To preview each postseason series, we’ll be giving you three questions to be answered. So here, for the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers versus the NL wild-card winning Washington Nationals, are your three defining questions:
1. How will the Nationals use their pitchers against the Dodgers’ lineup?
The Nationals have arguably the best rotation trio in the NL—Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin—but if those three are ineffective or cannot go deep enough in games, it’s going to be difficult for them to contain the Dodgers’ bats. Consider this: Only the Orioles had a worse bullpen ERA than the Nationals this season; the Yankees and Astros are the only two playoff teams that scored more runs off relievers than the Dodgers this season.