Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez fulfill championship quest, share emotional embrace after World Series win

Joe Rivera

Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez fulfill championship quest, share emotional embrace after World Series win image

How can you not be romantic about baseball?

Safe to say, emotions run a bit high after you secure the title of "best in the world" in anything you do. That much was clear when Max Scherzer and Anibal Sánchez hugged it out Wednesday night.

MORE: The Nats' Game 7 win, as it happened

There are more than just a few teammates hugging it out, though. The 2019 teammates started their championship journey seven years ago with the Detroit Tigers.

Teammates on the Tigers between 2012 and 2014, Scherzer left for the Nationals in free agency before the 2015 season. The Tigers boasted a pitching rotation for the ages, featuring Scherzer, Sánchez and now Astros ace Justin Verlander, and went to the 2012 World Series. They were swept by the Giants. They would return to the ALCS in 2013, lose in six to the Red Sox and then lose in the ALDS the following year, swept by the Orioles.

Needless to say, missed opportunities aplenty.

“That honestly feels like a big regret, that we weren’t able to deliver a World Series championship here (in Detroit),” Scherzer said in June, via MLive.com. "In talking with Anibal about it, we all kick ourselves like, ‘Man, how did we not win a World Series while we were here?’

"The teams that we had here, especially in that three-year run in ’12, ’13, ’14 — you play the games of what-if to this day."

After spending time with the Twins and Braves in 2017 and 2018, Sánchez signed a two-year deal with Washington in 2019, reuniting with former teammate Scherzer. Scherzer's gutsy Game 7 performance played a big hand in securing the Nationals' first franchise World Series win — and he got to fulfill the dream alongside Sánchez, seven years after they first sat in the dugout together.

Hope you kept the Kleenex handy.

Joe Rivera