National League Divisional Playoffs: San Francisco Giants at Washington Nationals

The American League Divisional playoffs start today and the National League Divisional round begins tomorrow:

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS AT WASHINGTON NATIONALS:

The San Francisco Giants made an emphatic statement in their wild card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, advancing with an impressive 8-0 victory. The Giants finished second in the National League West six games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers with a record of 88-74. The Nationals overcame a erratic start to finish with the best record in the National League and the NL East Championship.

This game should provide an excellent pitching matchup between San Francisco’s Jake Peavy and Washington’s Stephen Strasburg. Both pitchers struggled early in the season but have been in excellent form over the past couple of weeks. Strasburg finished the regular season with a 3.14 ERA overall, a 2.56 home ERA and most impressively hasn’t allowed an earned run during his last three starts for a perfect 0.00 ERA based on 20 innings pitched. He’s also got a 0.650 WHIP and 19 strikeouts during that stretch.

He’ll be opposed by the Giants’ Jake Peavy who is looking like the overpowering beast that he was earlier in his career. Peavy had an awful start to the season with the Boston Red Sox but caught a break when he was traded to the Giants near the deadline. He’s been very sharp over the past month and while his YTD stats are somewhat misleading (since so much of that was compiled in Boston) his last three games are very impressive with a 1.83 ERA, a 0.915 WHIP and three Giants’ victories in his last three starts.

The Giants definitely have more ‘big game experience’ and are playoff veterans while the Nationals are trying to atone for their horrible postseason collapse in 2013 where they essentially threw away their NL Divisional Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Nationals haven’t let up since clinching and enter this contest having won 8 of their last 10 games. We don’t expect the Giants to be an ‘easy out’ and we expect the rejuvenated Jake Peavy to turn in a good performance here. That notwithstanding, we expect the rested Nationals to take Game 1 and eventually win the series. The Giants will win a game or two along the way but the Nationals will advance to the NLCS.

BET WASHINGTON NATIONALS -170 OVER SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (Game 1)
BET WASHINGTON NATIONALS -175 OVER SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (Series)