pieces of history

The Washington Nationals are holding virtual ceremonies today to honor those who had a hand in their 2019 championship, the franchise’s first. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier and Ole Miss alum Aaron Barrett played for the Nats last season, though Barrett wasn’t on the postseason roster. While Howie Kendrick’s go-ahead homer in Game 7 of the World Series is arguably the biggest hit in Nationals postseason history, Tyler Moore delivered one seven years earlier that devoted Nats fans surely remember. Mississippi State and Northwest Rankin product Moore was drafted (three times, actually) by the Nationals and reached the big leagues with them on April 29, 2012. He had a good rookie season, batting .263 with 10 home runs in 75 games. The Nationals, who moved from Montreal in 2005, made the playoffs for the first time as a D.C. team in 2012, and Moore made the postseason roster. In Game 1 of the National League Division Series against St. Louis, he was called on to pinch hit in the eighth inning and delivered a two-run single that put the Nats ahead. They held on to win. “I just remember how fired up the guys were,” Moore recently told mlb.com. “It was just an awesome moment to win that first game.”  It was the only postseason at-bat Moore got in a five-year MLB career that ended in 2017. The Nats would lose that series – and every other postseason series they played before the magical run of 2019.