Banged-up Werth gets the day off for Nationals

ATLANTA -- Nationals manager Matt Williams gave Jayson Werth a day off on Friday as the outfielder deals with right ankle and right shoulder soreness. Steven Souza, the club's No. 5 prospect who was recently recalled from Triple-A Syracuse, started in right field, but Souza was injured after crashing into the outfield wall and exited the game in the third inning.

"He's pretty banged up," Williams said about Werth. "He's been dealing with the shoulder and the ankle. Long game yesterday, he's played a lot of games. He's feeling it today. He wants to play, but I don't know how good he'd be today anyway."

Williams said Werth would only require treatment and does not need any medical examinations for either the shoulder or the ankle. The skipper chalked up the veteran's ailments to the usual pains experienced during a long season.

"I think it's a combination of a lot of things," Williams said. "We'll get the guys to work on him. Hopefully, he'll be good to go for the next two and then we get another off-day [on Monday], so that will help him a lot."