Ryan Zimmerman out, is day-to-day with left oblique soreness

Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman is not in the lineup for tonight's Game 2 of the three-game set against the Mets with left oblique soreness, according to manager Matt Williams.

"He took a swing yesterday and hurt himself on the left side," Williams reported. "He's got some oblique soreness, trying to calm that down as much as we can today. Right now he's day-to-day. He's not in there tonight. We'll try to see if we can get him available late for pinch-hit opportunity tonight, but its pretty sore today."

Zimmerman has been back in the lineup for a few weeks after recovering from plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Could this injury be related to overcompensating for lingering soreness in his foot?

"Could be, nobody really knows," Williams said. "We hope he's good. We'll just try to calm it down as much as possible and get him ready."

An injured oblique in a hitter is always a dicey prospect. If it is severe, you can be out for a few weeks all the way to a month or more.

"It's different side-to-side," Williams said. "Right side's a lot different than left side depending on what side you hit from. It's a tough one. Certainly he's been as hot as anybody, playing really well, helping us win games and its unfortunate that something like that would happen. We hope that it's just a tweak and he'll be ready to go hopefully tomorrow. But right now we don't know that, so we'll try to calm it down as much as possible."

Zimmerman felt it during a swing yesterday prior to the first game of the series, but tried to see if warming up would be able to loosen up his side.

"(He) played through," Williams said of the pain Zimmerman was feeling Monday. "The tell is always the next day and how you wake up and you've got adrenaline, you're hot physically. You've got blood pumping, and once you cool down and calm down, then if it doesn't feel good, the next day you know you've done a little more than you thought you've done. We'll see how he is."

Clint Robinson replaces Zimmerman at first base and will bat fifth in tonight's lineup against Matt Harvey.