page_title: 2019 World Series
section_title: Game 1
hierarchical_section_title: 2019 World Series / Game summaries / Game 1
caption_attribution_description: English: Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals fields a fly ball during a 2019 game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: The 2019 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 2019 season. The 115th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Houston Astros and the National League champion Washington Nationals. The series was played from October 22 to October 30. The Nationals upset the favored Astros, four games to three, to secure their first title in franchise history. Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg was named the World Series Most Valuable Player after earning two wins in the series.
  The Astros had home-field advantage for the series, due to having a better regular-season record than the Nationals. It was the third World Series in which home-field advantage was decided by the regular-season records of the American and National league champions, a practice that started in the 2017 season. It was the first World Series in which the Houston Astros had home-field advantage. The series was played in a 2–3–2 format, with the Astros hosting Games 1, 2, 6, and 7; and the Nationals hosting Games 3, 4, and 5.
context_section_description: Before the national anthem, a moment of silence took place in honor of umpire Eric Cooper, who had died on October 20. Former Astro Brian McCann threw out the ceremonial first pitch to former teammate Evan Gattis. Max Scherzer started for the Nationals, while Gerrit Cole started for the Astros. With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, Yuli Gurriel hit a two-run double, giving the Astros a 2–0 lead. In the top of the second inning, Ryan Zimmerman hit a home run to cut the Astros' lead to 2–1. Juan Soto led off the top of the fourth inning with a home run to tie the game, 2–2. Soto became the fourth-youngest player to hit a home run in a World Series; Andruw Jones in 1996 was the youngest to date. Adam Eaton batted in a run in the top of the fifth inning, followed two batters later by a Soto two-run double, giving the Nationals a 5–2 lead.
  Scherzer exited after pitching five innings, having allowed two runs on five hits while striking out seven batters. Cole went seven innings, allowing five runs on eight hits while striking out six. After Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin pitched a scoreless sixth, George Springer led off the bottom of the seventh inning with the 14th postseason home run of his career, off Nats relief pitcher Tanner Rainey. He also broke a World Series record held by Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig, with a home run in five consecutive World Series games, dating back to Game 4 of the 2017 World Series. The Astros loaded the bases later in the inning with two walks off Rainey and an infield single off Daniel Hudson, but Hudson struck out Yordan Álvarez to prevent any more scoring. In the bottom of the eighth inning, pinch hitter Kyle Tucker singled, advanced to second on a fly ball by Aledmys Díaz, and Springer batted in another run with a double, pulling the Astros to within one run, 5–4. Sean Doolittle, the Nationals' fifth pitcher of the game, got the final out of the eighth inning and retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth, concluding matters when Carlos Correa lined out to Víctor Robles to preserve the win. Doolittle earned his second save of the postseason and the underdogs took the series lead, marking the first time in franchise history that the Nationals won a World Series game.
caption: Juan Soto batted 3-for-4 with three RBIs in Game 1.[35]
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