Dusty Baker on the Nationals' lineup: Ryan Zimmerman still hitting behind Bryce Harper

Dusty Baker said he thought hard and long about potential changes to the middle of the Washington Nationals' lineup after the Chicago Cubs walked Bryce Harper repeatedly this weekend (13 times total in four games, six times just on Sunday) and Ryan Zimmerman struggled to make them pay for their approach.

In the end, however he decided to keep things the way he's had them through the first month-plus.

"It's the same lineup that I had yesterday," Baker said this afternoon, "except [Jayson] Werth [is sitting] and Michael [A.] Taylor is in center and batting seventh and then [Wilson] Ramos is catching and batting sixth."

So no change to the middle of the order, after Zimmerman went 2 for 19 in the Cubs' sweep of the four-game set in Wrigley Field with a staggering fourteen men left on base in the series finale on Sunday?

"I think you guys want me to switch it up, you know what I mean?" Baker said. "So not yet. If it continues... I thought about it hard and long...

"A few days doesn't merit you switching it up. I mean, if [Zimmerman] had gotten one hit in one of those times, you'd never even ask me this today. So, no not yet."

So for now, it won't be Daniel Murphy or another National behind Harper in the lineup. It's going to be Zimmerman for the time being.

Having Murphy (.444/.464/.630 vs LHPs in 2016) and Harper (.273/.385/.682 vs LHPs in 26 PAs this season), both left-handed hitters, back-to-back in the lineup presents problems, the manager explained.

"What happens if I switch it up against this team and then they have three left-handed relievers in the bullpen and they can bring in the two lefties to take care of my two guys that are hot in the fifth, seventh and ninth and only use three guys out of their bullpen?" Baker asked.

"So you have to consider how many they have on that side and what they have to combat my strategies against my strategies against their strategies.

"Some of the problems that we were presented in Chicago [were] the fact that they had like a right-hand hitter, followed by a left-hand hitter, followed by a switch hitter. It makes you decide whether you want to burn through your bullpen or do you let a left-hander face a right-hander or a right-hander face a left-handed hitter? So that's part of the strategy in making out a lineup."

Baker said there is also the psychological aspect to consider when making big changes, and he said Zimmerman's history was a factor as well.

"I've been where Zim has been before," Baker explained, "and unless you've been in Zim's shoes, then you really don't know what it's like psychologically, to feel that somebody still has faith in you versus a fair-weather manager or fair-weather fan. I'm not a fair-weather-type guy. I'm not a 'forever' guy either, but a couple days is not near as long as forever."

With Zimmerman scuffling though, would putting someone else behind Harper make opposing teams think twice about walking him like the Cubs did?

"Okay, give me a name?" Baker asked the reporter who wondered about a change.

Reporter: "Murphy."

Baker: "And give me another name?"

Reporter: "Ramos."

"Ramos is prone to hit into double plays too, right?" Baker asked. "So do I tear up my whole lineup for three days? I think people are panicking a little early here. Early to me. I'm sure it's been the subject of discussion.

"I've been at this a long time and everybody's got an opinion on my lineup or what my lineup should be, you know what I mean? In the meantime, I'll make out the lineup."

Baker has, he explained, been there before, when he was tasked with hitting behind Hank Aaron early in his own playing days.

So how did he handle it?

"Everybody is wondering about protection and I wasn't very much protection," Baker joked.

"But Hank told me, he said, 'Dusty, what you do is you just get a pack of singles and doubles and they will stop walking me.'"

"Stay out of double plays, cause that plays right into their hands and put the ball in play," he continued.

"Because you can take it personal if you want to. [Aaron] told me not to take it personal, No. 1, because if it you take it personal then you're going to be high anxiety or you're going to go through periods of stretching yourself out. And so, you get a good pitch to hit and you hit it hard and then after that it's out of your powers.

"Other than that what can you do? You can't guide the ball. If we could guide the ball we would have guided it four or five times and we would have scored a whole bunch of runs this weekend. So all you can do is -- and it's not that easy -- just get a good pitch to hit and hit it hard."

Walking the bases loaded by putting Harper on, as the Cubs did several times on Sunday, is a dangerous game, Baker said.

"Now, it's going to come back to bite them in the butt, sooner or later, because see, you've got too many ways you can score from third base with bases loaded. They just got away [with it]. You've got a hit batsmen, you've got a wild pitch, you've got a passed ball, you've got an error. There's a ton of ways you can score in that situation, so we'll see them again."

For now, the Nationals have to take care of the visiting Detroit Tigers. Here's Washington's lineup for the series opener in D.C.:

We're back in DC and lining up against the Tigers for a 7:05 start at #Nats Park. pic.twitter.com/7qYdtXNvc3

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) May 9, 2016