Ryan Zimmerman's return to the Washington Nationals' lineup after missing over two months with an abdominal injury is a huge boost to the team. Zimmerman is easily the Nationals' best hitter, and hitting has been the Nationals' weakness all season. Now, it becomes much less of a weakness.
Overall, the Nationals hung in there despite their offensive struggles, posting a 27-31 record with Zimmerman sidelined and finishing up with a winning record on a multi-city road trip for the first time since 2008. But offensively, they were awful, as Ben Goessling of MASNSports.com.
Ryan Zimmerman will be back at third base for the Nationals tonight, having recovered from abdominal surgery and returned to a team that managed to go 27-31 without him despite posting a putrid .662 OPS and scoring an average of 3.7 runs per game.
It remains to be seen just how much the Nationals are aided by Zimmerman's return. One man cannot solve all their hitting woes, especially the ones they've had at the top of the lineup. Perhaps Jim Riggleman's experiment of putting Jayson Werth as the leadoff guy will pay more dividends with Zimmerman there too.
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