Fourteen years after baseball returned to the District of Columbia for the first time since the 1970s, and after a quartet of first-round playoff heartbreaks over the preceding seven years, the most entertaining Washington Nationals team of them all broke through and won a World Series. They rode a dominant starting rotation and potent lineup while papering over the worst bullpen in the sport (principally by not using it), winning five elimination games along the way, four of them against the acclaimed two best teams in the sport, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros. It was a remarkable season, and when the dust settles and the champagne and beer are washed out of the uniforms, where do the Nationals go from here?
