Baker gives insight on how playoff rotation might work out

Manager Dusty Baker knows his club will face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series, which begins Oct 7.

Looking ahead to how the Nationals will set up their rotation for the Dodgers, this week's pitching probables give some insight into how the NLDS will work out for Nats starters.

Right-hander Tanner Roark started Monday night's opener against the Diamondbacks. The games notes list right-hander Max Scherzer for Tuesday, left-hander Gio Gonzalez for Wednesday and right-hander Joe Ross for Thursday's series finale.

The Miami series to end the regular season would conceivably be set up for A.J. Cole, Roark and Scherzer. However, Cole's availability could be in jeopardy pending a possible suspension from Major League Baseball for throwing a pitch behind Pittsburgh's Jung Ho Kang on Sunday.

So with less than a week left of games in the regular season, will Baker alter his schedule of starters to set up for the first two games of the first round of the postseason?

Baker said he has had those discussions with pitching coach Mike Maddux.

"The main two guys that we're talking about would be Scherz and Tanner," Baker said. "Scherz has a chance to win 20 games and could be the Cy Young. And Tanner has a chance ... we want him to keep pitching. No matter how many innings they have, we still manage to take them out of games, especially Tanner, a bit earlier than we wanted to or he wanted to try to preserve him."

Ross and Gonzalez also will play major roles in the series against the Dodgers. Baker likes what he has seen from Ross following his return from a stint on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. Baker plans to extend Ross on Thursday.

"Joe's throwing the ball well. We've got to amp him up," Baker said. "Hopefully, he can go more this time than last time. Gio, he's been up and down, but throwing the ball pretty good. So in Gio's case, we just want to let him pitch."

The bigger question is the status of Stephen Strasburg in the playoffs - or at least the NLDS against the Dodgers. Baker still does not know if Strasburg, who has been on the DL with right elbow soreness since Sept. 7, will be available to pitch at all.

One option would be to bring Ross out of the bullpen if Strasburg is available. Baker could use Strasburg to begin games, then piggyback Ross after him.

Baker said how Ross feels at the end of this week will decide how the Nationals use him in this playoff series against the Dodgers.

"It depends on Joe's health," Baker said. "At this time, Joe is closer to being Joe than Stephen. Right now it depends on Joe's health and how he feels. Stephen's not on the mound yet.

"We're trying to amp up Joe's pitches and keep a close eye on him. That's who we ask how he feels, because we can't have Joe go backwards and then probably not have Joe at all. He's looked pretty good, though. We're going to try to ramp him up."

To give an idea into what Baker is thinking, and in case the Nats do not have Strasburg available, the skipper reached out to his veteran Scherzer on how far they can let Ross go as he comes back into form.

"I was talking to Scherz about it, and he said it's important that you get to a certain point where maybe he can pitch six innings or six and a fraction. Which is really about all you need for a quality start anyway," Baker said. "I'll take that."

Games 1 and 2 are scheduled for Oct. 7 and 8 at the home of the higher-seeded team. Game 3 is Oct. 10 and Game 4, if necessary, is Oct 11 - both to be played in the home park of the lower-seeded team. The higher-seeded team would host Game 5, if necessary, on Oct. 13.

One scenario would be to consider bringing back Scherzer and Roark on short rest if the results early in the series dictated that type of move.

But Baker hasn't gotten to that planning point just yet.

"Nah, that's too far," Baker said. "Man, you guys have a lot of time. I'm just saying, we'll see when we get there. We'll know if it's going to be necessary or not, if we have three starters or four. We'll know when we get there."