HOUSTON — Late Tuesday night, after the Washington Nationals had forced the 40th winner-take-all game in World Series history, reliever Sean Doolittle considered their journey. The first 50 games of their season had been a sinkhole, with 31 losses and untold angst for a team synonymous with letdown.

They rallied to make the playoffs, trailing in every elimination game but continuing to fulfill their official team motto: Stay in the fight. You could knock them down, as the Houston Astros did over three nights last weekend at Nationals Park. But you could not finish off these Nationals.

“It just feels like it’s the most 2019 Nats thing for this to come down to Game 7 of the World Series,” Doolittle said. “We’re not surprised. We know what’s at stake and we’re going to be ready.”

At stake was the first World Series title in the nation’s capital in 95 years . That was so long ago that two franchises have since left Washington — one for Minnesota, the other for Texas — and the city was without baseball entirely for 33 years.