Zimmerman feels ‘better every day’

The ball Ryan Zimmerman hit in the sixth inning of Sunday’s 10-4 win over the Marlins flflew high and deep, offff the offiffices a few yards behind the right fifield fence at Roger Dean Stadium.

As it sailed upward into the afternoon sky, the ball seemed to carry promise, a sign that the man who hit it might just rediscover himself after all. As it fell, some 400 feet from where Zimmerman struck it, reality seemed to combine with gravity to orchestrate the plunge. March home runs — even majestic, opposite- fifield shots — are not always trustworthy prognosticators.

No one dismisses spring training happenings more than Zimmerman, who believes the whole thing is too long and its results insignifificant. He admitted it’s better to hit well than not, better to go 3 for 3 than 0 for 17, which is how he started this spring, but ...

“The most important part for me is the body,” Zimmerman said. “This year has been longer; the travel has been easier to play consecutive days to the point where I’m almost already done with the soreness, the getting ready to play every day.”

In other words, hits are great, but Zimmerman wants to stay healthy. If he is healthy, Zimmerman has always said, he will get enough at-bats to fifind his rhythm. If he fifinds his rhythm, he can be the .270, 25-homer hitter the Nationals got used to for his fifirst half decade in the league. He has not found his rhythm the last three years, which is why every day like Sunday — when Zimmerman looks like the streakybut-steady middle- of-the-order producer he used to be — feels more important than it otherwise might.

Manager Dusty Baker said Zimmerman told him he is feeling “better every day,” not healthwise, but in the box, where Baker says feel assumes a great deal of importance. Baker said he could tell Zimmerman was comfortable Sunday, particularly because of the way he hit that ball to right.

“That’s a great sign that he’s staying behind the ball and timing it,” Baker said. “Yeah, come on, Zim. ’Cause we’re counting on him.”

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