Zimmerman trying to improve throwing

Around 3:00 p.m. ET, on Friday, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman was seen working hard with third baseman Ryan Zimmerman on his throwing motion.

Zimmerman was seen throwing the baseball overhand instead of his usual sidearm delivery, which has caused him to make costly errors. The session lasted about 15 minutes.  

“We want to maximize everything Ryan can do,” Riggleman said. “His range is probably better than anybody I’ve ever seen over at third base. … He goes and gets so many balls to his left and by the mound, but somewhere in there, he lost his feel for his arm slot on the basic play.

“The ball is not coming out of his hand as good as he knows it can and we know it can. We talked about it. We are going to get back to the basics, get his arm up and let it fly.”

Thursday was an example of how things have been going for Zimmerman with the glove. Leading off the top of the third inning, Cubs catcher Koyie Hill hit a routine ground ball to  Zimmerman, who threw away the ball for a two-base error. Zimmerman threw the ball sidearm, but had problems gripping the ball.

“I want to stop [making errors] because it’s hurting the team. I don’t like the way it happens,” Zimmerman said.