LaRoche on his ailing quad, serving as DH for series opener at A's

Adam LaRoche has been hampered by a strained quad for a couple of weeks now, and the latest indication that it isn't better yet came Friday when the Nationals started their sure-handed first baseman as the designated hitter in Oakland. LaRoche said he sees it trending in the right direction, but he's not surprised it has stuck around this long. "If it wasn't (getting better), I'd probably try something different and it's day-to-day. Some days, I'll move a lot more on it and it's way more sore after those games," LaRoche said. "It doesn't surprise me because I keep playing on it. ... So I do feel it defensively, little stuff where you wouldn't be able to tell really. Just initial move stuff or coming out of the box, first move after contact, first step out of the box, little stuff I feel it. So no it doesn't surprise me that it's lingering and it will probably be around a little longer." LaRoche said serving as the Nats' DH could turn out to be a good thing for him, especially because of the weather in Oakland. "It's a little cooler here. It may be the best thing to be able to come up here and keep a hot pack on it, get on the bike and keep it moving in between at-bats," LaRoche said. "It could actually be good and it's cool outside." Manager Matt Williams also weighed in on the decision to put LaRoche at DH with Kevin Frandsen at first base. Frandsen made 35 starts at first for the Phillies last season. "We had a conversation about it today when (LaRoche) got here, prior to posting the lineup," Williams said. "And we've made arrangements, so we've got somebody up there working on him the whole game and he can ride a bike and stay hot and do all that. It's hard in cool weather if you have to sit out here on the bench, and if you don't have that opportunity, it's a different story. But you've got all those things available to him tonight, so I'd like to take as much stress off him as possible. So that's why we decided to DH him tonight." Williams doesn't anticipate keeping LaRoche off first for the whole series. "I'm assuming that tomorrow he'll play first and we may potentially look at (DH) again with the lefty on Sunday," Williams said. "But given the lefty, we can get Franny over there and stack right-handed the lineup if we wanted to do that. It depends on how things go. But tonight, anyway, he's there. I wouldn't expect him to be the DH tomorrow. Don't know if it may be Wilson (Ramos), it may be Jayson (Werth), it may be a number of other guys tomorrow as well. So tonight's one, maybe Sunday again." It surprised some that the Nats optioned infielder/outfielder Tyler Moore to Triple-A Syracuse Wednesday to make room for Fister on the 25-man roster with LaRoche's quad still an issue. But Williams has more concerns than LaRoche. "We have a couple of things to look at. One is Wilson and we decided to keep three catchers because we have to make sure that he's good and (Frandsen's) got lots of experience playing first base," Williams said. "With Scott (Hairston) back in left field, it doesn't really bode well for Tyler's at-bats. So we felt that was the appropriate move. And besides, he needs at-bats. When he comes back, we want him to have a lot of them and be hot. So that's the reason for it."