Baker: Taylor just needs to "remain confident and work"

Michael A. Taylor is getting a day off on Saturday, with Chris Heisey leading off and playing center field for the Nationals.

Taylor is hitting .174 (4-for-23) the last seven days and .161 for the season. Leading off, he is hitting .175 through 13 games.

Manager Dusty Baker was asked why he put Heisey at the top of the order.

"You got any better choices? He's batted leadoff for me before," Baker said. "He's my best choice today."

Baker is just giving Taylor the day off and he's not considering an overhaul of the top of the order with Ben Revere still out with a strained right oblique.

"I'd be more willing to switch things up if we weren't winning," Baker said. "Michael's important to us, but winning is more important and continuity is more important. Michael worked this morning, big time. He's been working.

"That just goes to show you sometimes spring training doesn't translate to how you do during the season early. But that does translate is how we feel that. Michael has the ability to return to that form. If you've never done well before, that's something else, but he has played well for us."

Baker said not every player is going to get going at the same time. Daniel Murphy hit .260 in spring training and is hitting .411 now. Jayson Werth was hitting .244 in March and struggled out of the gate this season, but has hit .286 with one double and two homers in the last week.

"Just like Jayson Werth, he gets off to a slow start," Baker said. "Where, on the other hand, Murph, what did he hit this spring? I don't think he hit nearly as well as he's hitting now.

"It's a long year. If everybody's swinging, then we are going to beat everybody 15-nothing if everybody is swinging at the same time. That doesn't happen too often."

Baker spoke with Taylor after an at-bat Friday night when the center fielder returned to the dugout.

"The main thing is Michael has to remain confident and work and relax and try to take as much tension out of himself as possible, which is very difficult to do when you're not doing as well as you'd like to do," Baker said Saturday.

Baker talked about how well Taylor was hitting the fastball in spring training. So is it the breaking pitches now that are causing him trouble?

"Not necessarily breaking balls," Baker corrected. "Breaking balls are a big part of it, but then sometimes they get you so breaking-ball conscience, you are not hitting what you normally hit: the fastball. It's a period of adjustment. Plus, teams have an idea how to pitch him."

Baker said now the coaching staff must go over how teams are trying to get Taylor out and how to change that.

"I see what they're trying to do to him," Baker said. "But sometimes it's more difficult for you to see what they're doing to you than for somebody else to see it. I can almost call every pitch over there, but I've been around for 100 years, so I know patterns and different things. We are just trying to convey that to him without him overthinking, and him trying to remain as natural as possible and what God gave him all that ability."

What was funny was the question Baker got more of in spring training: How they were going to find at-bats for Taylor because the lineup looked so set heading into opening day with Revere at the top?

"It's a shame that he did get off to a slow start, especially the fact that everybody was wondering how much he was going to play and when he was going to play," Baker said. "Ben will be back we hope soon. Leadoff wasn't the ideal situation where I wanted to put him in, but that was the best for the team right now. But after you bat leadoff one time in the game, the order doesn't really matter too much."