The Nationals Are Being Written Off Too Soon

Last night on October 15th the Nationals were playing in game four of their teams first NLCS ever, and after another dominant win they find themselves as the first team this year to punch their ticket to the World Series. As a Met’s fan it pains me to see them go this deep, but to be fair there is a strange euphoria around this team that makes them special. Their run is eerily similar to the Mets 2015 season where they battle the favored Dodgers to five and win on the road, and then proceed to sweep a wild card team in the NLCS with ease. The Nats obviously hope for a different result in the Fall Classic than the Metropolitans, but their journey to this point has been pretty parallel. Nonetheless on social media, and the news this week people consistently have down played the Nationals great play to say that the ALCS is actually the World Series. What people fail to realize is that the two juggernauts in the AL are gonna wear each other out to most likely 6 or 7 games, while the Nats will get an entire week of rest. Some will argue this will make their bats go cold which is possible, but in terms of having a rested rotation and a ready to go bullpen they may have the advantage against their next opponent. The Astro’s have an extremely thin rotation of only 3 players, and will most likely burn most of the pen against the Yankees’s in the next coming days. While the Yankee’s starting pitching isn’t great to begin with, they have been quick to go to their pen which may sting them if they wind up making it. Going back to the Nationals though it seems that they are all clicking at the same time. The bats have been scorching putting up 15 in the last two games to shut down the Cardinals, while their pitching held the red birds to six runs the whole series. The rotation is amongst the best in baseball, with Mad Max at the top having his best postseason of his career, while Corbin and Straus have been masterful. Oh and Annibal Sanchez almost threw a no hitter in game one on the road. What held the Nats back in the beginning of the season was their awful bullpen play, which has been tightened up well and has been very effective in late game situations. Right now the team looks like they belong where they are, now they just need to carry this type of play into next week. Can they beat the Astros’s or the Yankee’s… yeah they have Howie Kendrick. The best part of all of this is Bryce Harper leaving made them better, but thats a different discussion. ROLL THE TAPE…

Recent Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCQMkpzxzAo&t=14s

Published by Fran