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Through six games on the Washington Nationals’ current road trip, Ryan Zimmerman is 11 for 25 (.440/.517/.880) with two doubles and four home runs. Zimmerman has hits in eight-straight games, (14 for 32; .438/.514/.781), and 11 of the last 12 (19 for 47, with a .404/.453/.638 line).
The current hot streak has the 32-year-old first baseman up to a .374/.421/.713 line on the year with 16 doubles and 16 home runs in 214 PAs. With his 16th home run of the season on Sunday, Zimmerman topped his home run total for 2016, when he 15 home runs in 115 games and 467 PAs.
Nationals’ skipper Dusty Baker was asked on Sunday if he was surprised by the 13-year veteran’s bounce-back campaign after Zimmerman struggled with injuries last season.
“No, I’m not surprised,” Baker said. “He was a premier player before — I don’t think people understand: This game is tough enough to play healthy, and then when you’re hurt, it’s doubly tough and then your mind plays tricks on you and you’re wondering about this or that, and if doubt or any kind of things sets in, then as a player you’re struggling.”
Zimmerman was healthy from the start this season, however, and Baker said he thinks that has made a big difference.
“He was healthy in Spring Training, we tried to give him quite a few ABs, the last Spring I had to monitor him with his foot, and so, I mean, boy, right now Zim is amongst the league leaders in almost everything, in every department.
“So, I’m just glad we’ve got Zim. I started not to play him today, you know what I mean... then we talked about it after the game and he said, ‘Hey, I can DH.’ It was almost like having a day off and he proved it and it came true.”
Zimmerman is back playing first base tonight in LA, where the Nationals start a three-game set with the Dodgers.
HERE’S THE NATS’ LINEUP FOR TONIGHT’S SERIES OPENER IN LA:
#Nats at #Dodgers 1 of 3: Turner SS, Raburn LF, Harper RF, Zimmerman 1B, Murphy 2B, Rendon 3B, Wieters C, Taylor CF, Gonzalez P
— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) June 5, 2017
[ed. note - “You’ll notice that Ryan Raburn’s name is in the lineup. He was called up today after the Nationals placed Jayson Werth on the 10-Day DL with a left foot contusion.”]