{"id":4982,"date":"2012-10-31T10:54:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T14:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=4982"},"modified":"2013-10-02T10:56:57","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T14:56:57","slug":"how-does-nats-cards-nlds-game-5-rate-historically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=4982","title":{"rendered":"How does Nats-Cards NLDS Game 5 rate historically?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How “good” of a game historically speaking was Game 5 of the Nats-Cards NLDS? \u00a0How will this game be remembered historically?<\/p>\n

I realize of course how difficult it is to objectively view the Nats meltdown in Game 5 from a baseball stand-point for Washington fans. \u00a0It was too much of a gut-punch game, too sudden, too unbelievable of a collapse by our closer Drew Storen<\/strong>. \u00a0And we’re all immediately on the defensive because the inevitable back-seat driver columns from hither and yon about how Stephen Strasburg<\/strong> would have won the series for us in the face of more than enough evidence to the contrary (as in, how exactly would Strasburg have factored into a 2-run lead given up by our closer in Game 5?) \u00a0But I wonder if this game goes down into the pantheon of great games, or if it will remain known as just an amazing collapse by Nats bullpen.<\/p>\n

I touched on the topic of “Greatest Games” last fall, when I wrote in this space that I thought game 6 of the 2011 World Series was instantly among the best games<\/a> of our lifetime. \u00a0The trap that we all fall into as sports fans is to immediately assume that the player or game we are watching today is immediately “better” than historical figures in each sport. \u00a0I see far too many articles in the sportswriting world that immediately declare that Such-and-Such a sports news item is the “worst trade” or “best game” ever played. \u00a0\u00a0Strasburg<\/strong> is “the best pitching prospect the game has ever seen,” that is until the next “best there ever was” guy shows up. \u00a0We’re prone to hyperbole to get hits and sell papers, unfortunately. \u00a0But Game 6 last year was different; as I was watching it I was saying to myself that it was the best game I’d ever witnessed.<\/p>\n

In that same post I also reviewed MLB Networks’ fantastic “Best 20 games of the last 50 years” series for context. \u00a0Going back to that list, the breakdown of games is as follows:<\/p>\n