Werth vows to shave beard if Nats win World Series

Should the Washington Nationals, down 1-0 in their best-of-five NLDS matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers, end up winning the World Series, no player will be more affected than Jayson Werth.

Not because a championship would be more meaningful to the 37-year-old, or anything, but because Werth has vowed to shave off his famous beard if the Nationals hoist the Commissioner's Trophy a few weeks from now.

"Sure, I'll do it. I'll do anything," Werth recently told Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball.

He continued, "I'll do anything (if we win). I'll do that, and more. I'll run through the streets of Washington … something."

There's a long way to go, however, before Werth can whip out his razor.

Though Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw wasn't at his best in Friday's series opener, Max Scherzer was unimpressive, too, serving up four runs on a pair of homers over six innings en route to a 4-3 loss at Nationals Park.

Road teams that win the first game in a best-of-five have gone on take the series 71.2 percent of the time, according to Sportsnet Stats.

Still, while the Nationals have now dropped all but one of their seven games against Los Angeles this year, they also played .617 ball at home during the regular season - a reason for optimism heading into Game 2, wherein right-hander Tanner Roark will take the mound opposite left-hander Rich Hill.

A victory Saturday would very much bolster the case for a clean-shaven Werth (who insists, by the way, that his wife doesn't mind his beard).

"I couldn't have lived like this for years if she didn’t like it," Werth said. "Happy wife, happy life."