ST. LOUIS — The count was full, the humidity was thick. The moment Kurt Suzuki connected bat to ball, he knew, turning and pointing toward the dugout where teammates already were spilling out to mob him when the customary trot around the bases was through.



Remember that moment? That comeback for the ages? It seems like a lifetime ago that the Nationals catcher connected to polish off the Mets 11-10, completing a historic six-run, ninth-inning deficit. It seemed like maybe these Nats were tougher than we had given them credit for. Grittier, too. That, perhaps the baseball gods had a plan for a team that rallied from the oft-talked about 19-31 start and again, from a seemingly insurmountable deficit. Maybe, you let yourself wonder, Suzuki’s hit would go down as a night that fate and history intersected for a Nats team on a crash-course to finally wallop its maligned playoff history.



But if the past-two-and-a-half weeks have taught us anything, it’s...