Record: 51-30 Home; 45-36 Road.  

Manager: Matt Williams no playoff experience as manager.

Injuries: None; Ryan Zimmerman came off the DL on September 19th .

 

The strength of the team from spring training showed itself through the year in their charge to the best record in the National League.  The staff ranked 1st in ERA and 2nd in WHIP and quality starts for the regular season.  Stephen Strasberg is the name but Doug Fister has plied his trade even better this season.  Hurt for much of the early season, Fister came on and has used his ground ball aptitude to earn 15 wins and a post 2.55 ERA.  Jordan Zimmerman has also been a solid contributor and will likely be the 3rd starter in the playoffs.  Tanner Roark has been a pleasant surprise in his first season as a fulltime starter.  The issue is he is looking at a career high in innings pitched and might hit the proverbial wall at the wrong time.  Washington GM Mike Rizzo hopefully learned from the Strasberg situation that you can’t count on being competitive every year, and will likely leave Roark in the 4th starter slot, or more likely long reliever role for the post season.  Gio Gonzalez has been the lone disappointment for the rotation this year, showing inconsistent efforts against inferior opponents and could be used only as a lefty specialist as he has allowed only 1 long ball to a lefty all year. 

 

The bullpen has roles ready carved for October, with Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano ready to shorten the game to 6 innings.  Jerry Blevins is the current lefty specialist out of the pen as he has held left handed hitters to a .163 average as opposed to righties hitting over .300 against him.  Using Blevins and righty Craig Stammen for one batter apiece in big spots should come in handy.  Overall this staff is performing better right now than the Dodgers and should be the catalyst for a November title run. 

 

The lineup doesn’t wow you but isn’t reliant on the long ball to win games.  Every year a team makes the playoffs using a home run as their best source of production, and that team is always eliminated in the first round because in the playoffs you’re not facing Arizona’s pitching staff.  Guys understand their roles here as leadoff man Denard Span is followed by breakout star Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth, Adam LaRoche, Ian Desmond, Bryce Harper, Asdrubal Cabrera and Wilson Ramos.  That’s a deep lineup that combines on base skills with power.  Overall they ranked 8th in OBP and scored the 9th most runs, so clearly they are not a juggernaut but their combination seems to be the right mix as they went scorching hot the last month of the season. 

 

Ryan Zimmerman is back from injury but will have to accept a pinch hitting role and won’t see the field as he is a below average defender.  Scott Hairston would be the second bat off the bench and is a capable outfielder should they need to double switch.  The infield defense covers a lot of ground and with two ground ball pitchers that’s a good thing. 

 

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San Francisco Giants

 

After defeating the Pirates in the Wild Card round the Giants will turn to veteran Jake Peavy for game 1 of their NLDS matchup with the #1 seed Nationals.  Peavy has not pitched against the Nats this season, and since being acquired from the Red Sox he is 6-3 with a sound ERA in the low 2 range.  It’s clear the league change has helped him; with the loss of the DH in the lineup the veteran pitcher has been able to stay out of big innings.  His stats show that right handed hitters actually have a higher average against him .265 than left handed hitters .249.  However left handed batters have a considerably higher home run total against him thus resulting in a jump in their slugging percentage against him.  Also of note, he has allowed 7 of 8 base stealers to be successful when facing left handed hitters as opposed to when righties hit 1/6.  The Nats have speed in their lineup and could use this to get an early lead. 

 

Hudson started the season on fire but has tailed off considerably to the point where his overall record is below .500.  His September record was 0-4 to end the season.  He has pitched twice against the Nats, once at home and once at Nationals Park earning a win in a 5.1 inning outing giving up 2 runs.  Bottom line here is this is likely to be a short start for Hudson.  After an off day ace Madison Bumgarner comes back to battle Doug Fister at home.  Bumgarner does pitch markedly better on the road. but in a big game situation the 25 year old is quickly earning a reputation as the guy you want on the mound. 

 

The Giants will trot out the same lineup from its Wild Card game victory with Buster Posey behind the plate and Brandon Belt at 1B.  With Michael Morse and Angel Pagan out due to injury, Travis Ishikawa plays left field for every game.  The good news is that the majority of the Giants starters hit Nats pitching to the tune of a .300 average. 

 

With Bumgarner only able to start game 3 of the series the Giants just don’t have the pitching to keep them in the other games.  The Nationals win the series 3-1.