Fister fifth as Williams lines up his rotation

VIERA, Fla. - Try to digest this with your Sunday morning waffles: The fifth starter in the Nationals rotation has started eight postseason games, including one in the World Series, and posted a 16-6 record with a splendid 2.41 ERA last season. In fact, one of those playoff starts came for the Nats in Game 3 of last year's National League Division Series.

And tall right-hander Doug Fister delivered the Nats' only win of the 2014 postseason when his team needed him most. Facing a must-win situation, Fister calmly took the mound and pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits. By the way, the game was on the road with 41,000-plus screaming Giants fans at AT&T Park.

That's your fifth starter. That's when it really hits you how much wealth Nationals manager Matt Williams has with this stunning starting rotation. He'll throw a trio of righties - Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg - before left-hander Gio Gonzalez slots in at the four spot followed by Fister.

"Even the hard throwers, they're all different," said Williams. "Max is completely different than Zimm. You look at them and you go, 'Oh, they throw the same.' But they approach hitters differently, so that's not a concern of ours. It's making sure that everybody is on schedule as we get to opening day and beyond."

Despite his imposing 6-foot-8 frame, Fister isn't a strikeout pitcher with a flaming fastball. Instead, he would rather deceive you into swinging at his devastating sinker that usually produces one of the game's highest ratios of groundball outs.

"We're going to have that off-day and after Game 1, which will push Doug further out than most, but he handles that better than most because he's not a power guy," said Williams. "He's more of a finesse pitcher, if you will. So he handles that a little bit differently, so that's one of the motivations."

Fister hasn't been the sharpest member of the rotation this spring. His 4.97 ERA is reflective of seven earned runs allowed over 12 2/3 innings on 18 hits, including three home runs. But spring numbers can be deceiving depending on what a pitcher is working on in each start.

For two-plus seasons between 2011 and 2013, Scherzer and Fister were a combined 84-39 while helping to lead the Tigers to three straight American League Central titles and a World Series runner-up appearance in 2012. The two started 16 playoff games for Detroit as teammates.

Now they bookend the Nationals rotation.