Martinez tries Rendon in cleanup spot, Zimmerman in fifth spot

Nobody in the National League owns a better on-base percentage right now than Bryce Harper, whose .553 mark has put him in position to score a ton of runs through the season's first 11 games.

Nobody in the NL owns a worse OPS right now, though, than Ryan Zimmerman, whose .370 mark has contributed mightily to a bunch of wasted scoring opportunities for the Nationals ... not to mention even more reason for opposing teams to pitch around the guy hitting in front of him: Harper.

So with that in mind, manager Davey Martinez decided to shake things up for tonight's game against the Braves. Anthony Rendon was bumped down to the cleanup spot to provide more protection for Harper, with Zimmerman moving down to the No. 5 spot.

That also means Trea Turner is being moved up to the No. 2 position, where he was supposed to pair up with Adam Eaton and form a potent 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup. Eaton, though, was a late scratch due to what the Nationals called a left ankle bone bruise, so now it'll be Brian Goodwin leading off and playing left field in Eaton's stead.

Regardless, Martinez hopes the switch in the cleanup position makes a positive difference.

"Give Zim a little breather, back him one (spot)," the manager said. "He's going to get opportunities with all those guys to drive in runs. I made sure I talked to Zim before I did it, and he was OK with it. I just want to see what it looks like."

Zimmerman enters the today sporting a microscopic .097 batting average, going 3-for-31 with one homer and three RBIs. More telling is the fact that 20 of those 31 at-bats have come with runners on base, 13 of those with runners in scoring position.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Harper has drawn walks in five of his last seven plate appearances, with opponents doing everything they can to avoid the man who leads the league not only in on-base percentage but also homers (six) and OPS (1.519).

Martinez has seen this phenomenon firsthand before, from the Cubs bench two years ago when Joe Maddon walked Harper 13 times in a four-game series in order to pitch to Zimmerman, who was struggling through the worst season of his career.

The approach changed last year when Zimmerman got off to a red-hot start, won NL Player of the Month honors in April and wound up hitting .303 with 36 homers and 108 RBIs and held down the cleanup position all season long.

"Zim's a good hitter," Martinez said. "You can't take away what he did last year. And he's hit some balls hard this year. He just hasn't had (anything) to show for it yet. But we'll see. We'll see what happens tonight."

Martinez hasn't been afraid to try some new things early on in his managerial career. He has had the speedy Turner batting fifth or sixth most nights, and he has had his pitcher bat eighth on two occasions so far.

He'll remain open to new looks until he finds a combination that works.

"I'm very open, as you know," he said. "We're going to try a few different things and see what works. Our lineup, with the guys we have in our lineup, they can do a multitude of things. And I like the flexibility."