Nationals' Vidro could return after All-Star break

WASHINGTON -- Washington Nationals second baseman Jose Vidro's left ankle injury probably will sideline him until after the All-Star break.

Vidro, on the disabled list since May 9 with a partially torn tendon on the outside of the ankle, will need to wear a walking boot for about two more weeks, team doctor Bruce Thomas said Monday.

"He's really coming along. His strength and his motion are better," Thomas said. "Reasonably, the All-Star break is what we're shooting for."

When Vidro left a game in Los Angeles on May 4 because of the ankle, he was hitting .290 with six doubles, four home runs and 15 RBI.

In the team's 125 games since the 2004 All-Star break, the Expos-Nationals are 32-27 (.542) with Vidro, and 29-37 (.439) without him.

He's one of 11 Nationals currently on the DL, the most in the majors.

"This is even more than last year, and I thought we had a few last year. I've never been around a ballclub that's had as many injuries in this short a period of time," Washington manager Frank Robinson said before Monday's game against the Atlanta Braves.

"We seem to have an injury a game. We play a game, we have an injury. ... We're not the club we started the season with."

Sixteen of the 25 players on the active roster Monday were with the team on opening day. Entering Monday, Nationals players had lost a combined 425 games on the DL.

One player, right-hander John Patterson, will come off the 15-day DL on Tuesday so he can start that night's game against Atlanta. Patterson was out with back spasms.

Another right-hander who's on the DL, Jon Rauch, will have surgery on his throwing shoulder Tuesday, and the team will have a better sense of when he might be able to pitch again.

"There's an outside chance he could be ready for late season ... but that's a long shot," Thomas said.

Rauch went 1-3 with a 4.00 ERA in eight games out of the bullpen after being called up from the minors. He had an MRI exam last week that appeared to show a torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Rauch, who had season-ending surgery on that shoulder in May 2001, sounded upbeat Monday, sitting in the home dugout at RFK Stadium after stretching with his teammates.

"It it's what the doctors are saying that it is, a best-case scenario, then that's definitely a good thing, which means I might be able to pitch by the end of the year," he said.