Two days after making his return to Washington Nationals, leadoff hitter Denard Span is not in the lineup Thursday.
In his first game back Tuesday after missing nearly seven weeks because of back spasms, the 31-year old center fielder went 0-for-4 with a walk in the Nats' 8-3 win over the San Diego Padres. While skipper Matt Williams would obviously have preferred Span be a little more productive in his return, there was a silver lining.
"We would love for him to be on base five times of course," Williams said before yesterday's game, "but it was good to get him in there and not have him extend himself too much for the first day."
Wednesday was a different story, as Span went 2-for 5 in the Nats' 6-5 loss, including two hard-hit balls down the right-field line that he legged out for doubles. He also scored a run and was forced to make a hard-charging catch in shallow center field. Not surprisingly, Span is out of the lineup Thursday despite a history of success against San Diego starter Andrew Cashner (5-for-15 lifetime).
"His back was a little sore after a couple days," Williams said. "It's going to be that way until the end of the year. We've got to make sure we take care of that."
Michael Taylor will take Span's place in centerfield and bat eighth for the Nationals, who are just 27-37 without Span this season. Jayson Werth will bat leadoff.
Here are the complete staring lineups for both teams:
PADRES
Travis Jankowski, RF
Cory Spangenberg, 2B
Justin Upton, LF
Yonder Alonso, 1B
Melvin Upton Jr., CF
Alexi Amarista, SS
Andrew Cashner, RHP
NATIONALS
Jayson Werth, LF
Anthony Rendon, 2B
Bryce Harper, RF
Yunel Escobar, 3B
Ryan Zimmerman, 1B
Ian Desmond, SS
Wilson Ramos, C
Michael Taylor, CF
Joe Ross, RHP
