In his last major league outing, on May 19th in San Diego, 29-year-old Washington Nationals' reliever Ryan Mattheus gave up four hits, two walks and five runs in one inning of work in a 13-4 loss to the Padres in Petco Park. The frustrated reliever slammed his gloved hand on his locker after the rough outing, and injured himself.
"Last night after the game he came in and when he was in the locker room he banged his glove against his locker with his hand in it," Davey Johnson told reporters back in May. "And he didn't say anything to anybody," Johnson continued. "His hand didn't swell up, but when he went out to throw today his hand swelled up and he couldn't throw the ball."
"He felt real bad about," a frustrated Nats' skipper said, "but I wish he had said something about what he did." It was a bad day for Mattheus and his manager said it was going to cost him significant time. "He's going to be out a while. It's a broken bone in your pitching hand. That's going to be out a while." Mattheus missed a total of 58 games as he rehabbed and threw some minor league innings. With the Nationals able to add a 26th man to the roster for today's doubleheader, the Nats announced this morning that they had reinstated Mattheus from the DL.
On his rehab stint, as noted in the Nationals press release on the move, Mattheus had, "... a 2.25 ERA (2 ER/8.0 IP) with four strikeouts pitching for the GCL Nationals, Hagerstown (Single-A), Harrisburg (Double-A) and Syracuse (Triple-A).
The Nationals will have to make a decision tonight on a roster move. Davey Johnson didn't rule anything out when he spoke to reporters yesterday, but didn't offer any clues as to what the Nats might do after today's doubleheader.