Washington Nationals: 5 storylines to watch post NL East clincher

Suzuki hurting his former team

When you think of opposing hitters that have hurt the Washington Nationals, names like Freddie Freeman and Giancarlo Stanton are names that come to mind. However, maybe Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki should be put into that category.

Suzuki isn’t one of the best players in the league, but he has had a good season against Nats pitching. The 33-year-old veteran is 10-for-30 (.333) with three home runs and ten RBI’s against Washington this year. To put that in perspective, he only has 5+ hits against two other teams this year (Phillies and Marlins)

The Washington Nationals are familiar with Suzuki since he played in D.C. in 2012 and 2013 before being traded to the Oakland A’s. He is not the primary catcher in Atlanta as Tyler Flowers has caught 20 more games (89 to 69). With that being said, he is close to a two win player in terms of WAR for the fifth time in his career.

Out of Suzuki’s ten hits against the Washington Nationals this year, six of them have against starting pitchers (three off of Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez). Plus, he has a home run against Gonzalez and Roark.

Now, Suzuki isn’t the catcher of the future in Atlanta by any means, but he does bring a veteran presence to those young pitchers and the Braves have to like that he is putting up good production against a divisional opponent.