With the Washington Nationals facing elimination, Stephen Strasburg was sent to the mound to begin the ninth inning. On the second pitch of the inning, Yuli Gurriel hit a hard liner to left, which was caught by Juan Soto for the first out of the inning.

Even with a five run lead, the Nationals went to their closer, Sean Doolittle, who was already warmed up. Doolittle came in, and he shut down the Astros allowing the Nationals to fight another day.

In a World Series filled with reminders of the 2015 Mets, this served as yet another tragic reminder to Mets fans.

Going back to that fateful Game 5, Matt Harvey was as dominant as any pitcher we had ever seen on that stage. Through the first eight innings, he had not allowed a run. The Royals had no chance against him walking just once and getting just four hits while striking out nine times.

After that eighth inning, Harvey was at 101 pitches. At that time, the heart said to keep Harvey in the game to complete his masterpiece. The head said to go with Jeurys Familia. Terry Collins went with his heart, and then he completely lost his head.

Collins sat idly by when Harvey walked Lorenzo Cain. Harvey was still on that mound when Cain stole second, and he would score on an Eric Hosmer RBI double. This set forth a series of dominoes leading to David Wright playing a ball which should’ve been played by Wilmer Flores. With Wright abandoning third, Hosmer took off from third with reckless abandon, and he scored the tying run as Lucas Duda made what was the worst throw in World Series history.

No, the Mets didn’t lose because Harvey started the ninth. The same can be said about Duda completely botching that throw. However, what is not up for debate is Collins didn’t put his closer in the best possible position to succeed. Looking back at that series, that’s one of the many ways Collins blew that World Series for the Mets.

The Nationals didn’t blow the World Series. Not yet at least. They didn’t partially because they knew when to get Strasburg from the game. This is just yet another dreaded Strasburg/Harvey parallel from this World Series. Based on how this series is going, who knows what insult to injury will be added for the Mets fan in Game 7 of this series.