Former Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker came up just short of getting the team to the World Series in 2003, but this time around he’s confident that his current club will achieve the ultimate goal of winning a title.

Baker, who has never won a World Series as a manager, will hope to lead the Washington Nationals past the defending champion Cubs in the National League Division Series, which begins on Friday night. In an interview Thursday, Baker said that he’s confident that his team has what it takes to get the job done, but even took things a step further than that.

“I know a championship is coming. I believe it is already written,” he told reporters. “Now all I have to do is believe it and enact it. If I win one, I will win two. That is how I look at it.”

The Nationals franchise has been to the playoffs three times since arriving in the nation’s capital in 2005, but they have never made it out of the division series round, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, the San Francisco Giants in 2014, and the Los Angeles Dodgers last season.

This time around, the Nationals hope to have the firepower and the pitching to get past the first round, and Baker is ready for the ride.

“I think this will be a heck of a postseason,” he said. “You have some quality teams in both leagues.”

First pitch between the Cubs and Nationals is scheduled for 6:31 p.m. on Friday night, with Stephen Strasburg opposing Kyle Hendricks.