Washington Nationals LunchBox: Talking Ryan Zimmerman With District Sports Page's Dave Nichols And CSNWashington.com's Chase Hughes.

In an appearance on ESPN980's The Sports Fix with Thom Loverro and Kevin Sheehan this morning, Nats' GM Mike Rizzo told the hosts he's not worried about the way the Nationals' Face of the Franchise Ryan Zimmerman's performing at the plate right now because he believes the 27-year-old third baseman will eventually turn things around and get back to being the player he has been since Washington selected him with their first 1st Round pick back in 2005. "He's got a track record," Rizzo said, "He's going to come out of it and someone's going to pay for it. They call them averages for a reason, I've said it many, many times. These guys, they get their numbers. They reach their norms. And I think this is a guy that's going to get hot. You're [always] one at bat away from a hot streak, and he's the type of guy that can carry a club for a couple of weeks at a time which he's done on countless different occasions when he's been with us so..."

"The good thing is he hasn't taken it on the defensive side," Rizzo continued, "He's still a positive uplifting figure in the clubhouse and nobody takes it tougher and harder than Zim does. He knows he's the leader of this ballclub and he wants to do it and nobody presses and pressures themselves harder than he does, so I'm confident that he's going to put it together and turn it on and when he does some team and some pitcher is going to pay for it."

After Zimmerman finished the three-game set with the New York Yankees 1 for 13 with a walk and two K's, Nats' skipper Davey Johnson said he wasn't "totally sure" that Zimmerman was 100% healthy, and the manager told reporters he was planning on speaking to his third baseman to see what's going on. Right after Johnson made those comments, Dave Nichols from the District Sports Page, CSNWashington.com's Chase Hughes and I took to the field in Nationals Park to discuss what we think is going on with the Nats' third baseman:

• Thanks again to Chase for doing the hard work to put these together. If you're not following both of them already, check out Dave @NationalsDSP and Chase @ChaseHughes on Twitter.