Through 83 plate appearances this season, 27-year-old Washington Nationals' second baseman Danny Espinosa has a .274/.361/.466 line against left-handed pitchers and a .190/.249/.307 line from the left side of the plate. He has a similar split over the course of his five major league seasons, putting up a .216/.286/.367 line vs RHPs and a .264/.339/.455 line against LHPs.
In the first game after Ryan Zimmerman went down with what Nats' skipper Matt Williams told reporters is a "pretty substantial strain of the hamstring," Espinosa got the start on Wednesday in the series finale with the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field with left-hander Jorge De La Rosa on the mound.
The Nationals did, however, call 24-year-old infielder Zach Walters up from Triple-A Syracuse when Zimmerman went down, so they have options at second if they choose to sit Espinosa against right-handed pitchers.
"'He's swinging the bat really well,'" Williams told reporters including MASNSports.com's Josh Land when asked about bringing the switch-hitting infielder back up after two stints in the majors earlier this season.
"'He's on a 13-game hitting streak, so we want to get him reps certainly. With the lefty today, of course, Danny is back in there. So we'll see what the coming days give us. But Zach's been playing really well.'"
With the Nationals' top minor league affiliate, Walters has put up a .300/.358/.608 line with 18 doubles, five triples and 15 HRs in 60 games, with a .287/.350/.613 line, 13 doubles and 12 HRs from the left side of the plate.
Both Williams and Nats' skipper Mike Rizzo talked recently about sending Walters down after his second stint in the big leagues this season with a mandate to get work in at second base, which Rizzo told 106.7 the FAN in D.C.'s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on Thursday, is his "his least-familiar position."
The Nats' GM didn't go as far as to suggest that there would be a strict platoon at second base.
"Matt will get [Walters] at bats as he sees fit," Rizzo explained, "but we're going to go with the regular rotation that we've had when Zim was down before and when we had a couple of other injuries."
Williams is, however, apparently going to see what Walters can do at second tonight.
Walters is in the lineup for the series-opener with Cincinnati in Great American Ballpark with right-hander Alfredo Simon on the mound for the Reds.
• Here's the Nationals' lineup for the first game of three in Cincinnati:
Matt W.'s lineup, Fri. @ CIN/G100: Span cf, Rendon 3b, Werth rf, LaRoche 1b, Desmond ss, Harper lf, Ramos c, Walters 2b, Roark rhp.
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 25, 2014