Rozner: Nationals' comeback one for the ages

• Second in a series

It was June 10, 2019, and the Washington Nationals were in Chicago to face the White Sox.

The Nats were 30-35 and 7 games out of the East Division lead - 6 games out of a wild-card spot - having bounced off their May 23 low of 19-31, which was at the time the second-worst record in the National League - 1½ games better than the last-place Marlins.

At 12-under .500, the Nationals were hopelessly out of it at 10 games back in the division and 9½ out of a wild card, with nine teams to pass.

I spoke to Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo in June, but our conversation that day was about White Sox starter Lucas Giolito, a player Rizzo had drafted and signed when few others thought it wise and 15 teams passed on him because of cost and elbow concerns.

But when I put my pad and pen down we talked about his team, and Rizzo was adamant that his club was not finished, certain that those who had already written off the Nats did not understand the group.

"Those difficult months when it was so tough are the most special of my career," Rizzo said a few days ago by phone from Florida. "In late May, I met with (manager) Davey (Martinez) and the coaches and we had ourselves a good heart-to-heart.

"I'll keep most of that private, but I can tell you we decided that the only people who believed in the team were the guys in that room, and the guys in that locker room.

"Everyone else was throwing dirt on us, had us trading (Max) Scherzer, firing Davey and building for the future."

Rizzo did not escape unscathed as there were calls in D.C. to blow up the operation.

"There was a lot of, 'How can Rizzo be so dumb to put money into starting pitching?' There was not a lot of belief outside the team in what we were doing," Rizzo said. "But Davey Martinez was amazing. He has not gotten enough credit for what he's done the last two seasons."

But 19-31? Your season is pretty much over in a very tough division, especially with injuries everywhere you look.

"We've been building good teams here for 12 years," Rizzo said. "Nobody's gonna win games missing your 1-3-4-5-6 hole hitters, two starting pitchers and with three bullpen guys underperforming.

"No one can win with that. You have to have your guys."

And Rizzo says it was Martinez - who finished fifth in Manager of the Year with zero first-place votes - who held it all together.

"You know that he did because there was no backstabbing, no anonymous quotes, no off-the-record (stuff) about how it was falling apart, because it wasn't," Rizzo said. "I'm proudest of 2019 that when we were at our worst, we were at our best.

"I think it's a testament to the culture we've developed over the years, and it's a testament to the kind of job Davey did. How does he not win Manager of the Year? It's a joke.

"I did believe that we had put together a team capable of winning it all, and even in May I believed it. I thought we would get our guys back and compete for a title.

"It wasn't whistling past the graveyard."

From 19-31, the Nationals went 74-38 (.660) to finish with the third-best record in the National League (93-69) and earned the top wild card.

From there, you know the rest. The insane wild-card game against the Brewers, the comeback against the Dodgers and another against the Astros, who for all we know were still cheating at home.

The Nationals joined the 1914 Boston Braves as the only teams to win the World Series during a season in which they were at least 12 games below .500 at any point.

"We won five elimination games and we were losing in all five of those games, losing in the seventh inning or later in three of those," Rizzo said. "It's the epitome our culture. That and our experience got us through the bad times, and then our talent took over in the good times.

"Our guys played playoff baseball from May 24 to Oct. 30. Those are some tough guys. The players deserve all that they earned."

Still, to be so far back with all of those injuries ...

"We dug ourselves a big hole, historically big hole," Rizzo said. "We used 48 players last year to win a World Series. I didn't even realize the number until we were going over the rings and I forgot some of those guys were here.

"You see a name and you say, 'That's right. What a great guy he was.' Or, 'Oh yeah, he helped us before he got hurt.'

"And, 'This guy was a great teammate.' And, 'This guy got one big hit for us.' And, 'This guy took the ball and gave up 7 runs but we needed 4 innings and he gave us 4 innings and that helped us win the next day.'

"These are things that go unnoticed in the game these days."

And through it all, Rizzo never gave up on a group that had seen Bryce Harper walk away in free agency.

"We knew we had a good lineup. We knew had a bullpen that was not as bad as it was performing. We knew we had the starting pitching once we were healthy," Rizzo said. "I felt once we got our guys back that we had a team that could win.

"It was a tough-minded team with a mentally tough manager and coaching staff, and guys who believed in themselves and each other."

A recipe for an extraordinary ending to an extraordinary season.

• Next: Mike Rizzo on scouting, character and being called an old-school general manager.