Cristian Guzman missed Saturday and Sunday’s games in Philadelphia with a bruised right thumb, but he was back in the lineup last night and appeared to be fine.
But the Nationals don’t want to take any chances with their shortstop, who is still bothered by the thumb injury a bit (especially when he hits from the right side of the plate).
SEE RELATED:
So Guzman is not in the lineup tonight against Randy Johnson, a move that would seem to make sense on two fronts. 1) The thumb is still bothering him to some degree, so why risk throwing him back out there? 2) Johnson is as difficult a lefty as there has ever been in baseball, so no need to risk further injury to Guzman hitting from his weaker side of the plate (though he is 1-for-3 against the Big Unit in his career).
Actually, there are only a handful of Nats with much experience against Johnson. Here’s the full list of active players and their career numbers against the Unit…
Josh Bard 0-for-5
Ronnie Belliard 5-for-23, 1 HR
Elijah Dukes 1-for-3
Adam Dunn 1-for-12
Alberto Gonzalez Never faced
Cristian Guzman 1-for-3
Willie Harris Never faced
Anderson Hernandez Never faced
Nick Johnson 1-for-5
Austin Kearns 2-for-5, HR
Wil Nieves 2-for-10
Josh Willingham 1-for-5, HR
Ryan Zimmerman 2-for-3, HR
