What they don’t have is Stephen Strasburg.

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Anyone who was at Nationals Park the night of Sept. 7, when Strasburg last threw a pitch off a major league mound, finds this not the least bit surprising. He acted hurt that night. He left hurt that night. And even though the worst-case scenario – Tommy John surgery, again – was avoided at least in the near-term, it’s remarkable to consider that the man who once represented baseball’s legitimacy in Washington now will watch the playoffs for the second time in five years.

“We’re hoping that we get him back,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “But we’re planning not to have him back so we’re pleasantly surprised, not disappointed.”

The fan base is basically in the position with their would-be star at this point: If he pitches, and pitches well, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. If he can’t take the mound – because of that strained flexor mass that knocked him out Sept. 7, or some other unforeseen malady — they won’t be disappointed.

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The Dodgers, locked in as the Nationals’ first-round opponent, have announced that ace Clayton Kershaw will open the series against Washington, followed by veteran left-handed reclamation project Rich Hill and Japanese “rookie” Kenta Maeda, a 28-year-old, in Game 3. Though the Nationals haven’t countered, officially, with their order, it’s fair to knock around how Scherzer, Roark and Gonzalez would match up in each case. We have a week to think about it. How does that feel?

Now suppose, for a second, that the Nationals beat the Dodgers in the division series. Put aside what a monumental achievement that would be for this franchise, which over a dozen seasons and just two previous playoff experiences already has developed a closetful of October ghosts.

Think about the Nationals in the National League Championship Series: Would you, Mike Rizzo, general manager of this club, feel comfortable throwing Stephen Strasburg into a playoff series even if he had thrown all of 2-1/3 innings since Aug. 17?

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“I feel comfortable dropping him into any situation when he’s ready to pitch,” Rizzo said. “If he’s ready to pitch, I want him to pitch.”

Okay, then.

With all the time we have between now and the next truly meaningful Nationals game (and yes, even after Thursday’s 5-3 victory over Arizona, they do still need to finish strong against the Marlins over the weekend to assure themselves of home-field advantage against the Dodgers), these are the things that are fun to discuss.

Rizzo acknowledged that each day Strasburg is down means another day it’ll take to build himself back up. He has thrown from as far as 90 feet, but not from a mound.

“He’s making good strides right now,” pitching coach Mike Maddux said. But he acknowledged the difficulty of working him back in midstream. In October.

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“If he’s healthy, the biggest obstacle would be fatigue,” Maddux said. “I think it would be spring training all over again. You got to build him up – kinda like what we’re doing with Joe.”

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Which evidently is somewhat dicey. Ross made a start July 2 against Cincinnati, got knocked around for 10 hits, and was placed on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation. He tried to ratchet it up once, was shut down again, and by the time he was ready to go full-bore, the minor-league season had played itself out. Ross’s re-entry began with 51 pitches in Atlanta, 63 more in Pittsburgh, and then the 90 he threw Thursday afternoon. Yes, he allowed only one run, but those 90 pitches got him just 12 outs, not the type of efficiency needed from an October starter.

“Ninety pitches is too many for four innings,” Ross said, “in my opinion, at least.”

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That is, actually, a universally held opinion.

So get ready for at least one series of, “Where’s Strasburg?”, particularly from a national standpoint. The cameras will find him, sitting in the dugout, and the announcers will talk about the Shutdown of 2012, even if Washington was long ago at peace with it. And we’ll have to consider that the No. 1 pick in the 2009 draft, the kid whose debut here will forever be one of Washington’s best baseball moments, who is now signed to a seven-year, $175-million extension that begins next spring will have appeared in one (1) playoff game in this franchise’s first three postseason series.

No pressure.

“I purposefully have not asked him how he’s feeling, because I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on him,” Baker said. “But it’s good to hear that he’s throwing.”