Nats eye good Series starts from Scherzer, Strasburg et al

WASHINGTON (AP) — It had the feel of spring training Friday at Nationals Park, what with the clear blue sky, the crisp breeze and temperature in the low 60s that made it feel like time for the Fall Classic or February, the start-of-camp baserunning drills and the navy "Grapefruit League" T-shirt worn by Aníbal Sánchez.

As Sánchez did some long toss in right field, the other members of Washington's postseason rotation that carried the club to the World Series — Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin — worked out, too.

"A dream staff," catcher Kurt Suzuki said.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo assembled it, he explained, because an emphasis on starting pitchers has "always been a part of my DNA as an executive."

In this day and age of "openers" and "bullpen days" and "a starter shouldn't face a lineup a third time" and "high-leverage relief," Rizzo's Nationals stick by an older set of words: "Good pitching beats good hitting."

Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin and Sánchez — neither Rizzo nor manager Dave Martinez would commit to the order in which they'll pitch when the Series opens Tuesday night, but that's a decent guess — all go about things differently, but they've helped each other get this far. Now the Nationals have a week off to set up that quartet so it's rested and ready to face the Houston Astros, who are built around their own starters Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke, or New York Yankees.

"Good starting pitching, to me, is the key to any long-term kind of success that you're going to have. I think that when you have the opportunity to have guys that can dominate a game for six, seven, seven-plus innings, I think that is the more proficient way to construct a way to win a baseball game," Rizzo said. "I think that there's certainly different ways to skin a cat, there's...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Nats-eye-good-Series-starts-from-Scherzer-14545988.php