As he was rounding first base Wednesday afternoon, his fifth home run in the last 13 games sailing over the right field wall, Morse felt his left hamstring tighten slightly. He finished his home run trot — and the subsequent curtain call — but Corey Brown then replaced him in left field.
Nationals manager Davey Johnson said he believed the issue to be minor, though, and Morse agreed, tweeting out that it was “nothing serious.”
“The only little negative coming out of the game was Morse’s (hamstring issue),” Johnson said. “it was either a spasm in his hammy on the home run, or, hopefully it was just a spasm not any kind of slight pull.
“He was in on the (training) table when I was coming out of the X-ray room, getting all the electrodes on there stimulating. Hopefully it was just a spasm. Might be a first if somebody pulled a hamstring on a home run.”
If it is anything more serious it’d be a serious blow for the Nationals as they get set to open the first playoff series in team history on Sunday.
Morse, who missed the season’s first two months with a torn right lat muscle, finally began to find a groove lately, especially with the power stroke that had been eluding him off-and-on during much of the season’s second half as he dealt with problems in both of his hands and wrists.
But with a late-season push, and after getting some time to rest his ailing arms (including a bone bruise and a torn sheath in his left wrist), Morse has turned it on of late. In the last 13 games, Morse has hit .333 and was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a home run in Wednesday’s finale.
Even if Morse is a little more banged up than the Nationals are letting on, he’ll now have four almost full days to rest before they play another game.
