Washington Nationals: Are They Ready For Cubs Series?

The NL East leading Washington Nationals are heading into a series against the NL Central leading Chicago Cubs with something to prove after being swept by the Cubs in early May.

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Tanner Roark made those remarks after the Nationals suffered a 4 game sweep at the hands of the Cubs. While the Chicago Cubs did walk Bryce Harper 13 times during the series, it’s hard to argue against the results. Cubs manager Joe Maddon wasn’t the least bothered by the remark.

Was just the strategy of the game, based on how they built their group. That’s all it came down to. It’s nothing I did. We had to react to the moment. We tried to pick our best spots, based on our abilities versus theirs. That’s how it played out. It happens every day. It just happened more often in (Sunday’s) game….The best way I could put it, I did not do anything to them. – Joe Maddon, May 9, 2016

One could make the assumption that Maddon was alluding to Ryan Zimmerman; who hit behind Harper, leaving over ten men on base throughout the series. Zimmerman’s inability to make the Cubs pay for pitching around Harper made Maddon’s strategy easy to continue.

Just over a month has passed and after Jayson Werth‘s walk-off hit last night secured a series sweep over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dusty Baker led Nationals welcome the Cubs to Nationals’ Park for a series that could very well be the NLCS match-up.

Next: How Can The Nationals Beat The Cubs?

In order for the Nationals to win this three game set against the Cubs, they are going to have to receive great starting pitching from Max Scherzer (Monday), Gio Gonzalez (Tuesday), and Stephen Strasburg (Wednesday).

Both Gonzalez (5.54) and Strasburg (5.11) have struggled through their first two starts in the month of June. Of note Strasburg’s struggles have come against a moderate Cincinnati Reds offense where he gave up homeruns to Jay Bruce and Joey Votto on June 4th.

Strasburg gave up 4 over 7 innings to the desolate Phillies offense – giving up a homerun to first baseman Tommy Joseph. Each of the homeruns he’s giving up during his June starts have been off his secondary pitches. Bruce catching a changeup, Votto the curve, and Joseph a slider.

Since we’re on the homerun, Scherzer has given up an NL leading 16 thus far during the 2016 campaign and was victimized 4 times by the Cubs on his May 6th outing. Ben Zobrist got him twice while Tommy La Stella and Anthony Rizzo added in one of their own. It was Scherzer’s worst outing of the season as he gave up 7 over 5 innings.

Not to be left out the Cubs touched up Gonzalez as well giving up 5 over 5 2/3 innings on May 7th. The quick moral of the story is, if these three struggle the Nationals will be starring at another sweep at the hands of the team with best record in baseball.

Next: The Nats Better Do This Too

Get to the bullpen. To be blunt the Cubs rotation has been extra terrestrial kind of good this season. Their combined numbers are out of this universe. Going into play today 18 NL starting pitchers had an ERA under 3 – all 5 Cubs starters on that list.

Kyle Hendricks takes the mound tonight (2.90), John Lackey (2.63) Tuesday, and Jason Hammel (2.36) Wednesday. While those three have a combined 2.63 ERA the Cubs bullpen has a 3.42 clip, which is 4th in the NL, but still provides a better opportunity than Hendricks, Lackey, and Hammel who have all shown extreme pitch-ability and the ability to dominate this season.

It will probably be a bad sign for the Nats if the Cubs are able to work their starters into the 7th throughout the series in Washington.

Another example of how dominate these three have been is the fact they have combined for 16 starts thus far where they have gone 5+ innings and allowed no more than 1 run. Hammel and Lackey are tied with 6, while Hendricks has 4 such starts.

Next: Which Cubbie Bats Should the Nats Fear?

The Cubs have 4 hitters currently swinging a hot bat in the month of June. Anthony Rizzo (.375/.429/.719) has began to heat back up connecting for 3 homeruns thus far in June. Javier Baez (.333/.357/.630) has the team lead with 9 RBIs thus far in June.

Kris Bryant (.293/.326/.683) has 4 homeruns along with 4 doubles in the month of and Jason Heyward (.278/.350/.556) has added offense to his gold glove caliber play in right field. Heyward’s power has begun to flash as he has gone deep 3 times in June so far.

If Dexter Fowler, Ben Zobrist, and Addison Russell get their bats going over the next three days the Cubs could continue their offensive blitz after putting up 21 runs over the final two games against the Atlanta Braves. Which coincidentally was the last time the Cubs will play at Turner field as the Braves are opening SunTrust Park beginning next season.

Next: Will the Cubs Pitch To Harper?