Not a moment too soon, Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman returns to the lineup tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals at the start of a nine-game, 10-day homestand. Out for nine-and-a-half weeks – 58 games in all – after surgery to repair a torn abdominal muscle on his left side, Zimmerman will try to help a lineup desperate to score some runs.
“I think it’s been a long, frustrating two months. I’ve had to be patient,” Zimmerman said. “But we think we went about it the right way and made sure that we gave myself time to be as close to 100 percent as I can be when I get back and still be effective and help these guys win without having to come up here and play a couple of games, take a day off, do things like that. I don’t think that’s very fair to me or the team . So we waited until I got to the point where I can play every day like I normally do. Now it’s time to go out there and play.”
Washington’s team OPS is .661 (26th); its slugging percentage is .360 (25th); its on-base percentage is .301 (28th). The Nats have 245 runs (25th) on the season and that’s just not going to cut it. There are only so many times you can force the starting rotation to go deep into games and only so many times you can ask the bullpen to come through in tight situations. The rotation ranks 11th in MLB with a collective 3.79 ERA. The bullpen has taken some heat in 2011, but that group combined still ranks 6th overall with a 3.17 ERA. The bats just aren’t helping. Despite scoring a meager 12 runs total in the final six games of its recent West Coast road trip, Washington managed to win four times. Wouldn’t expect that to continue if the offense continues to struggle.
“I can’t win eight games in one game,” Zimmerman said. “Nobody can do that. Our defense and pitching has been unbelievable this year. Unfortunately, our offense has been banged up quite a bit…Players aren’t the same when they’re playing through things. It gets to that point where a lot of baseball players don’t like to be the guy to not play through injuries. But a lot of times when you’re playing through things it’s not helpful to the team. And our offense has, unfortunately gone through a lot of that this year. I think we’re starting to figure out that it’s not easy to plug guys into a major-league lineup. When we’re healthy we have a great lineup on paper. I don’t think it’s out of reach to say we can get back to that this year.”
Zimmerman first felt the abdominal injury bother him during spring training, but took some time off and was ready to go for Opening Day on March 31. But the symptoms never really went away and he made it just eight games before heading to the disabled list April 10 following a headfirst slide into second base the day before against the New York Mets. After an attempt at rehabilitation Zimmerman had surgery on May 3. Not the first long stretch of games Zimmerman has missed in his career. A shoulder injury cost him 47 straight games in 2008. He missed a few games with a hamstring injury in April last season and then the final 10 games of 2010 with what he claims was an oblique strain unrelated to this year’s injury. Otherwise, Zimmerman has been durable. He played in 157 games in 2006, all 162 in 2007 and 157 in 2009.
Zimmerman played in six minor-league rehab games total at low-A (Hagerstown), high-A (Potomac) and Triple-A (Syracuse). He said his throwing motion is fine now. That wasn’t the case when he was in pain during March and April. There is still some soreness and that’s likely to last through the season. The scar tissue has broken up for the most part – though Zimmerman noted if he waited until that was gone completely he’d have missed even more time. Also said his swing feels good after the rehab games and two previous weeks spent at extended spring training in Viera, Fla.
Zimmerman’s return comes at an opportune time. Washington has somehow played a major-league high 40 road games and no team in MLB has faced a tougher schedule (.517 opponents’ winning percentage). St. Louis enters this series tied for first place in the National League Central, but after that the Nats play four American League clubs in a row (Baltimore, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles) all hovering around .500 – three of them with losing records. Then comes a long homestand before the All-Star break with games vs. Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs and Colorado. Again, all three sport below .500 records. At 30-36 Washington hopes that Zimmerman’s return can spark another run at .500.
Meanwhile, to make room for Zimmerman on the 25-man roster, the Nationals have optioned right-handed relief pitcher Craig Stammen to Triple-A Syracuse. For now that leaves the club with 11 pitchers – and just six in the bullpen. That’s not ideal, but it probably won’t last long, either. Stammen, 26, made just two appearances since his recall Saturday with the Nats in San Diego. He was 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA. Here are tonight’s lineups.
Cardinals:
Theriot – SS
Rasmus – CF
Pujols – 1B
Berkman – LF
Molina – C
Brown – RF
Schumaker – 2B
Descalso – 3B
Garcia – P
Nationals:
Werth – RF
Desmond – SS
Zimmerman – 3B
Morse – 1B
Espinosa – 2B
Ramos – C
Ankiel, CF
Maya – P
Hairston – LF
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