World Series: 5 biggest questions facing Astros, Nationals

5. Who will be the unsung hero?

The World Series is a stage for the game’s biggest stars to shine, but sometimes it’s a player nobody expects who turns out to be the hero. Whether it’s light-hitting Bill Mazeroski with a walk-off home run in Game 7 in 1960, or Gene Tenace hitting four home runs for the 1972 Athletics after he managed just five all season, unsung heroes can sometimes make the difference in a Fall Classic.

This series features plenty of star power. Alex Bregman and Anthony Rendon might be the Most Valuable Players of their respective leagues. Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander are competing for the AL Cy Young Award, while on the Nationals side Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg have the type of dominant stuff that shuts down opposing lineups.

But, if you’re looking for a player on the Nationals flying a little under the radar, it’s their shortstop whose return to the lineup back in May sparked the team’s turnaround.

“If the Nationals win, I think it’s going to be Trea Turner,” Olney says about the Nationals unsung hero. “Because he’s probably the most talented guy that we don’t talk that much about. Since he had that finger injury early in the year, over the course of the year his offense got a little bit better, his power got a little bit better. When you look at that Nationals offense, it goes when he goes.”

Turner played in just 122 games this season as the Nationals leadoff hitter and scored 96 runs, a pace of 127 over the course of an entire 162-game schedule. That would’ve tied the Braves’ Ronald Acuna for most in the NL. Since Washington’s 19-31 start, Turner ranks seventh in the league in runs scored behind only the likes of Acuna, Rafael Devers and Mookie Betts of the Red Sox, his teammate Juan Soto, and Bregman.

For the Astros, if the Nationals follow the Yankees’ playbook of not pitching to Bregman, that will allow first baseman Yuli Gurriel to be the club’s star of the series.

“Yuli Gurriel, because of the way that opposing teams are approaching Bregman, he’s going to have opportunities,” Olney says. “In Game 6 the Yankees basically pitched around Bregman to go to Yuli. He hit a three-run homer and it turned out to be basically difference-making. I think he’s going to get a lot of chances like he got against the Yankees.”

If either team’s starting pitcher falters in a game, there’s plenty of pitchers waiting in the bullpen waiting for their opportunity to be the hero of the series. Tanner Rainey, acquired by the Nationals for Tanner Roark in the offseason, retired all six batters he faced in the NLCS and struck out 13.5 per nine innings. Will Harris of the Astros has yet to give up a run in 5.2 innings pitched this postseason and is the pitcher Houston will go to if they find themselves in a jam.

In a series full of star power, don’t be surprised if one of those players ends up being the difference for their club.