Washington Nationals: The west coast and Quaker State beckons

With the Washington Nationals finished with a large chunk of divisional play, we take a look at upcoming teams the Nationals will face and some of the intriguing matchups each team presents.

To start the 2018 regular season, the Washington Nationals received a heavy dose of divisional foes.  In fact, 12 of their last 16 games have been from the National League East.

Against the Atlanta Braves, the two teams drew even at three apiece.  The Braves outscored the Nationals 27-24, but 13 of those runs came in one game on April 3. That was the weird A.J. Cole start, where he hit his first career home run while giving up ten earned runs over 3.2 innings.

The two series against the New York Mets were opposites.  During the series in D.C., it was the beginning of the end of the season for some Nats fans.  A series sweep of the home team put the Mets firmly in first place of the division. But, when the teams met in the Big Apple, the Nationals took control of the series early before collapsing in the final innings of the final game.

The Nats also played series against the Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies.  The Nats were backed by dominant outings in each series by Max Scherzer, who combined to throw 13 innings with just two earned runs and 21 strikeouts.  Scherzer retired the final 20 batters he faced against Colorado.

Now, the team’s focus heads west as they will take on some familiar west coast opponents. This post gives a brief outlook to what the Nationals will face over the next couple of weeks, and some intriguing matchups to watch.