Williams on lineup stability: "We trust our guys, we have faith in our guys"

SAN FRANCISCO - Constructing a lineup when you're down two games to none in a best-of-five series isn't easy.

You might want to shake things up a bit, find a way to inject some life into your team, especially when the lineup you've gone with in Games 1 and 2 has only scored three total runs and is batting .160 to this point.

But you also don't want to blow things up and send a message to your team that you're panicking. The Nats have had plenty of offensive success over the last few months, and Nationals manager Matt Williams wants to show faith in his regulars.

"We have got here by doing things a certain way, and you know, to change things up is one option," Williams said today. "But we trust our guys, we have faith in our guys. And offensively, it hasn't happened the first two games, but that doesn't mean it can't happen today."

With that in mind, Williams stuck with the same lineup from one through eight that he put out in the first two games of this series. Not in there is Ryan Zimmerman, who Williams had said he would consider using against the left-hander Madison Bumgarner.

As I mentioned earlier, Zimmerman hasn't put up great numbers against Bumgarner in his career (3-for-17 with a homer), while Adam LaRoche (6-for-21 with three doubles) and Bryce Harper (3-for-9 with a homer) have seen Bumgarner fairly well. And so it's Harper staying in left and LaRoche remaining at first today.

"We have our lineup that we've set, and (Zimmerman's) not in it initially," Williams said. "But there will be certainly opportunity for him we hope during the course of the game to come up with a big at-bat for us. Zim's numbers against Bumgarner are not great. So our lefties hit him pretty well. We've got some hits and some RBIs and some homers against him. That's the reason."

Williams was asked whether Zimmerman's health factored into his decision. Zimmerman said recently that his hamstring was still only at about 85 percent, limiting his ability to making quick, reactionary decisions in the field a bit.

"Health is not a factor," Williams said. "There's a lot of things that go into it, without getting into specifics. You know, it's important for us to play good defense behind Doug (Fister) and be defensively sound in that regard. The fact that our left handed hitters have some history and have some success here; Rochie is hitting .286, Bryce is hitting .333 off (Bumgarner). There's lots of things that go in it, but health is not a factor. It's not a question of his hamstring being bad. As we go today, we'll look to a situation today to give him an at bat in a very important situation in the game.

"But, you know, on the other side of that coin, we got here because we have our lineup, and everybody has a very important part in that lineup. To drastically change it would probably not be prudent at this point, anyway. We hope he gets in there and gets a big hit for us."

Same goes when it comes to the catching spot. Wilson Ramos is 1-for-10 in this series, and Jose Lobaton has had good success behind the plate when paired with Fister. But Williams is sticking with Ramos today.

"Wilson has the ability with one swing of the bat to change the face of the game," "There was some thought (to going with Lobaton), sure, but with regard to the first two games, we need to make sure that we look to put our best offensive team in there, as well. That's a consideration. But, you know, with the day game here, the ball carries a little bit better than it does at night. The weather's warm, so my experience, playing here in this area, and certainly this ballpark during the day, it's a better park to hit in.

"Those considerations all go into in it, but we decided to go with Wilson today against a lefty. He's seen righties so far, so hopefully we get an opportunity and he comes through for us today."