NLDS notebook: Hearing from Ramos, Zimmerman and Williams

Wilson Ramos may play in his first postseason game tomorrow, and could catch right-hander Stephen Strasburg, who will be making his playoff debut in the opening game of the best-of-five National League Division Series.

October inexperience aside, Ramos had an interesting response when he was asked this afternoon whether Strasburg was mature enough the the marquee assignment.

"That's a good question, because it's not easy starting the first game of the playoffs," said Ramos, who missed the Nats' 2012 appearance in the postseason while recovering from knee surgery. "But he's got the experience and he's throwing really good. ... He's throwing good. He just needs to do what he knows how to do."

Above all, Ramos hopes his Nationals batterymate takes some time to savor the experience.

"You need to enjoy the experience ... Not many teams get to this moment," he said.

Ramos admits to being keyed up for his playoff debut.

"It's my first playoff game, and I'm excited for that. I think he's excited, too, for the first game. Everybody here's excited. We was waiting for this moment all season, fighting for that. We're ready for tomorrow."

MORE COMFORTABLE, STILL CALM: Ryan Zimmerman remembers all the talk about the Nationals' collective inexperience when they met the Cardinals in the NLDS in 2012. He hopes he and his teammates can now draw on that experience

"Obviousy, the first one, you have no idea what to expect," Zimmerman said. "I think we know what to expect a little more now. Everyone's going to say the experience thing, and I think that's a big deal. We went into '12 not really knowing what to expect and thinking that everything would be the same, and it's not the same. When you're out there playing the game, it's obviously the same, but just everything surrounding the game, every pitch is more intense. It's just a different feel, so I think we learned a lot in '12."nlds

There's a common theme, however, between the 2012 and 2014 versions of the Nationals. Both teams are calm collections of guys who don't get caught in the highs and lows of a season.

"We were relaxed in '12, too," Zimmerman said. "If you give me the same situation in Game 5 this year, I'll take that. I'll take that every single time. I mean, we were up six runs and we were up, what, two or three runs going into the ninth inning. If you tell me right now this series is going to go five and we'll be in that situation, without hesitation, I'll take that again. Unfortunately,it didn't work out then, but we gave ourselves a really good chance to win then and just couldn't come through."

SORIANO ON BUBBLE?: Deposed closer Rafael Soriano's status for the NLDS has been debated often over the last few weeks, and Nationals manager Matt Williams did little to blunt the talk that the veteran right-hander could be left off the Nats' 25-man roster for the five-game series.

Williams tried to deftly sidestep a direct question asking whether Soriano would make the cut for the roster, which will be announced at 10 a.m. Friday. But his reponse raised more questions than answers.

"Well, we'll determine the final roster when we get out of this workout," the manager said. "Those decisions will be made and everybody will be aware of those when we go ahead and announce it. But we haven't announced that yet."

The Giants have a few left-handed sticks and switch-hitters, so the Nats could opt to go with three left-handers in the bullpen - Jerry Blevins, Ross Detwiler and Matt Thornton - to allow Williams to play matchups in the middle innings.

CLEANED OUT: Any hopes the Nationals had of watching the National League wild card game as a team were snuffed out, of all things, by the Nationals Park maintenence staff.

After the team played an intrasquad game Wednesday afternoon, a few members of the organization hung out in the home clubhouse - until a cleaning crew started to move through the space, making everything spick-and-span in preparation for today's workout.

"It was an interesting evening because we got done with the game, the cleaning crew came into the clubhouse, so we really didn't have an opportunity," Williams said. "We would have had to lock ourselves in a back room to do it, so everybody just kind of went home. There's lots of families in town, of course, so guys got a chance to kind of disperse and watch it with their families."

But that didn't stop the manager from watching the Giants-Pirates matchup from PNC Park with a critical eye. Never mind that the Nationals have stacks of data on the Giants.

"We have reams of information, but, yeah, if you watch the game, you want to pick up anything that you can possibly pick up with regard to that team," WIlliams said. "You know, it comes down to executing pitches and playing good defense and running the bases and doing all the things that we need to do, if we're going to have a chance to beat them."