Giants vs. Nationals: Game 1 Time, TV Info, Live Stream and More

On the heels of an impressive, dominating performance in the Wild Card Game, the San Francisco Giants make the short trek from Pittsburgh to the nation's capital for a National League Division Series showdown with the Washington Nationals starting on Friday. 

Behind the left arm of Madison Bumgarner and big bat (?) of Brandon Crawford against the Pirates, the Giants extended their winning streak in winner-take-all games to seven. The only bad part of that Wild Card Game win is Bumgarner isn't available to pitch Game 1 of the Division Series. 

The Nationals aren't going to complain about avoiding Bumgarner early in this series, though the depth of their pitching staff and surging lineup have combined to make this team the trendy pick to win the World Series. This is Washington's second playoff appearance in three years after all those years of futility in Montreal. 

We've got a closer look at Game 1 between the Giants and Nationals, including the storylines we are following closely. 

Where: Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

When: Friday, October 3

Start Time: 3 p.m. ET

Watch: Fox Sports 1

Live Stream: MLB Postseason TV (requires $4.99 subscription)

Pitcher	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB
Jake Peavy (Giants)	202.2	3.73	1.278	158-63
Stephen Strasburg (Nationals)	215	3.14	1.121	242-43

Key Storyline For Giants

Will the heart of San Francisco's lineup show up?

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

The Giants are not a high-scoring team. Even when they were winning World Series titles in 2010 and 2012, it was on the strength of dominant starting pitching, excellent bullpens and timely hitting from some unlikely sources. (Philadelphia still can't hear the name Cody Ross without cringing.)

This year, the Giants finished a respectable 12th in runs scored and 13th in slugging percentage. Their limitations can get them in trouble, especially in a series against a pitching-rich team like Washington. San Francisco had just one player who appeared in more than 100 games with an on-base percentage over .340 (Buster Posey, .364). 

Using Bruce Bochy's lineup from the Wild Card Game, the collective on-base percentages look a little better with Joe Panik (.343) able to be included, but that's it. In the win over Pittsburgh, the Giants' 2-6 hitters went a combined 9-for-21, but they were all singles. 

The only extra-base hit they had was the one that mattered, Brandon Crawford's grand slam, but you can't rely on his bat every game. 

This speaks to the other problem the Giants have: a lack of power. They had two players with at least 20 home runs (Posey, Hunter Pence), but Posey is the only active player slugging over .450 this season. In fact, Madison Bumgarner had the third-best slugging percentage on the team in the regular season (.470). 

Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated noted in a playoff preview for the Giants that their rotation isn't what it once was:

"

On the mound, late-blooming set-up man Jean Machi, having made a career-high 71 appearances this season, has struggled of late, and the rest of the starting rotation behind Bumgarner and Peavy has been a mess, combining for four quality starts in 15 turns this month. Yusmeiro Petit, who replaced Tim Lincecum in the rotation at the end of August, has been the best of that bunch, going 1-2 with a 4.40 ERA, while Ryan Vogelsong and Tim Hudson have both gone 0-4 with ERAs of 5.53 and 8.72, respectively.

"

The natural takeaway from Corcoran's analysis is that the Giants will have to rely more on their offense in the postseason than in 2010 and 2012, especially on days when Bumgarner and Jake Peavy aren't on the mound. 

Peavy is pitching against Stephen Strasburg in Game 1, so the offense may not have to be on point, but eventually, you need to get an extra-base hit in order to win a game. It's worked once already. 

Key Storyline For Nationals

How will Stephen Strasburg fare in his first playoff start?

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Two years ago, the Nationals were engrossed in a self-created controversy by shutting down Stephen Strasburg after he threw 159.1 innings because they wanted to protect him after having Tommy John surgery cost him most of the 2011 season. 

It was easy to second-guess the situation after Washington was eliminated from the playoffs by St. Louis in a thrilling Division Series. Now, though, there are no limits and restrictions for Strasburg. He set career highs in starts (34), innings pitched (215), strikeouts (242) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.63). 

Some may have been disappointed with Strasburg's career up to this point, a burden that comes with being called the "greatest pitching prospect ever," but as Mike Petriello of FanGraphs wrote in June, the guy is still really good, and not recognizing it is on us more than him:

"

Yet it never really does seem like we talk about Strasburg as though he’s among the elite with Kershaw, Adam Wainwright, Fernandez and the rest. That’s less on him than it is on us. We should probably take the moment to accept that Strasburg can’t be overrated, not when he’s living up to the hype and then some, in ways we’ve rarely if ever seen before.

"

Strasburg also got better as the season went along, which is what you want to see from a No. 1 starter in the playoffs. Using the small sample size caveat, his 1.13 ERA in September was the lowest of any month this season, and his WHIP has decreased in each of the last three months. 

That doesn't guarantee Strasburg anything—Edinson Volquez will attest to that, allowing five runs in five innings against the Giants on Wednesday after allowing four in five September starts—but with his raw stuff and command also getting better, he should have no problems thriving on this stage. 

The Giants, in many ways already talked about, are the perfect opponent for Strasburg to get his feet wet. They don't have a lot of power or patience, so even if his command isn't sharp, he's still good enough to get away with it. 

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