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Nats seeks cause of Pena's woes

Nationals notebook

Date published: 7/14/2008

By RICH CAMPBELL

BY RICH CAMPBELL

WASHINGTON--

"We need to take care of it if it's bothering him," Acta said.

Acta wouldn't say exactly how long Pena's shoulder has been hurt but said it has been for longer than a few weeks. Hitting coach Lenny Harris said Saturday night that he believes Pena has been hurt all season.

Pena declined comment. He is batting .205 in 64 games this season and .095 (2-for-21) this month. In five major league seasons prior to this one, he averaged a home run every 24.7 at-bats. This year, he has only two homers in 195 at-bats.

"It seems like everything [inside] he can't get to it," Harris said. "It's like he's rounding everything."

Pena had a cortisone shot a little more than a month ago but is still in pain. The pain is not the result of Pena compensating for the left oblique strain that sidelined him at the start of the season, Acta said.

Pena, 26, is the latest example of a National playing through pain only to have his offensive production suffer. Right fielder Austin Kearns had surgery to remove bone fragments from his right elbow on May 23 after batting .187 through the first 42 games.

Acta spoke yesterday about players refusing to attribute poor performance to being injured. At some point, Acta said, players need to let him know if they are hurt.

He was asked if he wished Pena had spoken up sooner.

"Everybody has something wrong with them," Acta said. "Nobody's 100 percent every single day. We appreciate when people play through pain, and I'm sure that if he wasn't able to take this pain and play through it, he wouldn't play through it."

Zimmerman says he'll play all out for P-nats

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Date published: 7/14/2008