WASHINGTON -- The 2019 World Series has been a tale of two cities for the Washington Nationals. Nearly everything went their way in Houston as they took the first two games from the mighty Astros on the road. Nearly everything went wrong when they came back to D.C. -- a city hosting its first World Series games since 1933 -- and dropped the next three games. 

Sunday's 7-1 loss to Houston in Game 5 felt like rock bottom for the Nationals, and they're now on the verge of watching their title dreams completely disappear.

The Nationals shocked the world by winning two games in Minute Maid Park. That's no insult to Washington, either. The Astros are world-beaters in that building. Combining the regular season and postseason, the Astros entered the World Series 65-22 at home, which is a .747 clip (a 162-game pace of a 121-41 record). 

Then the Nationals came home to Washington D.C. and just completely fall apart. Everything worked against Washington, including the news that ace starter Max Scherzer was darn-near paralyzed in his upper back and neck area and obviously couldn't take the ball in Game 5. Not that it really mattered. It's hard to win games without scoring runs.  

A cursory look at the numbers makes it seem like the Nationals transformed into the Orioles on their flight back to the Beltway. Let's dive in:

Games 1-2

  • The Nationals hit .307/.361/.547 with five home runs and 17 total runs in two games started by the guys (Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander) who were the two best pitchers in baseball this season. 
  • They were 7 for 21 (.333) with runners in scoring position. 
  • They had a staff ERA of 3.50, and this came against a team that hit .284/.362/.516 and averaged six runs per game at home in the regular season. 
  • They outscored the best team in baseball 17-7 in two games. 
  • They had a six-run inning! 
  • They were coming home with a 2-0 lead, needing only to two of the next five games with Patrick Corbin, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg lined up for starts. Corbin was matched up against a bullpen game. 

Games 3-5

  • They hit .175/.266/.258.
  • They were 1 for 21 (.048) with runners in scoring position. 
  • They left 25 runners on base. 
  • The staff ERA was 5.67. 
  • I mentioned Corbin above. He hasn't really held up his end as a postseason ace. He gave up four runs on seven hits in six innings in Game 4. He has a 6.64 ERA this postseason. 
  • Scherzer's injury meant the Nationals had to start Joe Ross. He's not a bad pitcher, but being thrown into the fire like that is a tough spot. He would allow four runs in five innings and the wind was totally sucked out of a previously hopping Nationals Park. 
  • The Nationals never led. They trailed all but two of the 27 innings played in their home park. 
  • They were outscored 19-3. 

The juxtaposition of those two snapshots is just jaw-dropping. 

We do have to credit the Astros, of course. They're a great team and they played like it starting in Game 3 with their backs against the wall. We can give credit where its due while also pointing out how poorly the Nationals played. 

Moving forward, the Nationals have to deal with Justin Verlander in Game 6 in Minute Maid Park. Yes, they beat him in Game 2 and there's no one you'd rather have going than Strasburg on the Nats' side, but it just feels like they've already blown their opportunity. 

They are now tasked with winning all four games in Minute Maid Park. Remember how good the Astros are at home. Does it really seem possible for this to happen? It feels implausible. The Astros play like one of the best teams in baseball history there. 

There is a dream scenario in play, of course, to which Nats fans should cling. Here goes: Strasburg goes out and does Strasburg things in Game 6 while the offense gets to Verlander -- and he can be gotten to -- before Max Scherzer fights through his spasms in Game 7 delivers a performance for the ages against Zack Greinke. Greinke hasn't been very good and the Astros bullpen isn't very deep these days, after all. 

The players say they still like their chances. 

"We play on the road pretty well," said Adam Eaton. "When we went to Chicago and had a big series [the Nationals swept the Cubs in three games in Wrigley Field Aug. 23-25], I think we kinda had a little chip on our shoulder, going in there and wanting to prove something. We're going back to [the Astros'] place where we've had some success and we can go in there with the villain mentality. We can come together as a group on the plane. We've won two games in a row before. We're looking to do that again.

"'What's new?' That's kind of our feeling with our backs against the wall: 'What's new?' Winners come to play when their backs are against the wall. True competitors, you can see what you're made of. We're gonna see what we're made of. We've got a heck of a battle coming." 

"We feel good, everybody feels good going back there and trying to do the same thing we did before," Juan Soto added.

They are certainly saying all the right things after getting kicked in the teeth at home for three games.  

This discussion would be a lot more tenable, however, if the Nationals won just one time out of three at the home. If you're playing for a World Series championship, winning one game out of three at home shouldn't be too much to ask. For the 2019 Washington Nationals, apparently it was and the most likely outcome now is that's how this season is remembered: They had firm control and blew it.