Yasiel Puig returns to Dodgers lineup vs. Nationals

Yasiel Puig is back in the Dodgers lineup after missing two games from crashing into the right field wall in Miami on Sunday. Puig is batting fifth and playing right field in Wednesday morning's series and road trip finale against the Nationals.

Adrian Gonzalez also returns to the lineup after his second day off of the season. Gonzalez, hitting .282/.364/.573 and leading the team in OPS (.936), home runs (nine), runs scored (22), runs batted in (26) and walks (16), is 3-for-6 with a double against Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg.

Puig has been on fire of late, carrying a six-game hitting streak into Wednesday, hitting .444/.531/.593 during that span. The outfielder also has eight multi-hit games in his last 12 contests.

Puig is 0-for-3 against Strasburg, but that hardly makes him unique among Dodgers outfielders. Andre Ethier is 0-for-7 with a walk and five strikeouts, and Carl Crawford is 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Matt Kemp, sitting in the finale, is 0-for-5 with three strikeouts against the right-hander.

Hanley Ramirez, who was 3-for-5 with a home run on Tuesday night, is 4-for-13 (.308) with a home run, two doubles and two walks against Strasburg.

Dan Haren gets the call for the Nationals, for whom he played in 2013. The right-hander's strong second half (6-5, 3.29 ERA, nine home runs allowed in 15 starts, 23.9% strikeout rate) earned him a $10 million contract from the Dodgers in the offseason and it has carried over into 2014 (4-0, 2.39 ERA, two home runs allowed in six starts, 21.5% strikeout rate, career-high 52.2% ground ball rate).

But it was Haren's putrid first half in 2013 (4-9, 6.15 ERA, 19 home runs allowed in 15 starts, 18.3% strikeout rate) that earned him scorn from the Washington fans.

Haren on pitching here: "They would boo me when I was running to 1st base on a ground ball.. They didn't love me, but you can't blame them."

— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) May 5, 2014

But that is nothing compared to the morning Nationals manager Matt Williams had. During a radio interview on his way to the ballpark, his car was rear-ended by a car during a police chase. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post has more:

"Sorry guys, I just had an accident," he said, in the middle of baseball talk. "I’ve got a police officer behind me. This guy’s gonna try to escape. The guy’s running. He just ran right into the back of me. I just got rear-ended by a guy in a car. Hold on. This guy’s crashing into people,"

The Junkies asked him if he was ok.

"Yeah. I’m good," Williams said, and then answered more questions about what happened. "There was a police car behind me and a guy in a car and he tried to get by me and he just smoked me. I’m almost to the ballpark. He tried to get out of his car and then he got around me [in his car] and now they’re chasing him."

The team issued a statement saying Williams was fine.

#Nats Manager Matt Williams is fine and uninjured after his car was hit on his way to the ballpark this morning.

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) May 7, 2014

The Nationals made a roster move before Wednesday's series finale, activating catcher Wilson Ramos from the disabled list. Ramos is starting at catcher, batting fifth. Tuesday's starting pitcher, Blake Treinen, was optioned back to Triple-A to make room on the active roster.