The post season for the Washington Nationals is coming up and I am very excited to see how they finish. Last season the Nationals sadly lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS (National League Divisional Series), which was a very close three games to two.
This season, the Nationals started off very strong and have continued to do so to the end. They got a few new faces this season, including centre fielder Adam Eaton, who is currently injured, catcher Matt Wieters who is having a fairly decent season and also closer Sean Doolittle who came over to Washington from Oakland and is having an unreal stint with the club so far.
The team has battled through quite a few injuries this season with centre fielder Adam Eaton, short stop Trea Turner, left fielder Jayson Werth and right fielder Bryce Harper. Right now, all of those players are already back from their injuries, except for Eaton who is still out with a torn ACL. With all of those injuries, the Nationals have done pretty good creating depth in the team to survive in the league and still dominate the NL East. They got stellar performances from back-up centre fielder Michael A. Taylor and back-up short stop Wilmer Difo whose numbers were really impressive during their short back up stint with the team.
The Nationals got outstanding seasons from their all-stars. Second basemen Daniel Murphy had yet another great season with the Nat’s with 23 home runs, 92 runs batted in and a .319 batting average. First basemen Ryan Zimmerman had an outstanding season this year with 34 home runs, 103 runs batted in and a .296 batting average, which were career highs for the 33-year-old veteran. Outfielder Bryce Harper is the third National that had an amazing year. He crushed a total of 29 home runs, 87 runs batted in and had an incredible .324 batting average. Harper was hurt in mid-August or else his numbers would have been even better.
These three players even had the top three best batting averages in the NL during the all-star break, so there is no doubt they are big leaders for the club. With the exception of those three players, the rest of the team really did their job well, going about their business leading the team when they needed to.
The league has officially announced that the defending champions the Chicago Cubs have clinched their division for the second straight year and will be facing the Nationals in the 2017 NLDS. The Nationals won four out of the seven match ups the two teams had this season, which goes to show that these two teams are pretty evenly matched, no doubt.
The Nationals are looking to get past the NLDS for the first time in club history. They have come really close throughout the years and have faced some pretty tough teams in the series, including the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, a really tough team, and the 2014 San Francisco Giants, who ended up going all the way and winning the World Series.
This is a new year and the Washington Nationals have to prove to the league they’re not just a team that only makes it to the first round each year. They have the pitching staff and batting to do it, so it will be really exciting to see how they do.
