Washington Nationals: Looking back at regular season against Cubs

Standouts on Offense

First, let’s start with the Nats who had the best performances against the Cubs this year. You would need many guesses to name the hitter with the most RBI’s against Chicago. It is actually catcher Matt Wieters, who hit two home runs with eight RBI’s.

Now, one of those home runs was a grand slam in the eighth inning on August 6 against Carl Edwards Jr. The other home run came against John Lackey. There should be more stock taken into the grand slam because Wieters has excelled in clutch situations this year.

This year, Wieters has 44 RBI’s with men in scoring position and 19 RBI’s in the seventh inning or later. While he won’t be relied on to carry the offense, anything the team can get from him at the bottom of the order would be an added bonus.

As for the rest of the team, only two other Nationals hitters had multiple home runs (Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon with two). One other notable hitter to watch is Bryce Harper. While Harper struck out ten times in 30 at-bats, he also had ten hits, including a home run.

On the Cubs side, their catcher feasted on Nats pitching. Out of the ten home runs that were against the Nats, five of them came off the bat of Willson Contreras. While three of those homers were against Erick Fedde and Matt Grace, Contreras did also homer against Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg, who will both pitch in this series.