Washington Nationals: Looking back at regular season against Cubs
Now that the playoffs are here, let’s look back at the seven meetings between the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs
The regular season is now over and the Washington Nationals are now in preparation mode for the NLDS against the Chicago Cubs that begins Friday. Before we look ahead to the best-of-five series the rest of the week, we are going to look back at the seven regular season matchups.
In those seven games, the Nats were able to go 4-3. The Cubs were able to split a four game series in D.C. at the end of June. Then, shortly after the trade deadline, the Nats won two out of three games at Wrigley Field.
Out of the seven games that were played, four of them were decided by three runs or less and the Washington Nationals won the three games that were decided by a wider margin. In fact, the Nats outscored the Cubs by a score of 39-28.
Both teams have changed a bit since that August weekend in Chicago, but you know the Nats and Cubs will use those games as part of their scouting reports for the week.
If there’s one stat to look at in the matchups, it’s hitting with runners in scoring position. Of course, you can’t predict the future off of these numbers, but the Nats were 17-for-65 (.291) in RISP situations while the Cubs were 13-for-44 (.295). It is a little surprising that the Nats had that many more AB”s than Chicago in those spots, but that could be why the Nats won the only three “blowouts” in the series.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at three more things that stood out during the seven meetings with the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs, starting with some of the players who had the best offensive days.
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.
Pitching Matchups a lot different
Neither team has revealed their pitching matchups for the NLDS yet, but they should be a little more entertaining than some of the games we saw during the regular season.
Now, the matchups weren’t all bad because the Nats top four starters all pitched at least one game and the Cubs had Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta, and Jon Lester each pitch once. But, you had some names like Eddie Butler and John Lackey (Cubs) and Erick Fedde and Edwin Jackson (Nationals) who won’t be pitching in the NLDS as a starter.
Lester did get two starts against the Nats and got a no-decision in each game. With that being said, he only gave up four runs in 12.2 innings. The left-hander should get Game 1 or Game 2. Back on August 6, he threw 112 pitches, which was his third highest total this season.
While no Washington Nationals pitchers started against the Cubs more than once, keep this stat in mind. None of the top four Nats starters gave up more than two earned runs in any game. This includes Strasburg striking out 13 and Roark’s quality start at Wrigley on August 4 (where he might pitch a potential Game 4).
Of course, one pitcher who didn’t get to throw in any of these games is Cubs starter Jose Quintana. Quintana gave up nine earned runs over his final five starts of the season, so he is coming into the postseason on a great note. Plus, the Nats don’t have much familiarity with him from his time in the American League.
Which team decides to run?
In the playoffs, speed becomes a big priority for teams as rosters usually could include one player that can steal a base late in a close game. For the Nats, speed and aggressive baserunning are what they have been known for in the last two years with Dusty Baker and Davey Lopes as their first base coach.
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That trend stayed the same against the Cubs this year as the Nats stole 13 bases with seven of them coming from Trea Turner. Michael Taylor also stole a couple of bases but those were the only two players with more than one steal.
Now, Turner won’t have the same success rate in the postseason because Miguel Montero is no longer behind the plate for the Cubs and Willson Contreras has a good arm. But, that game at least showed that the Nats are going to look to try to run in some of these games and try to manufacture runs if the home runs aren’t there.
Meanwhile, on the Cubs side, they didn’t steal many bases in September (12-for-19). Out of those 12 stolen bases, nobody had more than three (Jon Jay). With the way Matt Wieters has struggled behind the plate, don’t be surprised if Jay or Javier Baez try to take a base and hope for a throwing error into center field.
Next: Scherzer injury scare serious October threat
The Cubs only stole five bases against Washington in the regular season and the only players with more than one steal were Baez and Ian Happ. However, with Scherzer’s hamstring injury, don’t be surprised if the Cubs get aggressive on the bases in that game.