Bryce Harper, the Nationals superstar player who had already hit one home run in the series, swung and missed on a curveball in the dirt to end the Nationals season. However, the Nationals did not lose the game at that one moment. They didn’t lose this game at any one moment, instead losing due to a multitude of improbable events.

It started in the 5th inning, when the Nationals manager, Dusty Baker, brought in his ace pitcher, Max Scherzer to protect a 4-1 lead. Scherzer had been one of the league’s best pitchers in the season, and had pitched five no-hit innings in Game 3 of the series. This was a no-brainer move for Baker, getting his team’s best pitcher out on the diamond to protect the lead. He got two quick outs before disaster struck.

Four straight Cubs reached base by way of: an intentional walk, a strikeout in which the catcher dropped the ball, catcher’s interference, and a hit batter. The website Baseball Reference has 2.73 million half innings in its database. None of those half innings has ever had all four of those events occur. 2.73 million half innings. And the only one it occurs in happens to the Washington Nationals in their chance to win their first playoff series in franchise history.

By the time the inning from hell ended, the Nationals had turned a 4-3 lead into a 7-4 deficit. They clawed back, but their litany of errors doomed them. Crazy things happened in the game: Jayson Werth dropped a fly ball, Trea Turner was caught stealing home, and a player was picked off after his leg popped off the bag for less than a second. If one of those things had turned the Nationals way, this story could be one of jubilation, a story of how the demons of the past had been vanquished. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

The game left sports fans across the world shocked. Except for in one spot – DC sports fans weren’t shocked.

They were shocked back in 2012, when the Nationals blew a 6-0 lead to the Cardinals in a deciding game five. They were shocked in 2014 when the Nationals star players suddenly couldn’t hit against the Giants. There were still some fans who were shocked when the Nationals lost another lead to the Dodgers in a game five. Not this year. Nobody was shocked.

There was just this empty feeling, a knowledge that your team wouldn’t win. Winning was for other cities like Boston, Chicago, or New York. Washington was just the doormat on the path to success for those other teams.

The Nationals, while miserable, are not the most depressing team in all of Washington. The Capitals have a long and painful history when it comes to the playoffs. They have not advanced past the 2^nd round of the playoffs despite making the playoffs 9 times in the past 10 seasons. Seven of those times, they finished first in their division and three times they’ve finished with the best record in the entire NHL. They’ve never made it past the 2^nd round. The Penguins have played a big part in that, and a big part in DC sports history as a whole.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have tortured DC fans over the last decade. Their star, Sidney Crosby, was drafted one year after Alex Ovechkin. Unlike the Capitals, they have a great history of playoff success, winning three titles. In the 2015-2016 season, the Capitals won the President’s trophy by having the best record in the NHL and played Pittsburgh in the second round. The Penguins took a 3-1 lead in the series and looked well on their way to eliminating the Capitals in just five games. However, the Capitals surged back in game six, defeating the Penguins 3-1 to force a winner take all game seven at home. It didn’t go well, as they lost in overtime 4-3.

The following year, the Capitals made an aggressive move at the trade deadline, acquiring defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. The move signified that the Capitals were all in on pursuing a championship that year. They once again finished with the best record in the NHL and it looked like finally, finally, this team would break through. From high above the earth, in the clouds, the sports gods chuckled.

The Capitals won their first-round series, setting up another matchup with Crosby and the Penguins. The first game of the series was a narrow 3-2 loss for the Capitals. The team had disappointed fans, but they reminded themselves that it was a long series. The second game of the series was a brutal loss, as the Penguins blew out the Capitals, 6-2. Then, they went on the road, with a real chance of being swept by their rivals. They took game three in overtime, winning 3-2 on a goal by the midseason acquisition, Kevin Shattenkirk. The team gave fans hope; just one more win and they would be coming back to DC tied at two games apiece.

But alas, the Capitals choked once again, losing by one goal. They came back to DC with their backs against the wall and fans were near their breaking point with the team. Then, good things began to happen. The Capitals beat the Penguins 5-2 at home in game five and then went to Pittsburgh and defeated the Penguins in a 5-2 thrashing. After the game, fans began to believe. The other great teams in the playoffs had already been eliminated. If the Capitals could just win one more measly game and vanquish their enemies, they would have an easy path to their first ever championship.

This was how the streak of futility would finally end. Everything was set up immaculately – the comeback, the rival, it was set up for a storybook ending that was perfect. Too perfect. The Capitals had a dismal performance in the elimination game, playing like it was a regular season game in December and losing 2-0.

That might have been the most painful loss in all of DC history. It revived all the demons of the past: the rival Penguins, the inability of the stars to produce, the seeming lack of intensity, and just the absolute failure of the team as they once again failed to advance past the 2^nd round.

DC has a tortured sports history. If you’re under 25 years old, you have never seen one of the teams advance to the semifinals of any of the top four leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). You’ve seen incredible star players have insane regular success along with their teams, but countless times you’ve seen them collapse in the playoffs. The most painful thing about DC sports isn’t just that they lose. The most painful thing about DC Sports is how close the teams come to winning.

The Nationals are the only team with more than four one-run playoff losses since 2012. They have eight, twice as many as the next closest teams. The Capitals lost the 2016 game seven in overtime. Teams work hard throughout the regular season to be able to play elimination games at home. That does not seem to work out for either the Nationals or the Capitals.

Since 2007, the Capitals have the most home game seven losses of any team in a playoff series. The Nationals have the most home losses in game seven of a NLDS. How does that happen? It’s incredible that one team is that incompetent when the stakes are incredibly large, when your season depends on one game, but how does that happen for two teams?

DC hasn’t made it to the conference championship round since the Capitals in 1998. That is a stretch of playoff disappointment that’s unmatched by any other city that has teams in all of the four major leagues. There have been other droughts that have been more famous in sports history, like the Curse of the Billy Goat, and the Curse of the Bambino. Since the dawn of the new millennium, both those curses, which extended over 50 years, have been broken.

Of course, these disappointments cut like saltwater on an open wound. They should. Disappointment means that the team matters to you. But this disappointment will only make the sweetness of victory even better. One day, one of these teams will break through in the playoffs and when that’s the day all DC fans will finally celebrate, their long years of anguish and heartbreak finally paying off in their team’s success.