Washington Nationals: 2017 NLDS Tale of the Tape

With the NLDS beginning Friday night, who has the edge at each position between the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs?

Two days from now, the Washington Nationals will take the field at Nats Park for Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the defending champions, the Chicago Cubs (7:31 p.m ET, TBS). Throughout the last two seasons, these teams have played numerous close games against each other.

In the 14 games the Nats and Cubs have squared off in since 2016, 11 of them have been decided by three runs or less. The only three games decided by four or more runs came this season and were all won by the Washington Nationals.

When you look at both of these teams, this is a matchup between two of the hottest teams in the National League as both teams had great second half records. After the All-Star break, the Nats were 45-29 and 25 of those wins came without Bryce Harper in the lineup. As for the Cubs, they were 49-25 and went 15-5 in their final 20 games.

Both of these teams made significant moves at the trade deadline. The Cubs acquiring starter Jose Quintana from the White Sox and reliever Justin Wilson from the Tigers and the Washington Nationals added relievers Brandon Kintzler, Sean Doolittle, and Ryan Madson to help bolster their bullpen.

Our predictions as a staff will be out before Game 1, but today, we are breaking this down this best-of-five series with our tale of the tape series as we look at which team has the edge at each position. There will be many different opinions, so we welcome yours as well.

Without further ado, let’s start with the catcher position, where one team has a significant edge over the other and was helped by another small deadline acquisition.