Thursday, April 5, 2012

Morse, Ankiel begin rehab tonight

US Presswire photo
Michael Morse could return to the Nationals as soon as Tuesday in New York.
CHICAGO -- The Nationals may not be without their cleanup hitter very long at all.

Michael Morse, who is opening the season on the disabled list with a strained lat muscle, will begin a rehab assignment with Class AA Harrisburg this evening. If all goes well, the Nationals won't hesitate to activate him Tuesday as soon as he becomes eligible.

"It will be entirely up to how he's feeling, what he's able to do," manager Davey Johnson said. "But knowing Michael Morse, I'll probably get a phone call in about 3-4 days saying he's ready."

Morse is slated to start in left field tonight for Harrisburg at Bowie. He'll be joined in the lineup by Rick Ankiel, who will serve as the Senators' designated hitter.

Ankiel, on the DL with quadriceps tightness, will miss a bit more time than Morse. Because he wasn't officially added to the 40-man roster until March 30, he won't be eligible to return until April 14.

Meanwhile, right-handers Drew Storen and Chien-Ming Wang have returned to Viera, Fla., to continue their rehab at the Nationals' extended spring training complex. Johnson said Wang (hamstring strain) should be ready to start throwing off a mound in the next 3-4 days. Storen should begin facing live batters in 7-10 days and then will go on a minor-league rehab assignment.

Both Storen and Wang are projected to return from the DL sometime in late-April.

10 comments:

sm13 said...

A bit slower timetable for Drew than I would have hoped. Maybe we'll see The Beast on April 12th, though.

Anonymous said...

I want him to be healthy, but I sure hope we see him on the 12th!

Pete said...

LaRoche sucks!

Dave said...

Yeah, that LaRoche. Any idiot could've dug out that short-hop bullet Desmond threw last inning. Nothing so great about that.

John C. said...

Not happy with LaRoche, but I'm not going to turn him in for struggling against Dempster. He's never been able to hit Dempster, whiffing an impressive 8 times in 16 at bats. Sometimes there's a guy you just can't hit, just like sometimes as a pitcher there's a guy you just can't get out.

1-0, nice to see a Curly W in the books on Day One!

Rabbit said...

At least the results for Werth were predictable. LaRoche did have a tough day. Once he struck out with runners on third a couple of times, with one out, you knew Werth wouldn't do anything.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, LaRoche and Werth's collars were much, much worse than Zimmerman's collar.

Anonymous said...

Please God give us the Beast back healthy very soon.

Joe Seamhead said...

A little rougher night for Michael Morse and Rick Ankiel.
Morse - 0-4 with 3 K's
Ankiel- 0-2 with 2 K's and a walk. He was the DH and was pulled late for a PH .

Anonymous said...

No surprise LaRoche didn't have a productive day at the plate. He is a notoriously slow starter so April and May aren't his cup of tea. Just keep flashing the leather and the 2nd half he'll erupt.

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