The experience factor

After three days of relative quiet, Nationals Park will open its doors to the media again late this morning, as the Nats will hold their league-mandated workout leading up to the National League Division Series.

Nationals players had Monday off, then a heavy workout at the park on Tuesday, followed by an intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday. Those sessions were closed to the public and the media.

Now they'll have a light workout on the field again today, this one with plenty of cameras and reporters nearby.

Matt Williams will meet with the media this afternoon, and we'll get to lay eyes on his Game 1 starter, as well. The Nats will finally have to announce who will get the ball tomorrow at 3:07 p.m. (it's expected to be Stephen Strasburg) and will bring that pitcher to the podium for a session with reporters.

The Giants either arrived in D.C. sometime late last night, after their celebration in Pittsburgh had ended, or they will this morning. This is a team that struggled the last few months of the season, wasn't playing its best ball entering the postseason and ended up needing to win that one-game wild card contest in order to make the NLDS.

One thing the Giants do have, however, is postseason experience. The Giants have won two out of the last four World Series, and a number of the players on their roster have been a part of both of those title teams.

The Nats obviously have significantly less postseason experience. There are a few players who have appeared in World Series games - Jayson Werth, Doug Fister, Nate Schierholtz - but most have not gotten to be a part of a deep postseason push before. That's one edge that the Giants possess in this series.

But the Nats do feel that they gained a significant amount from their time in the playoffs in 2012. Only five members of the Nats' 2012 NLDS roster had appeared in a postseason game prior to that point.

Now guys like Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, Bryce Harper, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Drew Storen - they've been there. They've gotten a taste of it. And they feel that's important.

I asked a bunch of players over the last week or two what they feel is different about this Nationals team as it enters the postseason compared to the 2012 squad as it prepared for playoff baseball. The answer was almost unanimous - experience.

"Experience is huge," Zimmerman said. "Going into 2012, I think the majority of us hadn't played in the playoffs and didn't think it would be that much different. And it's very different. Emotionally, mentally, it's very taxing and it's draining.

"Going through what we went through in 2012, playing in a big Game 5, doing a lot of the right things in a Game 5, obviously not coming out on top, but I think we did a lot of positive things, and we've got to learn from our mistakes."

We'll see how much that's a factor, if at all. Talent trumps all, but experience can matter, especially in the crucial moments.

The Giants have been there and back. The Nats have gotten a taste. And they're now looking for more.