First baseman Adam LaRoche had a game to remember on Saturday afternoon. He went 4-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored in a 7-4 victory over the Cubs.

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.”

First baseman Adam LaRoche was one person who was happy the Nationals defeated the Cubs, 2-1, at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon.

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.”

Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche was tested in the first inning of an 8-4 victory over the Cardinals on Monday afternoon.

With runners on first and third and one out, Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams hit a routine groundball to LaRoche, who softly threw the ball to catcher Jesus Flores. Yadier Molina was tagged out at the plate.

According to LaRoche, he didn’t have any problems with his left shoulder which was surgically repaired last year. LaRoche ended up going 0-for-2 with a walk in the game.

“I have a little more in the tank than that,” LaRoche said about the throw. “… If I need to rush something or throw across to third, I have a little more than that. The way it’s progressing, I think two weeks from now, it will be even better. I’m fine with that. That’s the way it is. But I think it will continue to get better. So far, no setbacks from the shoulder.”

LaRoche is still feeling some soreness in his left foot, but he said it’s better than it was a week ago.

“We have it wrapped up pretty tight,” LaRoche said. “I’m really hoping I don’t have to do this [wrapping the foot] forever. … But it’s good enough to play right now. … It’s not great turning, it’s not great running the bases yet, but a lot better than it was a week ago.”

After Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Orioles, Nationals 1B Adam LaRoche was spotted in the locker room, three days after he had surgery to repair labrum and rotator cuff tears in his left shoulder.

The doctors told LaRoche that he should be ready to perform baseball activities in six months.

“Talking to [Dr.] Wiemi [Douoguih], he is real comfortable the way the surgery turned out and what he saw. Now I just wait and stick with their program,” LaRoche said. “It’s sore now. It’s the first surgery I’ve ever had. I thought it would be a lot worse. It’s a good start so far.”

During Spring Training, LaRoche was diagnosed with a torn labrum, and he began to feel in mid-May that the shoulder was hurting his swing. In 43 games, LaRoche was hitting .172 with three home runs and 15 RBIs.

While the shoulder didn’t hurt when he swung the bat, LaRoche felt it was weak, and the reason he could not generate much power.

“It took longer to realize that my shoulder had something to do with the lack of power,” LaRoche said.

The only time his shoulder was in pain was when he threw the baseball. LaRoche was originally told that he could play the entire season with the injury.

However, by May 22nd, LaRoche wanted to get a second opinion on the shoulder and went to New York the next day. The doctors ended up finding a tear in his rotator cuff as well.

“If anything else, I should have [received a second opinion] a few weeks before,” LaRoche said. “It’s good to get it over with. Now the struggle is going to be watching a bunch of games and not be able to play in them.”

Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche is in the DC area rehabbing his left shoulder. He is hoping that he can avoid surgery, but that may be hard to do.

Not only does he have a large tear in his labrum, LaRoche also has a small tear in his rotator cuff.

“That’s not what I wanted to hear,” LaRoche said via phone. “I wish it didn’t take me 43 games to figure out something was totally wrong.”

LaRoche said there is a deadline on when he will decide to quit rehabbing the shoulder and have surgery. He did not know the deadline date. LaRoche indicated that he did not want to miss the 2012 season because of the injury.

“I love playing and I want to be out there with the guys, but I’m not selfish enough to stick it out the whole year and potentially miss next year,” LaRoche said. “We are going to give [the rehab] a shot.

“Hopefully a miracle happens so we can get it playable. If not, I’m not going to milk it here and hope for the best. If this doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure I’ll make the decision to get it fixed.”

Right now, the game plan for LaRoche is to rehab the shoulder for two to three weeks without throwing a baseball or swinging a bat.

“[We are going to] really work on strengthening the rotator cuff and the smaller muscles in my shoulder in hopes that I can come back and have it right.”

During Spring Training, LaRoche was diagnosed with a torn labrum, and he’s began to feel this past week that the shoulder was hurting his swing. In 43 games, LaRoche was hitting .172 with three home runs and 15 RBIs.

While the shoulder didn’t hurt when he swung the bat, LaRoche felt it was weak, and the reason he could not generate much power.

The only time his shoulder was in pain was when he threw the baseball. LaRoche was told that he could play the entire season with the injury.

However, by last weekend, LaRoche wanted to get a second opinion on the shoulder and went to New York on Sunday night.

“I know my body well enough to know when I’m feeling good at the plate … and it was not there,” LaRoche said. “That’s the reason I went to New York. I wanted somebody to tell me, ‘Listen, your shoulder is fine. It should not be affecting your swing. Get back out there and play.’ Or ‘There are some Major issues.’ That’s all I wanted to confirm.”

It was confirmed that LaRoche has major issues in the shoulder.