Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has suggested the club could forfeit their Carabao Cup quarterfinal tie against Aston Villa if a sensible date cannot be found for the fixture.

Here, we look at why the tie is causing a major headache for the fixture schedule.

When should Aston Villa vs. Liverpool be played?

The game is scheduled for the week of Dec. 17, 2019. All quarterfinal ties will be live on ESPN+.

Why can't the Carabao Cup tie be played then?

Liverpool will be in Qatar for the FIFA Club World Cup, with their semifinal scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 18.

- FIFA Club World Cup: All you need to know

Can't they play the Carabao Cup tie before then?

There is no spare midweek date. After the next international break, there is a Champions League round, followed by a full set of Premier League games, and then the final set of UCL games. That takes us to mid-December.

So when could it be played?

Liverpool are back in Premier League action on Dec. 26, after returning from Qatar.

The next possible spare date is the week of Jan. 7, which is when the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals are scheduled. It seems almost certain that the Aston Villa vs. Liverpool quarterfinal tie will be played then, but the real issue is the knock-on effects for the semifinals.

When will the semifinal be played?

As the Carabao Cup semifinals are two-legged ties, it puts extra pressure on the fixture list.

The week of Jan. 14 is reserved for FA Cup third-round replays, so while the Carabao Cup semifinal first leg could be scheduled there is the danger Aston Villa or Liverpool are landed with yet another fixture. And then you would need to find somewhere to play that FA Cup match -- it could just shift the problem on.

The week of Jan. 21 has a full round of Premier League games, and leaves the semifinal first leg in the week of Jan. 28 -- when the second leg should be played.

So the hangover continues. The week of Feb. 4 is set for FA Cup fourth-round replays, so you are pushing the second leg to the week of Feb. 11 -- and that brings another problem.

Will the winter break get in the way?

The Premier League has created a winter break by splitting a round of fixtures in half. There are 10 games scheduled for Feb. 8, but half those games will move to Feb. 15 -- so all clubs will either be in the first or second week of their winter break on Feb. 11. Aston Villa or Liverpool, plus their semifinal opponents, would likely have to finish their break early, or start it late.

Klopp insists Liverpool will not play during their winter break period.

- Premier League winter break: All you need to know

Could a Premier League game be moved?

Again, this just moves the problem onto another competition. For instance, there is little chance the New Year games of Burnley v Villa and Sheffield United vs. Liverpool would be rearranged so the quarterfinal could be played before the scheduled date of the semifinal first leg.

Liverpool already have to find a new date for their game against West Ham, which was scheduled for Dec. 21, and the two Carabao Cup finalists will have to move their games scheduled for Feb. 29.

Could they make the semifinal one-legged?

No, they will almost certainly still play two games, with both semifinals being the same format.

What is the most likely fix?

The first feasible date for Aston Villa vs. Liverpool is Jan. 7 or 8. It will be known a few days beforehand if either team OR the other semifinalist would require an FA Cup replay. If neither semifinalist needs a replay, then the semifinal first leg could be played on Jan. 14 or 15 (the dates reserved for those FA Cup games). That then gets the Carabao Cup back on track, with the semifinal second leg the week of Jan. 28 as planned.

One additional issue is if Aston Villa or Liverpool are drawn at home in the first leg of the semifinal, as it poses logistical problems with matters such as policing at such short notice.

SCENARIO 1 (most likely)
Jan. 4 - FA Cup third round
Jan. 7 - Aston Villa vs. Liverpool quarterfinal
Jan. 11 - Premier League games
Jan. 14 - Aston Villa or Liverpool Carabao Cup semi leg 1 (if no FA Cup replay needed)
Jan. 18 - Premier League games
Jan. 21 - Premier League games
Jan. 25 - FA Cup fourth round
Jan. 28 - Aston Villa or Liverpool Carabao Cup semi leg 2
Feb. 1 - Premier League games

However, if the winners of the quarterfinal tie do need an FA Cup replay on the week of Jan. 14, it gets messy again.

SCENARIO 2
Jan. 4 - FA Cup third round
Jan. 7 - Aston Villa vs. Liverpool quarterfinal
Jan. 11 - Premier League games
Jan. 14 - FA Cup replays
Jan. 18 - Premier League games
Jan. 21 - Premier League games
Jan. 25 - FA Cup fourth round
Jan. 28 - Aston Villa or Liverpool Carabao Cup semi leg 1
Feb. 1 - Premier League games
Feb. 4 - FA Cup replays
Feb. 8 - Premier League games (Aston Villa and Liverpool play this date)
Feb. 11 - Aston Villa or Liverpool Carabao Cup semi leg 2
Feb. 15 - Winter break for Aston Villa and Liverpool
Feb. 22 - Premier League games

One problem with Scenario 2 is if UEFA schedules Liverpool to play a Champions League round-of-16 tie on Feb. 18 or 19, essentially truncating the club's winter break further. The weeks of Feb. 18 and Feb. 25 are reserved for European football, though Aston Villa could technically play as long as they are not drawn against one of the Manchester clubs. Also, the final is on Sunday, March 1 and will not move.

SCENARIO 3
Jan. 4 - FA Cup third round
Jan. 7 - Aston Villa vs. Liverpool quarterfinal
Jan. 11 - Premier League games
Jan. 14 - Aston Villa or Liverpool Carabao Cup semi leg 1 (possible FA Cup replay clash)
Jan. 18 - Premier League games
Jan. 21 - Premier League games
Jan. 25 - FA Cup fourth round
Jan. 28 - Aston Villa or Liverpool Carabao Cup semi leg 2
Feb. 1 - Premier League games
Feb. 4 - FA Cup replays
Feb. 8 - Premier League games (no pressure on Aston Villa and Liverpool play this date or Feb. 15)

Could Liverpool really forfeit the game?

It's very unlikely, even if Klopp said "if they don't find a place for us -- an appropriate place -- not 3 a.m. on Christmas Day, then we don't play it." It should be taken more as a tactic by Klopp to avoid being forced to play games close together.

A statement from the EFL read: "The EFL is in discussions with Liverpool to identify an alternative date given the club's participation in the FIFA Club World Cup competition."

If Liverpool don't play Aston Villa, who does?

Aston Villa would go straight through to the semifinals. Arsenal, who lost to Liverpool in the fifth round, would not re-enter the competition.

What would happen if Liverpool were to forfeit the game?

Liverpool would be charged with misconduct and likely face a heavy fine, but even considering the fixture congestion it would not be a good look for the club to pull out at the quarterfinal stage.

They could not be docked Premier League points.

What about playing a youth team against Aston Villa?

There is the chance Liverpool could attempt to fulfil the fixture this way on the scheduled date, but this again is unlikely.

Weren't Man United allowed to pull out of the FA Cup though?

Yes, they did not take part in the FA Cup in 1999-2000 because they were in the FIFA Club World Championship. This was a bigger tournament than the Club World Cup, and involved United playing potentially four games (Liverpool will play two in Qatar).

However, it was prearranged that United would not take part in the FA Cup, partly to try and help England's bid to host the 2006 World Cup. At no stage did they enter the FA Cup in 1999-2000.

The difference here is that Liverpool have entered the EFL Cup and are expected to honour their fixtures.

Big Picture

So, who is going to be the first to mention the boundary count? Three-and-a-half months on from that tied World Cup final (you don't need me to remind you what happened next), New Zealand and England go toe-to-toe once again in a five-match T20I series that will act as a launchpad for both sides as the countdown begins to the 2020 T20 World Cup.

As it goes, this is a format in which hitting the most boundaries often is significant. England reached the final of the 2016 World T20 during the early days of their reinvention as power-packed ODI juggernaut, and will likely be a dangerous proposition in Australia next year - though the squad sent to New Zealand is as much about potential as proven performance. And while the home side are missing their captain, Kane Williamson, as well as Trent Boult for the first three games, they have plenty of T20 chops - as shown by Colin Munro's blitz to see off England in their second warm-up game.

ALSO READ: Gregory faces all-round challenge to prove himself in finisher role

What has gone before is less important than what is to come (Really?! Ed), and each team has their own areas to focus on as, for the next 12 months T20Is - so often an afterthought for touring sides - gain extra relevance and context. For New Zealand, the opener issues that dogged their World Cup - an appearance in the final notwithstanding - threaten to linger, while elsewhere the likes of Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell and Scott Kuggeleijn will be hoping to make themselves indispensable under stand-in captain Tim Southee, who led the team to a 2-1 series win in Sri Lanka on their most recent tour.

England's overarching goal for the series, meanwhile, is to find out how a host of new faces go in international competition. The likes of Tom Banton and Pat Brown have caught the eye at domestic level in the Blast and, with a number of first-choice white-ball players rested after a doubly draining English summer featuring World Cup and Ashes, here comes a chance to step up.

England's T20 World Cup squad is sure to feature the likes of Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes (all absent on this leg of the trip), and Banton may have to go some to force his way through a queue of heavyweight top-order contenders, but there are obvious question marks around the lower middle-order finisher role and a couple of the bowling slots. Sam Curran, who has yet to play T20 internationals despite Test and ODI caps (not to mention an IPL contract), may have most to gain, while allrounder Lewis Gregory, legspinner Matt Parkinson and raw quick Saqib Mahmood will be hoping to catch the eye as the series wears on.

Form guide

New Zealand LWWWL (completed matches, most recent first)
England WWWWW

In the spotlight

Ross Taylor is New Zealand's most-capped batsman in T20Is, and likely to provide the glue in their middle-order - but the exact value of that role is something Gary Stead needs to determine ahead of the T20 World Cup. Taylor is now 35 and his last T20I fifty came in 2014, although he did top-score with 48 from 29 in his last innings but one to see New Zealand to victory in Pallekele.

The leading wicket-taker in the Blast over the last two season, Pat Brown has impressed with his clear head as much as his befuddling slower balls. However, figures of 1 for 70 from seven overs in England's two tour games - albeit marred by a couple of dropped catches - suggest the 21-year-old will have to adapt quickly when the series proper begins.

Team news

The absence of Williamson perhaps makes decision-making easier at the top of the order, with Seifert likely to slot in below regular openers, Martin Guptill and Munro. Lockie Ferguson made his return from injury in England's warm-ups and is available for three games before Boult returns. Jimmy Neesham hasn't played a T20I in two years but could provide competition for Mitchell, while Blair Tickner is the other seam-bowling option in the squad.

New Zealand (possible): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Colin de Grandhomme, 6 Daryl Mitchell, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn, 9 Tim Southee (capt), 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Ish Sodhi

England have announced T20I debuts for Sam Curran and Brown, while Gregory could also make his international bow after Joe Denly - who had been expected to bat at No. 5 - rolled his ankle in training. Morgan confirmed that Dawid Malan will open the batting alongside Jonny Bairstow and, while the final XI will be confirmed on Friday, Banton, Parkinson and Mahmood look set to bide their time.

England (possible): 1 Dawid Malan, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 James Vince, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings (wk), 6 Lewis Gregory, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Tom Curran, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Pat Brown

Pitch and conditions

The picturesque Hagley Oval will host its first T20 international on Friday, with Christchurch set to be cool but largely clear of the rain that affected Canterbury's Plunket Shield match against Northern Districts last week (a game in which Seifert and Mitchell were among the four centurions). The ground is one of few in New Zealand built specifically for cricket and is therefore not quite such a postage stamp - which the bowlers may appreciate ahead of trips to the Westpac Stadium and Eden Park.

Stats and trivia

• Overall, in 16 T20Is going back to 2007, England are way ahead of New Zealand on boundary countback, having scored 342 (237 fours, 105 sixes) to 264 (172 fours, 92 sixes).

• England are also in front on head-to-head, winning 10 out of 15 games that have reached a result.

• Although they lost the last encounter, by two runs in Hamilton last year, New Zealand still progressed to the tri-series final against Australia on NRR thanks to another Munro assault.

Quotes

"It's a different format. We've had a tour to Sri Lanka, so life goes on and you move on."
Tim Southee says the World Cup final defeat is behind New Zealand

"Twelve months is a long way down the road, we play a lot of T20 cricket between now and then, so I think being quite flexible and trying to build a 15- or 16-man squad is actually more important than the final XI."
Eoin Morgan on England's T20I ambitions

A shiver went through Chris Lynn when he heard the news that his close friend Glenn Maxwell would be taking time away from the game for his mental health.

Lynn, who only became aware of the development when he left the field at the end of the Cricket Australia XI match against Pakistan at Bankstown Oval, spoke of his shock and added that the entire country would be behind Maxwell.

"It sends shivers down my spine when you hear something like this, Glenn's a close mate of mine," he said after the match. "When one man goes the whole team feels it; but I think the whole of Australia feels it. What he's got to realise is that, as men, we don't speak up enough about it so I'm really proud that he's really come out and assessed that cricket isn't for him right now.

"He has to realise there are 25 million people from Australia behind him and that's the main thing. Whatever we can do, whether it's more or less, we'll be there. I wish him all the best, if he needs me I'll be there."

"I feel for the bloke and just hope he can bounce back because over the last week we've seen how good he is. Cricket will have a big dent with him sat on the sidelines, but I don't want him to rush at all."

As Justin Langer did when speaking in Melbourne, Lynn talked about the pressures faced by professional cricketers and that what is on public display may only be a fraction of what is going on for a player.

"A lot of people think it's a gravy train, play for Australia and get to travel the world but there's a lot of hard work beneath the water that people don't see and the mental toughness that a lot of cricketers have to show is next level.

"It's a good thing for cricket he has spoken up, there are organisations who can help out. I've no doubt his friends and family will be most important right now. We are seeing a number of people taking a break from the game, but as I said it's not all gravy, it's a big iceberg and sometime we only see the tip of it."

The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) has robustly protested the PCB's decision to not allow Pakistani players to participate in the T10 League. And several accounts suggest that, according to the PCB at least, the decision to revoke the NOCs came from the board patron and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The PCB originally allowed players to be drafted in the league but unexpectedly revoked the permission last week. In a statement, the PCB said that the decision had been taken "to manage the players' workload, continued work on their fitness levels [and] to ensure primacy and participation of its player in its premier Quaid-e-Azam Trophy". The decision is a significant blow to this season of the T10 tournament, scheduled to begin on November 15, which was set to feature 16 top Pakistan players.

The T10 league's vice-chairman Khalid Al Zarooni sent a letter last week to the PCB chairman Ehsan Mani that the decision is directly hurting the UAE government's stakes in the tournament, and urged the Pakistani board to change its mind. Mani is believed to have told the ECB vice-chairman on the phone about the prime minister's role in the decision. He also advised the ECB to engage directly with Khan, through a senior UAE minister Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak al Nahayan (copied in ECB's original letter) to find a resolution. The ECB is thought to be weighing up the option of raising the issue of government interference in the PCB's affairs with the ICC.

"We are extremely concerned by this late decision and are surprised to see that the decision has been taken without engaging any of the Abu Dhabi T10 league or Emirates Cricket Board members," Zarooni's letter to Mani read, a copy of which ESPNcricinfo has seen. "Particularly considering that the PCB decision came after PCB has issued NOC to all the players who participated in the player draft on 16th October and various teams selected 16 Pakistani players, including Team Abu Dhabi which is owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi.

"As you must be aware, the three government entities (Abu Dhabi Sports Council, Abu Dhabi Cricket and Abu Dhabi Tourism) have officially supported and heavily invested in the Abu Dhabi T10 League to make it their home event," the letter said. "ECB is also looking to promote cricket in the country through this event and also utilising the opportunity to provide young emirates cricket players to improve their skills.

"Since this is our domestic property, ECB and UAE government have stakes in this league and the stopping of Pakistani players in the UAE governing / ECB backed league will cause serious damage to the property, sending a very negative message to the world about our cordial relationship. Emirates Cricket Board has always supported PCB and provided its ground and facilities to stage international matches and its domestic league, Pakistan Super League. In fact, the UAE as a destination has played a huge part in the success of the PSL."

Qalandars, one of three new teams in the league, is hit hardest by this decision. The majority of the Qalandars squad is Pakistani - including Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf and Imran Nazir - while other players who could be affected include Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan, Shoaib Malik and Sohail Tanvir. Afridi and Nazir, however, will not be affected by the revoking of NOCs, given they have retired from Pakistan cricket.

The PCB and T10 league have had a troubled history since the latter came into being two years ago. Last season, the PCB had held the players' NOCs till the last minute after Mani had raised concerns over the league's ownership patterns and sponsorship. The controversy started after the league's president, Salman Iqbal - also a major investor in the tournament - stepped down citing a lack of "transparency" and "proper systems and monitoring". He had also warned Pakistani players against taking part in the league.

Eoin Morgan has said he will not put any timeframe on his remaining stint as England's captain, after declaring himself "delighted" with his decision to carry on leading the team in the wake of this summer's World Cup triumph.

Morgan, who turned 33 in September, took his time at the end of the summer to confirm his willingness to carry on leading England's white-ball squads. However, he insisted he had not been tempted to bow out on a high at international level, after leading England to glory in the World Cup final against New Zealand at Lord's in July.

And now, having had time to consider his options in the off-season, he is ready to face those same opponents again, when the first of five T20Is gets underway in Christchurch on Friday.

"I'm very comfortable with the decision I made," Morgan told Test Match Special. "I'm delighted that I have made it because I feel it is the right one for myself and my team."

With England embarking on a new era under Chris Silverwood, following the end of Trevor Bayliss's stint as head coach, the continuity offered by Morgan's vast experience and respected leadership was an important consideration, and one that Ashley Giles, England's team director, had urged him to bear in mind in their discussions prior to his announcement.

And now, with England building towards next year's T20 World Cup in Australia, the T20 squad for the New Zealand series features six potential new caps - the Somerset duo of Tom Banton and Lewis Gregory, Lancashire's Matt Parkinson and Saqib Mahmood, Worcestershire's Pat Brown and Surrey's Sam Curran - all of whom can expect to feature at some stage in the coming five matches.

ALSO READ: Pressure on Guptill and Munro amid NZ top-order struggles

"We have a special group of players at the moment," said Morgan. "I feel very lucky to lead that group and I think we can do something even more special down the line."

While Morgan knows that he cannot carry on indefinitely - not least given the long-term fitness concerns that culminated in a worrying back spasm during England's World Cup match against West Indies - he has hinted he may also seek to push on towards the subsequent T20 World Cup, in India in 2021.

"I still feel I have a lot to offer," said Morgan. "I won't say I'll be finished after the next World Cup as I'd be afraid I'll only creep over the line and maybe fall off.

"I don't want to let anyone down. I want to drive through the World Cup in Australia and then make a call after that.

"There were questions over my fitness and how I would come back and play, but I think that was just lingering in my head because I was back playing county cricket two weeks after the World Cup final, and the decision was almost delayed because I didn't have time to make it.

"I think if the season had ended after the World Cup final I would have made a decision in a couple of weeks, because once I finished playing for Middlesex, the next year or two became clearer.

"When you get to the back end of your career, very few people can make a decision themselves or be in a luxurious position to make that decision, because it's more often than not made for you," he added. "So I'm delighted to carry on and hopefully offer a lot more for English cricket."

Pakistanis 138 for 4 (Fakhar 43, Babar 34, Dwarshuis 2-18) beat CA XI 134 for 6 (McSweeney 30, Lynn 24, Shadab 3-30) by six wickets

It's dangerous to read too much into one warm-up match against modest opposition, but the early signs are that Pakistan's attack will provide a much sterner test for Australia than they have faced from Sri Lanka.

An experienced bowling unit put in a solid display at Bankstown Oval to restrict the Cricket Australia XI to 6 for 134. Mohammad Irfan struck with the first ball of the tour, a searing yorker to remove Ryan Gibson, and Shadab Khan picked up 3 for 30.

Pakistan's openers, new captain Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman, then added 78 for the first wicket as the target was knocked off with ease. Chris Lynn, the Cricket Australia XI captain, was impressed.

"Their fast-bowling unit they have guys who can bowl 150kph and batters are world class. They put on a clinical performance today," he said. "Irfan has an x-factor about him, then at the other end you have Mohammad Amir and we've seen for a number of years how class he is. The have a left-arm spinner in Imad [Wasim] and Shadab Khan is a genius with the ball. [Australia's] batters will have a tougher challenge."

Pakistan left out their two young quicks in Mohammad Musa and Mohammad Hasnain, alongside uncapped legspinner Usman Qadir, in favour of giving all their experienced bowlers a run before the opening T20I in Sydney on Sunday.

Irfan, who has not played a T20I for three-and-a-half years, started in fine style as he left just one stumping standing when Gibson got nowhere near the first ball of the match - much to the delight to a healthy gathering of Pakistan supporters.

After just two runs came from the first two overs Lynn responded with an onslaught as he crunched four fours and a six before being cleaned up by Wahab Riaz as the CA XI finished the powerplay on 2 for 40.

When Imad Wasim trapped Jake Fraser-McGurk lbw, it was 3 for 42 and the innings was threatening to unravel, but the CA XI managed to string together some small partnerships without every breaking loose.

Shadab, who claimed Alex Ross via a top edge, added two further scalps in his final over to suggest that Qadir will be warming the bench at least at the start of the T20I series.

Pakistan's top three all looked in decent touch, taking advantage of some enticing boundaries, with Harris Sohail striking three sixes in his 32 from 22 balls before being bowled with four runs needed as Ben Dwarshuis struck twice in three balls as he also had Asif Ali caught behind.

The CA XI legspinners, Daniel Fallins and Lloyd Pope, managed a wicket apiece with ending with an encouraging 1 for 25 from his four overs having found enough turn to cause some problems.

As the NBA's investigation into the altercation between Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns begins, the Minnesota Timberwolves are rejecting the game officials' characterization of Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons as a "peacemaker" in the fracas, league sources told ESPN.

Referee Mark Ayotte told a pool reporter Wednesday night that Simmons was "deemed a peacemaker" for an act that included him holding Towns to the floor in what the Timberwolves contend was a "dangerous choke hold," league sources told ESPN.

Simmons told reporters after the game that he's "always got my teammate's back."

NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe was in contact with the Sixers' and Timberwolves' front offices on Wednesday night, sources said.

The NBA plans to review tape and interview participants and witnesses beginning Thursday. Embiid and Towns are facing possible suspensions.

Embiid and Towns became tangled in the third quarter of the Sixers' 117-95 victory and wrestled each other to the floor before coaches and teammates separated them. Towns initially threw a punch that didn't land on Embiid, who later poked Towns in the eye with his thumb.

Embiid reveled in the skirmish on his way off the court, shadow boxing and pumping his arms to the frenzied Sixers fans before disappearing into the tunnel.

Embiid and Towns also exchanged barbs on social media late into the night, including some coarse language.

"I didn't throw any punches, so I shouldn't get suspended," Embiid said.

Ayotte, the officiating crew chief, told a pool reporter: "We deemed the altercation a fight. Therefore, by rule, they're both ejected. I just saw them each lock arms. And that escalated to the fight."

Embiid and Towns entered the game as two of the season's most dominant players on two teams that now have a combined 7-1 record.

The Magic Poker Equation: The more crucial the hand of poker being played, the better the players' hands are. -- TV Tropes

1. The wild-card game

The Milwaukee Brewers' greatest strength, if you had to narrow it down to one thing, was their closer, Josh Hader. The left-hander struck out 48% of the batters he faced this year, the fourth-highest rate in history. He had the lowest contact rate in baseball and the sixth-highest strike rate. He had 15 saves of more than one inning this year, the most by any pitcher in the past 15 years. He entered 52 games with a lead this year and the Brewers won 48 of them. This month he was named the National League's best reliever.

And so, with the Washington Nationals' season on the line, down two runs in the eighth inning of a win-or-go-home wild-card game, they were facing the Brewers' absolute strength. But Hader also has a quirk. When he's ahead in the count, he's unhittable -- batters have gone .079/.094/.158 against him over the past two years in such counts -- but when he's not, his dominance starts to fade away, even relative to other pitchers in the same counts. He gets wilder, he allows harder contact, he's relatively prone to walks and homers -- he is, in fact, no better than an average reliever.

Josh Hader threw 30 pitches that night in Washington. Only two were thrown while Hader was ahead in the count, as the Nationals patiently took wayward pitches early in counts and forced Hader to catch up. The Brewers' closer hit a batter, walked a batter, allowed a bloop single and then a smashed single by Juan Soto, and by the end of the eighth the Nationals had a lead. There was no bottom of the ninth; a giant had been slayed.

2. The NLDS

The Los Angeles Dodgers' greatest strength, if you had to name just one, was their depth, which gave them the ability to match up great lineups depending on the handedness of the pitcher. This was especially true against right-handers: Lefty Joc Pederson joined lefties Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager at the top and in the heart of the order, and rookies Matt Beaty and Gavin Lux added left-handed power at the bottom. The Dodgers were the best offense in baseball against right-handed pitchers overall. In games started by right-handed pitchers, the Dodgers went 76-34, a 112-win pace over a full season and easily the best record in baseball in such games.

And so the Dodgers had the Nationals where they wanted them on Oct. 7, with a 2-1 lead in the five-game NLDS and, crucially, two Washington right-handers slated to start the next two games. But those two right-handers were not picked out of a hat but were, in fact, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.

Scherzer, in Game 4, held the lefties in the lineup to three hits in 18 at-bats. He held the Dodgers to one run through the seventh, by which point the game was no longer close and the series was headed to a decisive fifth game.

Strasburg, in his start, was bruised by the lefties early -- a leadoff double and a homer to Pederson and Muncy -- but then he punched back. It was, technically, his worst postseason start, but it was still a quality one, six innings and three runs on the board. He kept the Nationals close, and eventually the Dodgers melted down. Another giant slayed.

3. The NLCS

The St. Louis Cardinals' greatest strength, boiled down to a name, was Jack Flaherty. In the second half, Flaherty started 15 games and allowed 10 earned runs -- a 0.91 ERA, the second-lowest second-half ERA in the past 100 years.

The Cardinals had used him to start Game 5 of the NLDS, so by the time the Nationals faced him in the NLCS, Washington was already up two games to none. But the Cardinals had, at least, hope in Flaherty. If he pitched like he had for the previous three months, the Cardinals would get a win on the board -- and, through two hitless innings, it looked like they had their savior.

And then Washington jumped him. They scored four in the third inning -- as many runs as he had allowed in all of September, more than he had allowed in all of August -- on a walk and four hits. Flaherty got just eight swinging strikes in the start, his fewest in a game since the first half of the season. When Flaherty's turn to bat came in the top of the fifth inning, the Cardinals, desperate for offense to close the gap, pinch hit for him, ending one of the great second halves ever in indignity. The Nationals won a blowout. Another giant, slayed.

4. The World Series

The Houston Astros had nothing but strengths. The best offense in baseball, the second-best bullpen, by some measures the best team defense, the likely Rookie of the Year, perhaps the MVP, but if you had to pick just one, you'd pick two: Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole. If Cole isn't the best pitcher in the American League, Verlander is. They're the best postseason 1-2 since at least the 2015 Dodgers (Kershaw and Greinke), or maybe the 2011 Phillies (Halladay and Lee), but probably the 2002 Diamondbacks (Johnson and Schilling). After the All-Star break, the Astros went 23-4 in games started by one of them. Their combined ERA in that time was 1.75. Cole's second-half strikeout rate was the highest of all time; Verlander's was third all time.

As this World Series began, the Astros had it all set up: Cole and Verlander would start the first two games at home. They would jump ahead 2-0. They might well sweep the Nationals after that, but if they didn't they'd have Cole and Verlander again later in the series.

And, of course, it was against those colossi that Washington did its best work.

In Cole's first start, he allowed five earned runs, as many as he had in all of September. After getting 20 swinging strikes per start in the last month of the year, and 19 per start in his first three postseason outings, he got only 10 against the Nationals. In Verlander's first start, he allowed four runs, matching his season high. The Nationals won both games, the first team to hang back-to-back losses on the Astros' co-aces this year.

Cole won Game 5. But in Game 6, once again facing elimination against an opponent's strength, and once again facing Verlander, the Nationals knocked him out in five innings, matching his shortest start of the year. The Nationals won again. The better the other team could offer, the better the Nationals played. They just kept winning.

The Nationals are the first team ever to knock off two postseason opponents who each won at least 105 games. They beat a 106-win Dodgers club that, by Baseball Prospectus' third-order records, was the third-most talented in at least 70 years. They beat the 107-win Astros who, according to BP, were the very best.

At the start of this postseason, hardly anybody was saying the Nationals were the best team in the mix. And, truthfully, in the 25-man way of viewing baseball, in the 162-game way of measuring a team, they weren't. Fernando Rodney and Matt Adams wouldn't make these Astros or those Dodgers if you expanded the rosters to 50.

But what we saw over and over again was that the best Nationals players were better than the best of every other team. That's how they kept doing this: The other team would turn to their very best in the biggest spot, they'd flip over their four kings, and the Nats would flip over their aces. The Nationals' closer isn't as good as Josh Hader -- but Juan Soto is, and when Soto faced Hader he won. The Nationals' left-handed hitters aren't as good as the Dodgers' are -- but Max Scherzer is, and when he faced Bellinger and Muncy he won. Flaherty is better than most of the Nationals, but he's not better than Rendon, who doubled home a run and scored another in that four-run inning. And on the right day, not even Cole or Verlander can be counted on to be better than Strasburg and Scherzer. The Nationals went 10-0 in games those two started.

Could you build a team so all-around good that it could beat the Nationals? Of course. The Astros and Dodgers sure tried. But I doubt you could build a team that the Nationals couldn't beat right back.

HOUSTON -- In a corridor next to the celebration that nobody wanted to end, the man who started the game that won the Washington Nationals a World Series wrapped his arm around the man who finished it. Max Scherzer is one of the greatest pitchers of this generation, a tightly wound perfectionist whose eyes flit with nervous energy. Daniel Hudson is a journeyman relief pitcher who was jobless in March and somehow found himself here, in the middle of history.

Black swimming goggles covered Scherzer's eyes. When he removed them, there were tears, not from the burning of champagne sprays but the emotion bombarding his amygdala. It happened. It really happened. Three days earlier, Scherzer was supposed to start Game 5, only for his neck to lock up so badly he couldn't turn his head. Two days earlier, he prayed a cortisone shot and chiropractic treatment would offer some kind of relief. A day earlier, he watched the Nationals save their season and gift him an opportunity at redemption. And on Wednesday, he stood on the mound in Game 7 against the Houston Astros facing the cruelest of binaries: win a championship or lose everything.

"It could've been anybody," Scherzer said.

"No, it couldn't have," Hudson said.

"I did everything I could," Scherzer said. "I'm just a part of this team. I'm not bigger than this team. I'm just the guy who got the ball tonight and started."

Tears welled in his eyes again. Scherzer could sandbag all he wanted, but he knew he was more than just the guy who got the ball in Wednesday night's start. He was the one who labored through five innings, all toil and tenacity. He kept the Nationals alive long enough to do what they've done for the past five months: not just win but win improbably. And that defiance, exhibited one final time in a 6-2 victory that brought the nation's capital its first baseball championship in 95 years and the Nationals their first in franchise history, drove the 25 men on the roster, the front office that abides deeply by tenets that other organizations in baseball believe are antiquated, and an ownership group that emboldened both.

"My whole life," Scherzer said, "I dreamed of being a big leaguer. And when you dream of being a big leaguer ..."

He turned to Hudson, and it was like they were reading each other's minds, because they spoke word for word simultaneously:

"You dream of winning the World Series."

On the surface, what happened Wednesday night didn't make sense. The Astros were a juggernaut. They won 107 games. They built a superteam equipped to blitz the postseason. They shook off losing the first two games of the series at home, stole three games at Nationals Park and returned to Minute Maid Park for their coronation. They would not lose. They could not lose.

They lost.

And they didn't just lose but lost to a 93-win team that needed a frenzied late-inning comeback to win the wild-card game and late-inning heroics to win their division series. They lost to a Nationals team that began the season 19-31, entered the playoffs with a paucity of relief pitching and had spent past Octobers suffering catastrophic defeats. They lost, ultimately, in a way no major professional sports team -- not baseball, not basketball, not hockey -- ever had: dropping four games at home.

The seeming impossibility of that led to declarations that the Nationals were some team of destiny, some kind of miracle workers. No. That's too easy to say, too effortless a distillation of this team and this result. This was not preordained. This was nothing supernatural. What happened Wednesday night made all the sense in the world.

For the first six innings of Game 7, the Washington Nationals flailed and failed. Zack Greinke, the third head of the Astros' starting-pitching Cerberus alongside Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, vexed them. His fastball rarely touched 90 mph, and his curveball fluttered as low as 64 mph, and he could throw at every speed in between. In a game of velocity and power, Greinke is a hypnotist, and he was lulling the Nationals into a state of slumber that threatened to end their season.

Then came the seventh. With one out, Anthony Rendon stepped to the plate. Rendon carries himself with the sort of lethargy Greinke can induce. It's a red herring; Rendon is one of the game's finest hitters, and when he lifted a changeup into the left-field stands and halved the Astros' lead, it awoke something in Washington.

Rendon tended to do that. This was the Nationals' fifth elimination game this postseason. In the seventh inning and beyond in those games, he had doubled three times, homered twice and walked once. He was the Nationals' heartbeat on offense, which was convenient, because he is preternaturally bradycardic, made for these moments. Never does Rendon so much as crack a smile on the field, which can be disarming, though he did allow himself a tremendous grin on the field before the Nationals' trophy presentation, yelling: "I want bourbon!"

Within earshot was Juan Soto, a hitting prodigy whose prodigious World Series was even more incredible because he turned 21 this week. He might like a nip of bourbon, considering how his night was going. "I drink everything," Soto said. "I just want to try everything. I love the champagne."

Soto had come to the plate after Rendon. He joined the Nationals last season at 19 when a deluge of injuries to outfielders decimated their depth. Immediately he was one of the best hitters in baseball, and he reinforced that this season and this October. Soto stood in against Greinke, spit on an outside pitch, swung at the next and took another. With a 2-1 count, Greinke feathered a changeup in the bottom of the strike zone. Plate umpire Jim Wolf didn't move. It was called a ball -- a lucky break at the most inopportune time for the Astros. Greinke lost a curveball outside, and Soto jogged to first, the tying run on base, still one out.

Out of the Astros' dugout walked AJ Hinch, their manager. Greinke, cruising six pitches earlier, was done. "I feel like when he come out of the game, we say, 'Daddy's out. Now we gotta get it,'" Soto said. "We gotta get it, we gotta fight, we gotta find out the way -- and the next hitter, we get it."

The next hitter was Howie Kendrick. He debuted in the major leagues when Soto was 7, hung around because he always could hit and this season, at 36 years old, enjoyed a career year. In the division series against the 106-win Los Angeles Dodgers, Kendrick launched a 10th-inning go-ahead grand slam. In the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, he whacked four doubles and won series MVP honors. And now, with Greinke out, he faced Will Harris, the Astros' fireman whose work with inherited runners had helped the Astros out of many a jam in October. In Washington, Harris had used his cut fastball, a pitch that ruined countless at-bats this season, to stymie Kendrick. On his second pitch, Harris loosed a cutter, low and on the outside corner, and Kendrick ambushed it.

The ball wasn't pummeled. It left the bat at 98 mph. It sliced toward the right-field line. It was fading, fading, fading -- and then it stopped, clanging off a metallic mesh attachment to the foul pole. The ball, stained with yellow paint from the impact, bounced onto the field. Kendrick rounded first, double fist-pumped, bellowed "Yeah!" as he rounded second, screamed "Yeah!" again as he rounded third, roared "Yeah!" once more as he crossed home.

Over the course of eight pitches, the Nationals had turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Kendrick's heroics did not go unnoticed during or after the game. When he left the middle of the celebration to find his wife and sons, he walked through the bowels of the stadium wearing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Drips of excess booze leaked off him every few steps. In the holding area for families, he scanned the room. A fan asked if he could take a selfie. Kendrick obliged. Then another approached him and snapped a picture, and another, and another, none bothering to ask.

Kendrick escaped with his family. He ran a gantlet of high-fives and thanks and nods and congratulations. He took his wife and kids past the clubhouse, down a set of stairs and to a staging area with the World Series trophy, where Soto was posing. Gold rectangles shot out of a confetti gun every time the photographer prepared to snap a picture. This was too much. Hundreds of kids from the Dominican Republic sign with baseball teams every year. Thousands populate the minor leagues. A few hundred get to the major leagues. Far fewer win World Series.

He was in the middle of the inning that won the Nationals the trophy with which he was posing. That's not what Soto will remember, though. It's his mother, Belkis, and his father, Juan Sr., and the moment they saw him, hugged him, realized their prayers were answered.

"We made it," Soto said. "We made it. We're all living the dream."

On the day Max Scherzer's neck locked up, his wife, Erica, drove him to Nationals Park because he couldn't do it himself. Scherzer was despondent. His team needed him. He was letting them down. He was letting himself down. Erica saw it differently.

"We know Stras is going to deal in Game 6," she said. "You're going to pitch in Game 7."

Stras is Stephen Strasburg, the Cole to Scherzer's Verlander. He was famously shut down toward the end of the 2012 season, his first full year back from Tommy John surgery, because the Nationals did not want to incur any potential damage from an excessive workload. They flamed out in the division series that season, like they would do again in 2014 and 2016 and 2017. Strasburg long was the symbol of the franchise's missed opportunities.

Erica Scherzer and the Nationals saw him as something else: the savior of the season. Strasburg emerged as their workhorse this season, throwing an NL-leading 209 innings, and his playoff work had been immaculate. Strasburg had beaten Verlander in Game 2, and he was going to do it again, and then, Erica said, "This team is going to win the World Series."

"I just believed she was right," Scherzer said.

Strasburg allowed a pair of first-inning runs in Game 6, likely because the positioning of his glove tipped his pitches to the Astros. He fixed the problem after the first, threw 7 1/3 shutout innings and held Houston's offense at bay long enough for Soto to hit a go-ahead home run off Verlander. Strasburg ensured there would be a seventh game. The Nationals just didn't know who would pitch it.

Just days earlier, Scherzer said, his pain level was 10 of 10. The trapezoid muscle in his neck and shoulder was spasming. He received a cortisone shot and could do nothing but wait to see if it would work. He slept with a neck brace. He received multiple chiropractic adjustments. Anything to get him on the mound. By Tuesday, the pain vanished, and Scherzer's arm, which he couldn't even lift above shoulder level Sunday, rotated with its standard fury. It was like Erica said: He would start Game 7.

His first pitch, a fastball, sizzled at 97 mph. This was no reduced-calorie Scherzer. Problem is, the Astros' lineup feasts on full-fat pitching. They grind at-bats. They punish mistakes. They can make the ordinary look foolish and the excellent look ordinary. They did not win 107 games by accident. They did it by brute force.

In the second inning, Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel smashed a home run off Scherzer into the left-field stands, one of four balls that inning hit at 100-plus mph. Hard contact can portend worse things to come, and with the Nationals getting one-hit through the fifth and the margin of error minuscule, Carlos Correa drove in another run to stake the Astros a 2-0 lead.

It could have been much worse. Scherzer allowed 11 baserunners. Just two scored. He slogged through 103 pitches. After the fifth, he offered Nationals manager Dave Martinez another inning. Martinez declined and echoed Erica Scherzer's sentiment: "We'll figure this out, and we'll win this game."

The Nationals won all four games Strasburg and Scherzer started. As they stood onstage during the trophy presentation, Strasburg was in the middle, readying to accept the World Series MVP award. Scherzer stood off to the side and wept. This was all too much. He is 35 years old now, in the twilight of his career. Scherzer remains great, but the Venn diagram of greatness and winning doesn't always intersect. He had pitched in the World Series seven years ago and lost, pitched in two other postseasons with Washington and lost. He knows how unrelenting the playoffs are, how the slightest inopportune moment can sabotage the best team.

He was the Astros' slight inopportune moment in Game 7, a saboteur for long enough that the Nationals' blitz in the seventh wasn't for naught. "I took it as far as I could," Max Scherzer said, and that happened to be far enough to win a World Series.

It's easy, on a day like this, in the post-championship glow, to forget how the Washington Nationals came to exist. They used to be the Montreal Expos. Their owner, Jeffrey Loria, intentionally ran the franchise into the ground so it could be moved and arranged a deal in which Major League Baseball took ownership of the Expos. In 2005, the Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals.

Only one player has been with them the whole time. Ryan Zimmerman was drafted by the Nationals with the fourth overall pick that year and debuted in September. He weathered the lean years -- the sewage backups at RFK Stadium before the Nationals opened their new park, the 100-plus-loss seasons that netted them consecutive No. 1 draft picks with which they took Strasburg and Bryce Harper. Zimmerman was the Nationals' original face. He matured into their unquestioned conscience.

Today, at 35, he is one of the viejos, as Scherzer likes to call them. The Nationals go against any number of trends in the game, whether it's their age (nearly 31, the most wizened in the major leagues), their allegiance to scouting (the analytics-venerating Astros wiped out their pro scouting department) or their willingness to spend big money in free agency (Scherzer cost $210 million and starter Patrick Corbin $140 million).

As the night went on -- as Soto drove in an insurance run in the eighth inning to double the lead, and as Adam Eaton punched a bases-loaded single up the middle to extend it to 6-2 -- Zimmerman started to think of what mattered to him. For 15 years, he had devoted himself to the Nationals -- to building a contender, to fighting back from injuries, to winning for once. Everyone in the clubhouse had a story like this. Fernando Rodney, the 42-year-old reliever, had played for 17 years without winning a championship. Victor Robles, the 22-year-old center fielder, never had played a major league game in front of his mom, Marcia Brito, until she visited from the Dominican Republic this October and served as his good-luck charm.

For Zimmerman, it was the entirety of the evening. The Nationals weren't his means to an end. They were his professional life. Their owner, Ted Lerner, signed him to a $100 million contract extension. Their general manager, Mike Rizzo, surrounded him with talent developed internally and harvested externally. Their manager, Martinez, saw something in a 19-31 team that nobody else could. A 19-31 start is a death sentence. A 19-31 start with a $185 million payroll is a fireable offense. A 19-31 start, for Martinez, was an opportunity.

It's like Keith Zimmerman used to tell his son: "You make your own luck." Zimmerman kept thinking of his father's aphorisms on Wednesday night, as the outs ticked away. Corbin, who had relieved Scherzer in the sixth, shut down the Astros in the seventh, too, and followed with another scoreless inning in the eighth, a vital bridge that skeptics feared Washington was missing heading into October. It was a fair concern. The Nationals essentially navigated the World Series with six pitchers they trusted.

This team, Zimmerman said, could do that -- could stare at its deficiencies, own them and circumvent them. The Harper-era Nationals never could get out of their own way. Not because of Harper but because baseball does that. Sometimes it humbles ubertalented teams and elevates lesser-talented ones. The game does not operate in linear fashion.

So when Harper left and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies this offseason, there was no panic, no concern. The Nationals would adjust. They would develop a different identity.

"We were just ourselves," Zimmerman said, and that's why this whole thing made sense, why it wasn't destiny or fate or some sort of cosmic doing. It was a simple truth: The Nationals just being themselves was good enough.

At 12:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the Nationals' bus left to return to the Four Seasons near the ballpark, the clubhouse was atwitter. Rendon, who will file this week for free agency and seek a contract well in excess of $200 million, gathered his belongings. Soto, who will be the centerpiece of the team for years, danced, covered only by a towel. Kendrick, who is also a free agent, toted around a couple of cigars, even though he doesn't typically enjoy them. Strasburg, who is expected to opt out of his contract and could also hit a free-agent jackpot, loped around the room, and Scherzer changed, and Martinez scrambled to shower, and Rizzo poured a beer into a red Solo cup, and Zimmerman took a picture with his dad holding the Commissioner's Trophy, some of its flags flopping around haphazardly, damaged amid the ribaldry.

Daniel Hudson stood in front of his locker. His story was more improbable than anyone's. He was a burgeoning ace in 2012 when the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow tore and required Tommy John surgery. Eleven months later, in his first rehab start, it blew out again. Back-to-back Tommy John surgeries is as sure a death sentence as a 19-31 start.

Only Hudson returned. He kicked around in Arizona, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles. He signed with the Angels this past spring. They cut him before the season started. He latched on with Toronto, pitched well, got dealt to the Nationals at the July 31 trade deadline and, after closer Sean Doolittle was sidelined with an injury, assumed the role. And he was good at it -- good enough that when Hudson missed Game 1 of the NLCS to be with his wife, Sara, for the birth of their daughter Millie, his absence grew into a national conversation on family and priorities.

At 10:42 p.m., when the bullpen door swung open, Hudson's only priority was to get outs. He thought he would need only two. The plan was for him to face George Springer and Jose Altuve before Martinez would call on the left-hander, Doolittle, to face the left-handed-hitting Michael Brantley. The Astros had hit Hudson hard in the series. Springer had vaporized a Hudson fastball for a home run in Game 5.

On the second pitch, a fastball, Hudson popped him up. One out.

Hudson isn't much for subterfuge. He is, in many ways, like the team that acquired him. What you see is what you get -- warts and all. He relies on two pitches, a four-seam fastball and slider. He can get fastball-happy, and that can get him in trouble.

He threw three fastballs to Altuve, almost in the exact same spot. He stared at two and swung through the third. Two outs.

Martinez didn't come out to call for Doolittle. The Nationals were ahead 6-2, and Hudson was dealing, and this was it, the moment, the culmination of five months in which the Nationals were actually the Astros' equal record-wise and had far too much talent to be the underdogs they were. He was sticking with Hudson, and he saw Hudson work the count full pounding fastballs, and catcher Yan Gomes wanted to stick with the pitch. Hudson shook it off. Gomes put down the sign for fastball again. Hudson shook again. Gomes flashed the sign for a slider. Hudson came set.

Brantley swung and missed. Three outs.

Hudson chucked his glove, the one with the initials of his wife and three daughters stitched into the side, as he had when he clinched previous series. The dogpile began.

"It's a really surreal October," Hudson said earlier in the corridor. "I mean, I closed out the wild-card game. Got the win in Game 5 of the DS. Closed out the CS and the World Series. And that's not even the best thing that happened to me."

He paused for a moment.

"Did you think I'd get here?" he asked.

I've known Hudson since 2012, when I pitched him on a wild idea: let me follow him around for the next year as he comes back from Tommy John surgery so I can write a book demystifying the whole process and explaining why arm problems are so endemic in baseball. He said yes. I was there the night he blew out a second time, there the night he returned in the major leagues, there the day Millie was born earlier this month, there so many steps of the way. And as much as I admire who Hudson is as a husband and a father and a baseball player, this -- him closing out the World Series seven months after a bad team didn't think he was good enough in spring training -- felt too farfetched to ever consider.

"No," I admitted.

He nodded.

"This stuff only happens in baseball, man," Hudson said. "You see stuff in other sports. But this game. It's crazy. It really is."

In the background, "We Are the Champions" played and the party raged on and it began to sink in that the Washington Nationals, the big team that couldn't for two months, were World Series champions. It was the stuff that happens only in baseball, yeah, but crazy? Nah. Not if you know who they really are.