Washington Nationals’ lineup for 3rd of 4 with Colorado Rockies: Anthony Rendon out of lineup this afternoon...

The hits keep coming. Not the, uh, actual hits, those are not coming right now, but the hits in terms of injuries. Anthony Rendon was the latest Washington Nationals’ player to get bit last night. Rendon fouled a pitch off his right foot late in the second game of four with the Colorado Rockies on Friday night, and he left the lineup a few innings later.

After the Nationals’ eighth loss in the last ten games, Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez talked to reporters about the latest injury issue for the team, which is already without Adam Eaton in the lineup after the left fielder suffered a bone bruise in his left ankle in the home opener in D.C. last week.

As for Rendon? “He’s got a sore toe,” Martinez said, stating the obvious.

“He fouled the ball off his big toe and he was real sore when he was running, so we had to take him out. Took X-rays, negative, we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

Missing Rendon for any length of time, if it comes to that, would be a big blow, considering how big a role the Nationals’ 27-year-old third baseman plays in their plans.

“Big part, big part,” Martinez said. “I’m just really happy that we got good news that nothing was broken. So, he took a pretty good hit on that toe, I told him, ‘With all the hardware you’re wearing down there?’ [and] he said, ‘Yeah, it missed everything.’

“But he’s in good spirits, and I asked him if he wanted a day off and he said, ‘We’ll see how I feel in the morning.’”

Though the Nationals are, as a team, struggling to score runs, Martinez said he talked with and listened to them after the last night’s loss and came away with the impression they are eager and determined to turn things around.

“I was just in the clubhouse after the game and the boys are fired up, and they’re talking about, ‘Hey, we’re going to grind and we’re going to grind and we’re going to come back and we’re going to start winning a bunch of games,’ and I like that,” he said.

Will they start to turn things around today? If they do, they’ll have to do it without Rendon, who’s sitting this one out. No word yet if he’s available off the bench, but Martinez meets with reporters at 11:00 and will probably be asked for a status update on the third baseman.

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE 3RD OF 4 WITH THE ROCKIES: