Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner leaves game with hamstring injury; day-to-day

It was a bad night for the Washington Nationals before Jeremy Guthrie struggled in his return to the majors, giving up six hits, four walks and 10 earned runs on 47 pitches in just ²⁄₃ of an inning in Citizens Bank Park.

Even before the Nationals fell behind 12-0 in the bottom of the first, they had an injury scare with Trea Turner leaving the game after singling, stealing second and taking third on a Daniel Murphy single.

Turner seemed to linger before standing up at second after his third stolen base of the season, and he came to an abrupt stop around third on Murphy’s hit before consulting with third base coach Bob Henley briefly and leaving the game.

As per rarely-broken team policy, the Nationals declined to offer any injury updates in-game, so fans and reporters alike had to wait until Dusty Baker’s post-game presser for info on Turner and from what the Nats’ skipper said, it’s a best-case scenario as far as injuries go for the 23-year-old speedster, who pulled his right-hamstring at some point in the first.

“It will probably be a couple days,” Baker said. “I don’t think he pulled it too badly, but you know something is wrong when he didn’t score on that ball. The game started off on a bad note. We lost Trea in the first inning and then we couldn’t get out of the first inning, pitching-wise.”

“It was a hamstring,” Baker reiterated when asked to clarify what the issue was, “but they said there’s no defect in the muscle.

“But it was tight, and it was cold, so hopefully we’ll have him back in a couple days.”

Turner’s hit in the first was just his third in 19 at bats this season, and the stolen base on which he apparently suffered the hamstring injury was his third as well.

Wilmer Difo and Stephen Drew can fill in at short while he’s out of the lineup, but the Nationals have to hope that the injury is as minor as it seems to be.