AP File Photo: Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker watches from the dugout in the ninth inning of an interleague baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore, Monday, May 8, 2017. Baltimore won 6-4. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

by Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCICO–The Washington Nationals who open a three game series with the San Francisco Giants are having a great season we thought they’d be a step behind coming into the season in terms of what happened with the closer Mark Melancon who was in Washington to close last season and he joined the Giants in the off season. He appeared in the LA series and had to go on the DL the Giants felt indifference on not having that powerhouse closer. The Nats Daniel Murphy is hitting fifth with a hefty .315 clip.

Hitting in front of Murphy is clean up hitter Ryan Zimmerman batting .365 and Zimmerman is just playing well. The Nats are on top of the NL East by a good eight games. This will be a challenging series for the Giants probably far more than seeing the Braves and it’ll be interesting to see if this is a series where they can take two out of three from the Nats.