DeRosa started feeling the pain Saturday while he was doing his outfield drills. DeRosa, 37, didn’t think anything of it, but the injury became worse after he took batting practice.

Reliever Brad Lidge had hernia surgery Tuesday and is expected to miss four to six weeks of action. Lidge started to feel pain while having a bullpen session Wednesday in San Diego. On Monday, Lidge went to Philadelphia to get further tests.

With Lidge out of action, it means that right-hander Henry Rodriguez will be the closer. Lidge and Rodriguez were splitting the role before Lidge was put on the disabled list.

Dodgers
Gordon, ss
Gwynn-lf
Kemp-cf
Ethier-rf
Hairston-2b
Loney-1b
Uribe-3b
AJ Ellis-c
Billingsley-p

Carroll was used mainly as a pinch-runner, but was hitless in two at-bats.

In the other news, right-hander Chien Ming Wang, on the disabled list because of a left hamstring injury, had his first rehab assignment in extended Spring Training against the Tigers on Monday. He pitched three innings and allowed one run on five hits. He threw 51 pitches, 37 strikes.

Storen was went to Birmingham, Ala., to see Dr. James Andrews to get further examination on the elbow. Manager Davey Johnson wasn’t optimistic about when the team would see Storen on the mound again. The skipper even hinted that that Storen may have a bone ship in the elbow.

“He threw the ball pretty good, warmed up pretty good,” Johnson said. “At the end of the end of the day, he felt a little tenderness in his elbow. So we are going to send him over to Andrews and have him re-examined and see what is causing it. … Hopefully, it’s nothing serious, but it doesn’t sound good to me.”

Prior to Sunday, the last time Storen pitched in a game was in early March. At the time, the team announced that he had “typical arm soreness.” By the end of Spring Training, the team announced that he had inflammation in the elbow and was going on the disabled list, but would be back by the middle of April.

With Storen out of the picture for a while, Henry Rodriguez and Brad Lidge will split the closer’s role.

“With the addition of Brad Lidge, we have even more depth,” Johnson said. “But any time you lose someone like Storen, who saved 43 games, that is a big concern of mine.”

Rendon hurt the ankle in the fourth inning. After a hitting a double, Rendon was trying to score on a bloop single to center by Justin Bloxom. Rendon went down with the ankle injury after rounding third base.

Rendon is a player who has a history of injuries — he’s had shoulder and ankle problems in the past. But that didn’t stop the Nationals from making him their top pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft.

In 63 games that year, Rendon hit .327 with six home runs, 27 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .520 for Rice University.

Thus far, Rendon has played in two games for Potomac and is 2-for-4 with a run scored.

It came two days after LaRoche went hitless in three at-bats – three strikeouts – and left five runners on base in a 2-1 victory. After that game, LaRoche saw his son, Drake, who became his dad’s harshest critic.

“My son comes up to me and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘You are exactly right. I have no idea.’ So it was nice to come out and just see the ball better today — better pitch selection. I wasn’t chasing the pitches that I was [two days ago]. Another great win. Man, another great win.”

The game on Saturday also showed that LaRoche has recovered from his left shoulder injury, which forced him to miss most of last season. The home run he hit against Cubs right-hander Matt Garza was his first since April 24 of last year.

“[Last year], I had a lot of pitches — even when I was feeling good last year – that should have killed. I would foul them back out to left or not being able to get the bat head to it. I feel a lot better.”

LaRoche went 0–for-3 with three strikeouts and left five runners on base. The Nationals had Cubs right-hander Ryan Demspter on the ropes at different points in the game but couldn’t take advantage of the situation. In the first inning, the Nationals had runners on second and third with one out, but LaRoche struck out and Jayson Werth flied out to right field to end the threat.

Two innings later, the Nationals had the bases loaded with one out against Dempster, but LaRoche struck out and Werth flied out to right field to end the threat.

“That was a frustrating start individually. I don’t know if it was so long that I was too amped up or what,” said LaRoche, who missed most of Spring Training because of a foot injury.

In the eighth inning against Kerry Wood, however, LaRoche drew a walk to load the bases. Werth followed and walked to force home a run and tie the score at 1.

“It was nice,” LaRoche said. “You making them start getting the ball over the plate, which I wasn’t doing early on. It tightens everything up. That’s when you can set it up to get some pitches to drive. Again, it wasn’t done with hits, by we pushed a run across right there.”

In the first inning, with runners on first and second, Zimmerman hit a ball that appeared to be going over the center-field wall, but it was caught near the warning track.

In the sixth inning, Zimmerman led off and hit what looked like a solo homer over the left-field wall, but it was caught on the warning track by Alfonso Soriano.

“I had some good at-bats today. … But hopefully, I’ll get some wind-blown homers the other way — maybe,” Zimmerman said. “You can never look at things like that. The truth is they weren’t homers, but more importantly, we won.”

Manager Davey Johnson wasn’t concerned that Zimmermann gave up the four runs. The skipper just wanted Zimmermann to pitch five innings and get ready for Opening Day.

“The results weren’t that good, but he threw the ball well,” Johnson said. “He gave me five innings, which I wanted to see. Five innings is more important to me than the pitch count. He has one more start before the regular season starts. I like the way he is throwing. That’s the big thing.”

Zimmermann is expected to pitch the third game of a three-gane series against the Cubs on April 8th at Wrigley Field.

Morse, who has played just three game during the exhibition season, has a strained right lat [back] muscle. While he can swing a bat, he is not allowed to throw the baseball. Morse believes he will be ready for Opening Day.

As for LaRoche, he had an MRI recently and it revealed he has a bone bruise and cartilage sprain in his left foot. LaRoche is having problems running the bases. He, too, believes he will be ready for Opening Day.

“I really feel this is going to be put behind [me] shortly,” LaRoche said. “I’m going to give it a few days, go back to Minor League side, get a bunch of at-bats, where I don’t have to run the bases. As long as I’m seeing some pitches — I don’t care if it’s coming out of an 18-year old’s hand — I don’t want to fall a week behind as far as seeing live pitching.”

Outfielder Rick Ankiel had a full workout in front of manager Davey Johnson on Saturday and is expected to return to action Tuesday against the Mets. Ankiel has not played since March 9 because of a tight left hamstring.