Washington Nationals Injury Update: Anthony Rendon sits Saturday after fouling pitch off toe

Washington’s Nationals, who are already without Daniel Murphy (still recovering from knee surgery) and Adam Eaton (on the DL with a bone bruise in his ankle), can ill-afford to lose a third key piece of their lineup, but in Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, they were without Anthony Rendon as well, after the 27-year-old third baseman fouled a pitch off his right foot in Friday night’s matchup in the nation’s capital.

“He fouled the ball off his big toe and he was real sore when he was running,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters after the Nationals’ third loss in a row in the second game of four with Colorado.

“So we had to take him out. Took X-rays, negative, we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

“He took a pretty good hit on that toe,” Martinez added. “I told him, ‘With all the hardware you’re wearing down there?’ 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.’”

“It just hit the toe, didn’t hit the foot, or the ankle, or the shin guard, it hit the toe,” Rendon explained when he spoke to reporters.

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He tried to stay in the game after hammering the pitch off his foot, but he and the coaching staff thought better of it.

“It just didn’t go away,” Rendon said, “and I was kind of like favoring it, I was kind of walking on the outside part of my heel, which is probably not the smartest idea, then I’ll just like tear a knee or something, so they thought it was the best idea to go get it checked out.”

While they kept the possibility of Rendon playing Saturday open, when he arrived at the Park, it was still an issue, so Martinez decided to give him a day off.

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“Today he’s sore. He took a pretty good blow to the big toe, so we’ll see how he feels here in a little while, I mean I know he’s getting treatment, and we’ll see how it goes throughout the day,” Martinez said before the third of four with Colorado.

Through 14 games, the 2011 1st Round pick was 16 for 56 (.286/.355/.411) with four doubles and a home run, six walks, and eighth Ks in 62 plate appearances after Friday’s game.

Matt Reynolds got the start at third in Saturday’s game, but the Nationals don’t have a legit option at third should Rendon miss significant time. Learning that the X-rays were negative was at least something of a positive for Rendon.

“It definitely makes you feel better it’s not broken,” he said. “I think no broken bone is better than a broken bone, but yeah, no, it definitely hurts, but we’ll just play it by ear and see how it feels tomorrow or the next day, whatever, so we really don’t know.”