Back from latest injury, Zimmerman tries to hit reset button

ATLANTA - Ryan Zimmerman has returned from injuries before. Too many times in recent years for his tastes. He has always done so hoping to pick up where he left off before he landed on the disabled list.

This time, manager Dusty Baker wants the veteran first baseman to think differently about his return. He doesn't want him to pick up where he left off. He wants him to hit the reset button.

"I encouraged him to start his season all over," Baker said. "Forget whatever has transpired in the past."

Given how the past has gone for Zimmerman, it's probably sound advice. The 31-year-old returns from a left wrist contusion sporting a career-worst .222 batting average and .678 OPS, 12 homers and 38 RBIs in only 80 games played. He also has made two trips to the DL, having earlier missed time with a ribcage strain.

The notion of starting all over in late August may not sound simple, but for Zimmerman this season has become nothing about personal stats and all about team performance.

"I don't think the numbers I have are what you want them to be, but honestly the most important thing is just winning," he said. "From here on out, I just want to do whatever I can to help the team win. I know that sounds kind of clichéd and boring, but honestly the goal this year is to take care of business here in the regular season, keep playing like we've been playing and then get into the tournament and see what we can do.

"So in that sense, I think it's easy for me to not think about what's happened earlier and just come back focused to helping these guys. They've been playing great, consistent baseball all year. I want to come back and hopefully help them get even better."

Zimmerman returns in an unfamiliar position, batting seventh in the Nationals lineup. It's only the fifth time he has hit that low in 1,340 career games started in the majors.

Given how well others (most notably Wilson Ramos and Anthony Rendon) have hit lately, Baker couldn't justify batting Zimmerman any higher at this point. But the manager also doesn't look at the 7-spot as a demotion for a veteran hitter.

"I batted seventh," Baker said. "That's the foundation man in your lineup, to me. You're going to get a lot of opportunities with two outs. You're going to be a leadoff man quite a bit. When he's a leadoff man, he can roll the lineup over by getting on base. Then you get to the top of the lineup again. That's where Ramos was early in the year, which was part of our success, with him batting seventh.

As agonizing as this season has been for him personally, Zimmerman has been comforted throughout his DL stints with the Nationals' overall performance.

"Winning makes everything better," he said. "Nobody wants to be hurt. Nobody wants to miss time. But to see them win and have the year we've had so far, you always want it to be like that. You never want it to be the other way."