The Washington Nationals are battling to stay in the playoff race, and their injury situation is not making things any easier.
The Nationals are without key players up and down their roster. Starting pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Erick Fedde are both on the IL. Middle infielder Jordy Mercer is also on the IL, and Trea Turner missed his second consecutive game on Friday after jamming his finger while sliding during Wednesday’s game. The injury situation was severe enough that the team was pressed into starting career catcher Alex Avila at second base Thursday.
Things got even more dire Friday as the team’s hottest hitter, Kyle Schwarber, went down with a hamstring injury. Washington’s loss Friday left the injury-hit Nationals at 40-40, 2.5 games behind the New York Mets in the NL East.
The team’s situation was summed up by pitcher Max Scherzer, who admitted that calling the situation an “injury bug” was too conservative.
Max Scherzer said the Nationals don’t have an injury bug, they have an injury rat biting them during an important stretch.
— Jessica Camerato (@JessicaCamerato) July 3, 2021
The Nationals are facing some key decisions this month. Every win and loss is magnified right now, and a slew of injuries only make those decisions tougher. Scherzer essentially nails the issue they’re facing, and it doesn’t appear likely to sort itself out quickly, either.
