USA TODAY International Edition
Scherzer gives Nationals edge
Besides enjoying the benefit of home- field advantage, the Washington Nationals will have a major factor in their favor when they face the Los Angeles Dodgers in Thursday’s decisive Game 5 of their National League Division Series.
Staff ace and Cy Young Award favorite Max Scherzer will be loaded and ready to go for the NL East champs, while the Dodgers likely will start veteran lefty Rich Hill on three days’ rest, although they’re keeping open the possibility of switching to rookie Julio Urias.
USA TODAY Sports’ Jorge L. Ortiz takes a closer look at those pitching pairings and matchups that could determine which team moves on to face the Chicago Cubs in the NL Championship Series. Scherzer vs. the Los Angeles lineup: For all of his gifts, Scherzer doesn’t throw from the left side, a huge relief to a Dodgers team that compiled the majors’ lowest batting average and on- base- plus- slugging percentage ( OPS) against lefties.
Of course, the Dodgers handle right- handers pretty well, and they reached Scherzer for two homers and four runs in Game 1. During the season, left- handed batters had a 280point edge in OPS (. 757-. 477) against Scherzer compared to righties.
The Dodgers are certain to stack the lineup with lefty swingers such as Chase Utley, Corey Seager, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Reddick, Joc Pederson, Andrew Toles and Yasmani Grandal ( a switchhitter). Third baseman Justin Turner will be the only strictly right- handed hitter.
“We beat him once already. We know we can do it,” said Gonzalez, who is 5- for- 29 in his career against Scherzer. “We put some pretty good at-
bats against him in Game 1, and we’re confident that we can do that again.”
Andre Ethier, who missed most of the season with a broken leg, has the best career numbers of any Dodger when facing Scherzer — a .333 average and .926 OPS in 26 plate appearances — so it will be interesting to see whether manager Dave Roberts starts him over Toles. Hill vs. the Washington
lineup: Hill breezed through the first three innings of Game 2 before giving up a total of four runs in the fourth and fifth, most notably Jose Lobaton’s game- turning three- run shot.
The short rest might not be much of an issue, because the Dodgers are not expecting more than five or six innings out of Hill, what with Urias and a bullpen that had Wednesday off available to pitch in.
A bigger factor might be Hill’s success with his sweeping curveball, his signature pitch. He threw it nearly as frequently as his fastball, more than 40% of the time, in the regular season, so the Nats will be looking for it.
Hill did not face the Nationals during the regular season, but in the past he has had trouble with Ryan Zimmerman ( 6- for- 10, two home runs) and usually nonthreatening Lobaton ( 4- for- 5). The Nationals bullpen vs.
the Dodgers: Nationals relievers were a revelation in the first three games, combining for 121⁄ scoreless 3 innings. They did cough up two runs — including the gamewinner off Blake Treinen — in the fourth game, where they still accounted for 51⁄ innings. 3
With a day of rest, it will be all hands on deck Thursday, and manager Dusty Baker has plenty of weapons to choose from.
Not surprisingly, lefties Sammy
Solis, Oliver Perez and Marc Rzepczynski have been particularly effective, combining to allow three hits in 82⁄ scoreless innings. 3 That brought into question why Baker didn’t bring in Solis in Game 4 to face Utley, who ripped his go- ahead single in the eighth off Treinen. Solis then replaced Treinen, but by then the damage was done.
Solis, who combines a sinking fastball in the 94- mph range with a curve and changeup, has been effective coming in to face lefties with runners on base, and Perez kept Tuesday’s game close by retiring Grandal with the bases loaded in the third.
Closer Mark Melancon, who has thrown three scoreless innings, did not pitch Tuesday and might be available to go longer than three outs in the decider. The Dodgers bullpen vs. the
Nationals: Dodgers relievers secured Clayton Kershaw’s Game 1 victory with four scoreless innings and followed that with 32⁄ 3 innings of one- run ball in Game 2. But then closer Kenley Jansen imploded by giving up four runs in the ninth inning of Game 3, shocking even Baker.
“I’ve never seen Jansen get hit like that, and I’m sure he hasn’t seen himself get hit like that,” Baker said.
Other than that meltdown, the Los Angeles bullpen has given up one run in 152⁄ innings. 3
And Jansen did make a nice recovery with a 1- 2- 3 save Tuesday. Two innings earlier, Joe Blanton kept the Nationals from scoring the go- ahead run by striking out Anthony Rendon with runners at the corners.
A source of concern for the Dodgers has to be figuring out how to slow down Daniel Murphy, who is batting .462 with six RBI in the series and greeted lefty Luis Avilan with a line single that tied Game 4 at 5 in the seventh.