By every indication and barring the unforeseen, the Dodgers will, in all likelihood, face the Washington Nationals in the National League Championship Series. That is, of course, if both teams get past the NL Division Wild Card winners and, of course, assuming that the Dodgers are not one of those Wild Card teams. As such, this weekend’s three-game series between the Dodgers and the Nationals at Nationals Park will be a pretty good barometer of what can be expected if the two teams do, in fact, end up facing each other in the postseason.

Nationals Park
(Wikipedia photo – click on image to enlarge)

As most fans know, the Nats have already clinched the NL East Division, becoming the first team to do so this season. But while this most certainly is impressive, the competition level in the NL East (and the NL Central for that matter) pales in comparison with the competition level of the 2017 NL West, where it is still very possible both NL Wild Card teams may emerge from.

When you compare the 2017 Dodgers to the 2017 Nationals, you immediately notice that the two teams are very similar to one another, this in spite of the fact that the Dodgers put up a franchise record-breaking winning streak (43-7) and a LA Dodgers record-breaking losing streak (0-11) this season.

On the offensive side of the ledger, the National currently rank second in the NL in team batting average at .269 behind only the Colorado Rockies Coors-Field-assisted .271 (the Rockies are among the aforementioned NL Wild Card challengers), while the Dodgers currently rank 11th at .250. Then again, the Dodgers are also coming off of their worst three-week slump in LA Dodgers history. As of Friday morning and ahead of this weekend’s three-game set between the two teams, the Nats have hit 196 home runs (6th most in the NL) and have scored 755 runs (1st), as compared to the Dodgers 198 home runs (5th) and 696 runs scored (6th).

When it comes to pitching, the two teams are even more closely matched. Obviously, the Dodgers lead the league with their current 94-52 record, but the Nationals are right on their heels at 89-57. The Dodgers have a slight edge over the Nats with their NL-best combined 3.41 ERA, as compared to the Washington’s 3.87 ERA (4th). However, when you break the pitching down further, you will see that Dodgers starting pitchers own a 65-36 record (2nd) and a 3.47 ERA (2nd) and the Nationals a 66-41 record (1st) and 3.52 ERA (3rd).

As for the respective bullpens, the Dodgers have the lead with a 29-16 record (1st) and 3.31 ERA (1st), compared to the Nationals 23-16 record (9th) and 4.64 ERA (13th). What this means is that this weekend’s series between the National League’s two best teams – and a potential NLCS match-up – could and probably will come down to which team has the best bullpen, now and again in three weeks.

Then again, and as Dodger fans are all too painfully familiar with, any team can beat any other team on any given day, especially during postseason play when all of these statistics – and regular season records – go out the window. One need look no further than the 2014 San Francisco Giants, who won that year’s World Series as a Wild Card team.

Whereas the Nationals will not face Clayton Kershaw this weekend, the Dodgers will face Stephen Strasburg
(Getty images)

In it’s simplest form, this weekend’s Dodgers – Nationals series in our nation’s capital could very well be a look into the future, with one enormously huge exception: Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw – the guy with the most wins and best ERA in all of baseball this season – will not be pitching and Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg will.

…so there’s that.