With injuries piling up, can Nats prevent a breaking point?

Injuries continue to pile up for the Nationals. Big ones like outfielders Rafael Bautista (knee) and Howie Kendrick (Achilles) out for the year. Small ones (hopefully) like Ryan Madson's chest strain.

Injuries that seemingly looked like they wouldn't take as long to recover from as they have, like Brian Goodwin's wrist, have lingered into a second month without any big improvements.

Starting second baseman Daniel Murphy has not recovered fully from microfracture surgery on his knee and has yet to play a game in 2018.

Ryan Zimmerman, a mostly everyday starter at first base, is out with a right oblique strain.

Starting catcher Matt Wieters had surgery to remove a tendon and is out with a left hamstring strain.

Left-handed reliever Matt Grace has been nursing a left groin strain. He is a candidate to return today for Madson.

Goodwin has been out since April 16 with a wrist issue, general manager Mike Rizzo had no timetable when he would get into rehab baseball games.

Five players are on the 60-day disabled list with Kendrick soon to join them:

Adam Eaton has played eight games this season (31 total in his Nats career) because of an ankle injury that also required surgery.

Catcher Jhonatan Solano is out with bone chips in his right elbow.

Joaquin Benoit is recovering from a right forearm strain.

Koda Glover has right shoulder tendinitis.

Joe Ross is recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Counting Sunday's game with Madson added retroactively to May 17, that is 336 combined man-games missed by players on the disabled list. Two full seasons of baseball is 324 games.

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg, who appeared to grab his hamstring during Sunday's game but turned out to be just drying his hand, said injuries like Madson's are a part of the game.

"It's unfortunate," Strasburg said. "I think you can sit here and feel sorry for yourself, but I know the other team's not doing that. So, we still have to go out there and compete with whoever's out there and just be patient. The guys are going to get back as soon as possible, but we also want them to be right when they get back, so we're just going to hold the helm through this storm and we'll be ok."

Trea Turner, who hit a two-run shot on Sunday providing the Nats' only offense, said it's frustrating to see another injury pile up. The club lost Madson, Bautista and Kendrick in just the last two days. Turner said season-ending injuries are the ones that he feels the most empathy for when he sees a teammate go down.

"Yeah, it stinks. Especially when you go through it you feel bad for those guys," Turner said. "I think that's one thing that we would all agree upon that if everybody could just be healthy all year that be a great thing. But injuries are a part of the game.

"Hopefully they are minor ones not major ones. It seems to keep happening to us. For me it's not about that winning or losing it stinks for those guys that want to be out there and want to play. Everybody takes their job seriously and have fun with it. Having those guys go down here it stinks for them."

The Kendrick injury was the biggest this weekend because he was the most consistent hitter from the first two months of the season. That is the main reason Rizzo went with hot prospect 19-year-old Juan Soto because the Nats desperately need production from their outfield. Michael A. Taylor is hitting just .181 and even Bryce Harper has struggled recently to a .224 average. Harper is hitting .183 with 13 strikeouts in his last 15 games.

The club is still above .500 at 24-21. But there is no way they can sustain positive growth in the division without front line starters for a large portion of the season.