Pair of back injuries complicate things for Baker, Nats

The sight of Joe Ross standing in the batter's box as the Nationals' last hope in the 11th inning signified that something was wrong with Ryan Zimmerman. But it turns out that the balky back that prevented Zimmerman from playing in Saturday's 6-3 11-inning loss to the Rangers wasn't the only back problems the Nats are dealing with.

Closer Koda Glover, who was unable to hold a 3-1 lead in the ninth inning, tweaked his back while showering before Saturday's game, tried to gut through the injury and said afterward he regretted doing so. Zimmerman said he thinks his back will be fine in a couple of days and that he doesn't consider the problem major; manager Dusty Baker isn't sure how Glover's latest injury will pan out, a potentially crippling blow to a struggling bullpen that finally seemed to be finding its rhythm.

Robinson Chirinos' three-run homer off Shawn Kelley in the 11th was the margin of victory, and ensured that the Nats would have an uncomfortable evening. Imagine donning black-tie optional attire for the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation Dream Gala and having to interact in a social setting after a crushing defeat. Let's just say Baker has some things to think about while munching hors devours and posing for photographs.

Chief among them is whether Glover is healthy enough to continue as his closer after blowing his second save in 10 tries and seeing his ERA rise to 5.12. Six different Nationals have recorded saves this season, and as much as Baker says he can only find out if the rookie can handle the gig by running him out there and letting him both succeed and fail, his penchant for trying to pitch through injuries his manager and athletic trainers aren't aware of is more than troubling.

"With some issues I've had lately, I kinda pushed myself," Glover said. "I didn't want to take a day off - I've had three days off already - so I pushed the limits today, tried to pitch through it and it's one of them things where it was out of my control and I should have said something early. I didn't and now my back's in pretty bad shape."

Baker isn't sure whether Glover will be available Sunday for the series finale or whether he'll have to go on the disabled list. Last season, Glover got beat around at the end of the year before he admitted that a hip problem, later diagnosed as a torn labrum, forced him to the shelf and into rehab for much of the winter. Glover also spent time on the DL earlier this season with a left hip issue.

Glover isn't sure what his next step will be, but it's not like the Nats have the arms to carry him through a couple of days of treatment. A stint on the disabled list could be a possibility. His career is barely a year old and Glover is already developing a reputation as a guy who can't stay healthy.

"That's what I'm frustrated with," he said. "I'm tired of being hurt. Never been hurt before until last year and ever since then it just seems like something new keeps popping up every day. So it's one of them things where I cant control it, I just got to put my head down and keep going."

Baker isn't sure what's wrong, but he knows the results haven't been pretty when Glover isn't able to reach back and cut loose.

"Well, he's getting the ball up," Baker said. "And afterwards, he admitted that he should've told me, or us, before the game. He said his back was really locked up. We didn't know it. So I don't know. He's frustrated. We're frustrated. Because we can't keep him healthy and 100 percent right now, and we don't know why."

Zimmerman knows why his back is sore: He dove for a ball Tuesday in Los Angeles and it hasn't felt right since. He played Wednesday and the long cross-country flight probably didn't help him heal, though he was fit enough to play Friday night. He's getting treatment and said taking a day off Saturday was more of a precautionary move than anything. He's likely unavailable for Sunday's series finale.

"Just one of those things where knowing what I've known in the past," Zimmerman said. "If you continue to play and it gets worse, then something bad happens. But if you give it a day or two, then you can kind of just stop it right there. And that's sort of the plan since it's June and we have the ability to do that. We'll see how it feels in the morning, kinda go from there as far as tomorrow. But even if I don't play tomorrow, I can't see me not playing on Monday."

With Zimmerman unavailable, Baker was down to pitchers to pinch-hit for Kelley in the 11th. Ross struck out swinging as Keone Kela struck out the finishing touches on a sterling two-inning relief stint, striking out the final four batters he faced.

The Nationals had an opportunity to walk off the Rangers in the ninth, but muffed a safety squeeze that could have delivered pinch-runner Wilmer Difo from third base with the game-winner. Pinch-hitter Stephen Drew led off with a double off the wall in right-center and with two down, Trea Turner tried to surprise the Rangers with a bunt when he saw third baseman Pete Kozma playing deep. Trouble was, Difo was also caught off-guard by the play, which wasn't called from the bench.

Turner pushed a nice bunt to the third base side of the mound, where lefty reliever Alex Claudio stepped from his follow-through to grab the ball. Difo took a couple of steps down the line, then froze and was dead meat in a rundown. Had Turner bunted to the other side of the mound, Claudio couldn't have gotten to the ball quickly enough; had Difo took off immediately and kept going, he'd have scored easily and sent the crowd of 32,157 home happy.

"The bunt surprised me a little bit," Difo said through translator Octavio Martinez. "It was a great bunt. Basically took me off-guard, surprised me. ... I should have scored on that play. But I was surprised and it was my fault. It was a good bunt."

Baker agreed: "Well, that's a tough read. But if you're going to go, you got to go, especially against a left-hander. He's got to turn and throw. Might hit you, might throw wild. And you really don't accomplish anything by stopping. Like I said, if you're going to go, you got to go."

The botched play loomed large on a day when the Nationals got a lot of contributions that could have added up to a victory. Gio Gonzalez threw six innings of four-hit ball, allowing only a run and striking out nine. Adam Lind, who replaced Zimmerman in the lineup, capped a three-run sixth inning with a two-run homer and is now slashing .333/.395/.613 with five homers and 23 RBIs in 36 games. Matt Albers threw two more scoreless innings of relief, turning the game over to Glover. And in the midst of the Rangers' game-tying rally in the ninth, right fielder Bryce Harper made a laser throw to nab pinch-runner Kozma at the plate. Kozma was initially ruled safe by home plate umpire Kerwin Danley, but Baker challenged the call and it was reversed into a double play upon a replay review.

But there were missteps, too. Like in the sixth inning, when the Nats loaded the bases on consecutive singles by Lind, Michael A. Taylor and Ryan Raburn. Instead of obliterating a 1-0 deficit, they left the sacks full.

"Yeah, that hurts," Baker said. "You got the bases loaded. You got a chance to break the game open and you don't get anything. But you know you got the eighth and ninth hitter up and we had the wrong guys up."

And then there's the continued ineffectiveness of Kelley, a guy who was contending to be the team's closer in spring training and whose 7.47 ERA is now the highest among the relief corps. Baker is running out of ideas on how to fix Kelley, who has been anything but reliable this year, surrendering eight homers in 15 2/3 innings.

"If I knew, I would've stopped it a long time ago," Baker said. "So like I said, we just got to go back to the drawing board on the whole thing. That was a shame because lost in the defeat was the job that Gio did. He did an outstanding job."