The time we’ve been waiting for all year is at hand. After closing out the regular season on the highest possible note – Jordan Zimmermann throwing the Nationals’ first no-hitter since the team moved to Washington in 2005 – the team and its fans can now get ready for the postseason.
The bitter taste of the 2012 Game 5 meltdown is behind us now, as is the disappointment of missing the postseason in 2013. Instead, the Nationals can focus on winning Washington’s first pennant since 1933, 81 years ago, and its first World Series since 1924, 90 years ago.
Here is why the Nats will win the 2014 National League pennant and advance to the Fall Classic.
- The deepest starting pitching in the National League. A post with this title could easily read 1. Stephen Strasburg, 2. Jordan Zimmerman, 3. Doug Fister, 4. Gio Gonzalez, 5. Tanner Roark, with a paragraph about each. But what fun would that be? And besides, pitching is only one aspect of the game, so here goes:
To say the Nats’ starters are on a roll is an understatement. The regular rotation finished the season with 34 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, 11 2/3 consecutive hitless innings and eight straight wins. Two of those were complete-game shutouts, including Zimmermnann’s no-hitter. Likely Game 1 starter Strasburg is unscored upon in 19 innings, and likely Game 2 starter Zimmermann has not allowed a run in 11 1/3 innings nor a hit in 10 2/3 innings.
And will anyone else in the league move a starter with 15 wins and a sub-3 ERA to the bullpen as the Nats likely do with Roark? Unless the Dodgers plan to do that with Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke, the Cardinals with Adam Wainwright or Lance Lynn or the Giants with Madison Bumgarner, the answer is no. The Pirates don’t even have a pitcher with those numbers.
2. An equally deep bullpen. Remember in 2012 when Zimmermann had to come in on short rest and throw a scoreless inning to help the Nats win Game 4, and Edwin Jackson relieved Gonzalez as the team blew a six-run lead in Game 5? Those scenarios won’t happen this year. Thanks to the aforementioned shift of Roark to long-relief duty, general manager Mike Rizzo’s late-season acquisition of Matt Thornton and Ross Detwiler’s increased comfort in the bullpen, its doubtful the Nats will have to go into desperation mode.
Fans will certainly hold their collective breath should Drew Storen be called upon to save a close game. But his domination since taking on the closers’ role suggests another meltdown is unlikely. The best way to avoid that situation is to keep from playing in an elimination game. This team has the makeup to do that.
- Hitters with something left in the tank. It’s arguable that the 2012 Nationals were a spent team by the time they hit the postseason. They lost 11 of their last 20 games and key players like Adam LaRoche and Jayson Werth showed signs of dropping off in September.
Not this time. La Roche has seven of his team-high 26 home runs and 22 of his team-leading 92 RBI in September. Werth has raised his average and OBP from .288/.383 to .292/.394 in the past month. It’s debatable whether momentum means anything in a playoff series, but it’s an encouraging sign that key hitters haven’t run out of gas trying to get there.
4. The return of Ryan Zimmerman. The best thing about the team’s 18-8 stretch run this year is that it’s happened largely without the player who has provided clutch hits for almost its entire existence in Washington. The hamstring injury that kept Zimmerman out for nearly the last two months forced the team to find new ways to win. The Z-Man was the Nats’ best hitter in the 2012 Division Series, going .381/.364./.714. It’s likely that his bat will be in the lineup at least once a game this time around, and if the Nats face a tough lefty, he might get a starting nod at first base or left field.
5. Postseason experience. Most of the starting pitchers, position players and key relievers were with the team in 2012, so they know what to expect this time around. That’s a plus right there. But let’s take a look at the players who have joined the team since then. Denard Span has played in six postseason games with a cumulative line of .357/.357/.393. Asdrubal Cabrera was with Cleveland during its 11-game postseason run in 2007 and last year’s wild card game against Tampa Bay. Thornton tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings for Chicago in the 2008 ALDS, and Jose Lobaton had a .286/.286/.714 line in last season’s ALDS for Tampa Bay, including a walkoff home run in the Rays’ only victory.
The same qualities the Nats have shown in running up the best record in the National League and tying for the second-best mark in all of baseball are certainly ones needed to win in October. When teams do well at this time of year, analysts will say they’re “built for the postseason. The Nationals are built to win games, period.
