2023 WBA Championship: Series Recap

People say adversity makes the success sweeter. I guess the 2023 Nationals will never know. The champions of the WBA dominated the league wire-to-wire and finished the regular season with a 9-3 record. To cement themselves in history, the Nationals’ final test would be against the plucky last-place Reds who had a much bumpier road to this point, coming all the way out of the Wild Card round. While Washington was a heavy favorite, the Reds felt they may be a team of destiny after shocking the WBA in a classic semi-final series to earn a shot at the title. In game one, Bobby Gambardella and Ryan Casano dueled on the mound, as both arm allowed just one hit through six frames. With still no score in the seventh inning, the bases were loaded for Drew Zimmerman who dropped a single into right field to drive in the winning run and put the Nats one game away from history (Reds 0, Nationals 1; F/7).

Anthony Gambardella got the ball in game two, trying to win his fifth career championship. In the third inning, Ryan Casano took Gambardella deep to left field and gave the Reds a 1-0 lead. The Reds could taste a game three when the wheels began to fall off. In his first season, rookie Shane O’Neill had come so far that he was given the ball in this must-win game. He began to tire in the fifth inning when the Nationals rallied for three runs to take the lead. Before the Reds knew it, the door was shut. Gambardella struck out an old foe in Tommy Ruck to clinch the title, revenge for years before when Ruck and the Marlins beat Gambardella in the 2015 championship (Nationals 3, Reds 1).

Like the film Oppenheimer, you knew what was going to happen for the 2023 Nationals. The championship was inevitable, it was just about how they would do it. For the Reds, they hoped they could be Tarantino and rewrite a script that was already done, but the Nats team was just too great, and it was always the Nationals in 2023.