The Nationals clinched a National League Wild Card berth Tuesday, via a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies. It’s not exactly a towering accomplishment—it earns them one do-or-die game and nothing more—but it’s worth remembering that the Nationals were at one point 19–31 on the season and looking totally cooked. At any rate, they’re allowed to celebrate, and celebrate they did.
This was, for the most part, your typical celebratory locker room scene, if maybe a little out of proportion given the relative insignificance of the accomplishment. Plastic was draped, goggles were distributed, and champagne and cheap beer were sprayed and splashed and poured, and also presumably consumed. Max Scherzer had heterochromatic goggles, which is neat:
The star of this show was veteran second baseman Brian Dozier, who found himself shirtless, absolutely drenched in booze, and putting on a stirring solo dance performance for the cameras and his teammates:
This will be a fun, bittersweet memory when their bullpen implodes horrifically and the Nats are unceremoniously jettisoned into an uncertain future absolutely no later than the NLDS. They’ll always have “Calma.”