WASHINGTON _ From the time they gathered for spring training in early February in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Astros were all-in on the most direct and easy-to-grasp of slogans.
It was "Take it Back," which referenced the club's collective disappointment about a five-game loss to the Red Sox in the 2018 ALCS after winning the franchise's first title in 2017.
The Astros haven't officially taken anything yet in 2019, but they're taking as much momentum as one can imagine back with them to Houston.
And with that, they're one win from a second title in three years.
After somewhat shockingly dropping Games 1 and 2 of the 115th World Series to the Nationals at Minute Maid Park, the Astros, behind seven standout innings from Gerrit Cole and two-run homers by Yordan Alvarez, Carlos Correa and George Springer _ finished a three-game sweep at Nationals Park with a 7-1 victory Sunday night in front of 43,910.
On Tuesday night, the Astros, with Justin Verlander opposing the Nationals' Stephen Strasburg, will try to become the first team since the 1996 Yankees to win the World Series after falling in a 2-0 hole. The visiting team has won all five games in this series, matching what occurred in the first five games in 1996.
A demoralized-looking Nationals team that couldn't lose this postseason � posting eight straight wins before the middle three games of the World Series � now is struggling to be competitive. After outscoring the Astros 17-7 in the two games in Houston, Washington was outscored 19-3 in its three home games and managed only four hits in each of the last two.
The Nationals didn't score in Game 5 until the seventh, when Juan Soto's homer off Cole made it 4-1. Yuli Gurriel's RBI single in the eighth gave Houston a 5-1 lead and Springer's two-run shot off Daniel Hudson in the ninth made it 7-1.
Alvarez hit a two-run shot off Joe Ross in the second and Correa added another two-run homer off Ross in the fourth to make it 4-0. The Astros wound up with 34 hits in the three games in Washington, including 10 in Game 5.
The Nationals, who went 1-for-21 with runners in scoring position in Games 3-5, were 0-for-2 in this one, but those were two key at-bats. After the Astros took a 2-0 lead in the second, Washington put runners on first and third with none out in the bottom of the inning on singles by Soto and Howie Kendrick. But Cole struck out Ryan Zimmerman and got Victor Robles to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, and the Nationals never threatened again.
Cole was the Cole of the regular season, when he went 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA. The righthander allowed one run, three hits and two walks, striking out nine.
Sunday night was supposed to be a rematch of Game 1, a 5-4 Nationals victory in which Cole, who had not lost a game since May 22, got roughed up for five runs and eight hits. But he did not face off against Max Scherzer as expected.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez dropped a bombshell about 3{ hours before Game 5 when he announced that Scherzer had been scratched because of neck spasms.
"I woke up this morning completely locked up. I couldn't do anything, couldn't even dress myself. I had to have my wife help me," said Scherzer, who received a cortisone shot in his neck. He hopes it will loosen things up and make a Game 7 start possible on Wednesday night if the Nationals can win Game 6.
Righthander Joe Ross went 4-4 with a 5.48 ERA in 27 appearances this season, including 4-2 with a 3.02 ERA in nine starts, took his place.
Serenaded by thunderous "Let's go Joe!" chants as he walked to the bullpen before the game and as he faced leadoff man George Springer, anything seemed possible.
But, after a scoreless first, reality set in against an Astros team rediscovering the groove that allowed them to win an MLB-best 107 games.
Gurriel reached on an infield single with one out in the second and Alvarez, a weak fielder whom manager AJ Hinch went-back-and-forth on whether to start in left, crushed a 2-and-1 fastball to dead center for a 2-0 lead. Alvarez, coming off a 1-for-22 ALCS vs. the Yankees, rewarded his manager's faith, going 3-for-3 to improve to 6-for-9 this series.
The Nationals' indescribably bad performance with runners in scoring position continued in the bottom half when they wasted a first-and-third, none-out opportunity, which dropped them to 1-for-21 the last three games with RISP.
Ross retired the first two batters of the fourth, but Alvarez roped a single to right. Up stepped Correa, who declared after the Astros' victory in Game 3, "We got out swagger back," destroyed a hanging 2-and-2 slider to left, the two-run shot making it 4-0.
