Now that the Nationals have finished up the regular season series with all of the elite teams we can compile how they did head-to-head in the small sample sizes that exist.
The Nationals outside of the NL East (which isn’t complete) had a tie or winning record with every team except the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates who the Nationals finish the regular season in a 4-game series.
The teams the Nationals will most likely meet in the post-season if you go by the mid-August betting lines are the Cubs in the NLDS, the Dodgers in the NLCS, and either the Boston Red Sox or the Houston Astros in the World Series if you believe those odds. The Cleveland Indians and Astros look like the favorites now in the AL. The only AL team the Nationals have faced on that list is the Houston Astros.
The Nationals went 3-to-3 against the Dodgers in the season series, and 4-to-3 against the Cubs and 2-to-1 against the Houston Astros. We can debate what that all means and not much since none of these series seemed to have that post-season feel but some of the individual games did. Joe Maddon and Dave Roberts seemed to play each game as if it was a playoff game. The pitching match-ups over the weekend were not what you would expect in a playoff game such as Ryu – Strasburg or Hill – Cole or Wood – Jackson.
Now let us take a look at the offensive numbers against each of those probables where clearly there is no stats against the Red Sox or Cleveland Indians this season. Also keep in mind the small sample sizes and variables with each.
Here are the stats against the Cubs:
Here are the stats against the Dodgers:
Here are the stats against the Astros:
