The San Francisco Giants face the Washington Nationals in the NLDS.
Washington captured the National League's best record and will face a Giants team that dominated the Pirates to earn a spot in this series.
Pitching will be aplenty, with two of the best staffs in baseball going head-to-head.
Records:
San Francisco: 88-74, 2nd place in NL West
Washington: 96-66, 1st in NL East
Season Series: Nationals won 5-2
San Francisco Outlook: The Giants shutdown the Pirates in the Wild Card game, led by Madison Bumgarner's dominant complete game shutout.
While Bumgarner won't be available until the third game of this series as a result, the Giants will turn to Jake Peavy (6-4, 2.17 ERA w/ SF) and Tim Hudson (9-13, 3.57 ERA) for the first two games.
Buster Posey has led the offense as usual, posting another MVP-caliber season with 22 home runs, 89 RBI, and a .311 batting average.
Hunter Pence (20 HR's, 74 RBI, 106 runs scored) and Pablo Sandoval (16 HR's, 73 RBI, .279 average) struggled in September, but they will be crucial to the Giants lineup, hitting in the heart of the order behind Posey.
Washington Outlook: The Nationals cruised to the best record in the National League behind a strong starting staff.
Every member of their rotation had double digit wins, with Doug Fister, Jordan Zimmermann, Tanner Roark and Stephen Strasburg all finishing with at least 14.
Denard Span had a quietly productive season, leading the Nationals with a .302 average, 31 steals and 184 hits.
Anthony Rendon's breakout season went a bit more noticed across baseball, as he finished with 21 home runs, 83 RBI, 111 runs scored and a .283 average.
What to watch for: How will the ballparks effect this series? Nationals Park and AT&T Park can play extreme opposites of each other on most nights.
That means we could see a lot of scoring in the first two games in Washington, followed by pitchers duels in the game(s) at AT&T Park.
Both teams can win either style of game, but each team may have to adjust their game depending on the home park. A high-scoring series probably favors Washington, whereas a low-scoring series most likely favors San Francisco.
What they're saying - Giants:
Position-by-position breakdown for Giants/Nats (Official Site of the San Francisco Giants)
The 2014 Giants: 'Where everything you know is wrong' (CSN Bay Area)
What they're saying - Nationals:
Matt Williams: Don't overmanage in playoffs (District On Deck)
How the 2014 Nationals differ from the 2012 Nationals (Nats Insider)
For more coverage check out the Chat Sports team pages:
San Francisco Giants News & Rumors
Washington Nationals News & Rumors
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