed to the World Series for the first time in franchise’s 39-year history, including their time when they were the Montreal Expos, the Mariners now stand alone in perpetual failure as the only active organization in Major League Baseball to have never appeared in a World Series.