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There was some bad news after Washington's 3-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers last night in Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nationals' manager Davey Johnson told reporters that 34-year-old outfielder Jayson Werth, who left the game in the bottom of the sixth, had tweaked his groin.
"The same area that he pulled before," Johnson told reporters, noting that Werth had suffered a similar groin issue earlier this season. "So I'm not going to take any chances," the Nats' manager said, "I took him out. And I'm going to probably give him tomorrow off. Hopefully he's going to be good to go on Monday. But, that's the same groin. Evidently he went down for a ball in the corner or something and kind of messed it up a little bit." Losing Werth for any length of time at this point would be a tough blow to a Nationals team struggling to stay relevant in the division and Wild Card races.
Over his last 29 games, the Nationals' right fielder is a somewhat ridiculous 38 for 97 (.392/.466/.639) with three doubles, seven home runs, 15 walks and 14 Ks in 116 PAs. Before leaving the game last night, Werth was 2 for 3 with a run scored on a slick sliding play at home on an Anthony Rendon sac fly and 5 for 7 in the series in Miller Park, leaving him with a .313/.382/.509 line on the year in his third season in D.C. after signing a 7-year/$126M contract with the Nationals in December of 2010.
Before the Nationals announced their lineup for the series finale in Milwaukee, however, Werth told reporters that he planned on playing in the third game of three with the Brewers:
No Nats lineup yet, but Jayson Werth says he'll try to play. Feeling good. But he also said, "A day can go a long way."
— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) August 4, 2013
When the Nationals announced today's lineup, Werth was penciled in batting fourth and playing right field in Miller Park:
Today's lineup at MIL: Span 8, Harper 7, Zimmerman 5, Werth 9, LaRoche 3, Desmond 6, Lombarozzi 4, Suzuki 2, Jordan 1
— Nationals PR (@NationalsPR) August 4, 2013