“This isn’t about not performing at home or anything that we didn’t do,” Astros Manager A.J. Hinch said after the game. “I come away incredibly impressed by the team that we played and got beat by.”

No team in baseball won more games at home during the regular season than the Astros, who went 60-21 there. No team in baseball won more games period, since the Astros’ 107 regular-season victories earned them home-field advantage throughout the entire postseason.

The Nationals won 93 regular-season games, entered the playoffs as the first National League wild card team and kicked off a spirited postseason run with a comeback win over the Milwaukee Brewers at home. They beat the Dodgers, the best team in the N.L., in Los Angeles in extra innings of Game 5 of their N.L. division series. They swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the N.L. Championship Series.

Even though the Nationals had to travel to Houston to start the World Series on Oct. 22, they were well rested compared to the Astros. The N.L.C.S. ended on Oct. 15 while the A.L.C.S. ended on Oct. 19 because the Yankees pushed the Astros to six games. Still, the Astros finished that series at home, so they did not have the burden of travel between series.

Another factor may be that both teams are laden with veterans, as the Nationals had the oldest regular-season roster in the major leagues this year by average age, and the Astros were third. Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who has played 15 major league seasons, said there was “not really” any difference between playing at home versus on the road. “If you play for a while and been in the league for a while, playing on the road doesn’t really bother you,” he said.