Patrick Reddington: Out of the shadows, potential postseason problems don't concern Nats

Though the Washington Nationals don't know who their opponent will be, they know now that they will be bringing postseason baseball back to the nation's capital in October. The Nationals clinched the National League East division this week in Atlanta's Turner Field, but during last week's homestand they received a reminder of just how difficult it can be to deal with the not only the so-called "sun monster" in the outfield at Nationals Park, but also the shadows cast over the mound and infield during afternoon games. Braves starter Aaron Harang and Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg went head-to-head in a 4:05 p.m. start, matching one another with four scoreless innings as the sun set over Washington, D.C. Nats skipper Matt Williams, Denard Span and Bryce Harper talked openly about the difficulty of dealing with the late afternoon shadows. "Today is pretty tough peeping out there," Williams said after what ended up a 6-2 loss in which Harang held the Nationals to six hits and one unearned run. Strasburg gave up seven hits and three earned runs, but none of the scoring took place until the fifth inning. "It's ... shadows are tough," Williams told reporters. "Breaking ball especially when you have shadows like that (it's) difficult and change of speed. And (Harang) can do that really well, regardless of shadows or not. But he just changes speeds and throw strikes to both sides of the plate at any time in the count. So he's difficult." Asked if the sort of shadows both teams dealt with could be a problem going forward, Williams refused to bite and entertain the idea of it being a problem in the postseason, joking instead that they wouldn't be an issue in the immediate future. "Probably not in New York over the next four days," he said. "That's all we're concerned about." Nationals leadoff man Span admitted both teams were having trouble picking up the ball. "It was tough, man," Span said. "It was tough to pick up his pitches. I think in the middle part of the game, I was talking with a couple of their players while I was on base and they were saying it was pretty tough to pick up Strasburg, as well. You saw a lot of guys swinging and missing, taking pitches right down the middle, but you just have to battle through it and play through it, you have to play through the conditions." "Definitely it's tough," Harper said, after going 1-for-4 with a home run off Craig Kimbrel late in the game, "but I think we've got to get used to it. We might have to play 5:05 games like we did (in 21012). So, definitely, it's tough, but you've got to get used to it and go in there and not try to worry about the shadows or anything like that." "Five o'clock is probably the worst it is," Harper explained. "Then once an hour goes by, you're fine. But it's pretty brutal for the first three or four innings. So it's definitely a pitcher's advantage, but we've got to get used to it." During the 2012 postseason the Nationals had to deal with the shadows in Busch Stadium in St. Louis, as well. Former Cardinals outfielder Lance Berkman went so far as to call the conditions there "farce," at one point suggesting that they were bad enough that afternoon starts were something players should bring up in negotiations for the next collective bargaining agreement. The Nationals don't know where they will be playing National League Division Series games this time around. If they have to deal with late afternoon shadows, they will. #postseasonproblems Patrick Reddington blogs about the Nationals for Federal Baseball and appears here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @federalbaseball. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.