The latest on Harper's injury and the domino effect it has

The Nationals hoped Bryce Harper would be back in the lineup by now, not forced to sit out three straight games with a stiff neck. But with the slumping slugger still less than 100 percent healthy, and with another day off for the club following today's series finale with the Indians, there didn't appear to be much reason to push Harper back into action quite yet.

"We have an off-day tomorrow, which is a blessing, so why should we risk going backwards today if we've got tomorrow off and we play a night game the next day?" manager Dusty Baker said. "It's almost like 1 1/2 days off."

Harper did take some swings pregame, but for now the Nationals' plan is to try to get him ready for this weekend's series against the Braves, hoping five consecutive days without appearing in a game will do the trick for an injury that had been bothering him for a couple of days before he stopped playing.

"He's tried to do some baseball activity," Baker said. "We just have to see his conditioning and where he is."

Baker today described Harper's ailment as "a spasm" for the first time, but the manager doesn't want anyone to read too much into the details of his daily updates.

"They've tried to alleviate it, and it hasn't worked yet," the manager said. "So we just do what we have to do. Don't assume that it's worse than what I've told you, because it's not. Not that I know of."

Harper has been mired in a prolonged slump all summer, and there is some thought these days off could help him hit a mental reset button of sorts and allow him to rediscover his lost form once he returns.

"If anything, you've had a break to watch and regroup sometimes," Baker said. "It can help you. The fact is that if he only had 40 at-bats, it'd be a big deal. He has 300-something at-bats. The more at-bats you have, the longer it takes to get out of shape and lose your stroke. And it's not like he had his stroke in the first place."

Harper, currently sporting a .233 batting average and .812 OPS, may not be contributing much right now, but the Nationals are having trouble getting adequate production from his backups and from others forced into more substantial roles given other regulars' injuries or struggles.

Chris Heisey, who started in right field the last two games, is 0-for-7 on the Nationals' current homestand. Rookie Brian Goodwin will start his first career game this afternoon.

Injuries to Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Drew and Jose Lobaton also have had a domino effect on the Nationals, who have scored three total runs the last three games.

"Sometimes if your bench plays too much, they can get kind of overexposed, too," Baker said. "And then your guys that are being called up are guys that don't have much big-league time and (are) asked to do the toughest job that there is. ... It's sort of good that these things have happened now, if you use the bright side of things versus happening in September. Hopefully we get them out of the way between now and then."