Nats likely need to make IL decision on Robles by Sunday

Victor Robles is out of the Nationals lineup for the third straight day with what has now officially been diagnosed as a sprained right ankle, and if his condition doesn't improve in the next 24 hours, the club may have no choice but to put its starting center fielder on the injured list.

Robles, who hurt himself in scary looking fashion rounding first base Wednesday night in Chicago, has shown some signs of improvement since, but not enough to allow him to play.

"As of right now, no," manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "He's getting a little better every day. If we can get him over that hump today, maybe we can miss that IL."

These next 24 hours will be critical. Robles, who underwent an MRI on Friday that revealed a sprain, will hope to improve enough to be able to play Sunday. If not, the Nationals could place him on the 10-day IL and still backdate it to Thursday, keeping his time off the roster to a minimum.

For now, the 24-year-old isn't participating in any baseball activities.

"He doesn't even come out for the game," Martinez said. "He stays in there and gets constant treatment, ice, contrast, all kinds of stuff. He looked a little better yesterday after the game as far as walking-wise and stuff. But it's still one of those things: If you sprain your ankle, you never know how long it's going to take."

The Nationals would like to avoid losing Robles for another week, among other reasons for the fact they don't currently have any other outfielders on their 40-man roster. And even if they were able to make some procedural transactions to open a spot for Gerardo Parra, the popular veteran doesn't play center field.

Andrew Stevenson has been in center field since Robles went down during Wednesday's game, but with left-hander Bruce Zimmermann starting for the Orioles today, Martinez decided to sit the left-handed Stevenson. That means Josh Harrison is making his first major league start in center field.

Harrison, 33, had appeared at least once at every position in the field besides center field and catcher during his 11-season career with the Pirates, Tigers and Nationals. He got some work in center field during spring training, and he did play there once in a minor league game in 2008, as a recent draft pick of the Cubs.

"He's a guy I know I can put him anywhere, and he works at it," Martinez said. "I'm very comfortable with him out there. We take the lead, we could maybe do something different. But against a lefty, I wanted to try to get Mercer again in the lineup, let (Harrison) play some center field. I think he'll be fine out there."