Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer and a slew of aces get the World Series started in Houston, then the scene shifts to Capitol Hill.
But with Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg and all these electric arms, might as well call it capital hill.
Because in this Year of the Home Run, the focus of the 2019 Fall Classic is on the mound.
A throw-down for the ages, maybe.
I know a few guys in their rotation, and Im personally excited that theyre in this position, and Im just very excited to get in there, Cole said late Saturday night.
The matchup comes with a neat twist, too: The Astros and Washington Nationals share a spring training complex they met in the exhibition opener in February, and Scherzer gave up a homer to the first batter of the game.
Now, eight months later, they meet for real, beginning Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park. The 107-win Astros trying to take their second crown in three years, the wild-card Nationals making their Series debut.
Houston opened as a 2-1 favorite of the Las Vegas sports books.
Cole is lined up for Game 1, with Verlander and Zack Greinke to follow.
We got some pretty big boys that can pitch, Astros manager AJ Hinch recently said.
So do the Nationals in their rotation with Scherzer, Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. And even Aníbal Sánchez all he did lately was take a playoff no-hit bid into the eighth inning.
No slight to the big hitters here: José Altuve, the AL Championship Series MVP after his homer beat the Yankees in Game 6 on Saturday night, MVP candidates Alex Bregman and Anthony Rendon, postseason star George Springer and top shortstops Trea Turner and Carlos Correa.
Not to overlook the young stars on this stage for the first time, rookies like Juan Soto and Yordan Álvarez.
Yet in an era when teams search for new pitching strategies witness the Astros parade of relievers in the Game 6 of the ALCS the two clubs left figure to rely heavily on their rotations.
Fine by Hinch.
Philosophically, whether its about the new-age opener or pulling guys third time through, most of the people that support that havent had Verlander or Cole on their team, he said.
The Astros, who began as the National League expansion Colt .45s in 1962, led the majors in setting a franchise record for wins. Their playoff path was more of a struggle, beating wild-card Tampa Bay in the deciding Game 5 of the AL Division Series and then stopping the 103-win Yankees on Altuves pennant-winning homer off Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning.
The Nationals, who started out as the Montreal Expos in 1969, took the reverse route.
