Ryan Zimmerman's Three Homers Lead Nationals; Yovani Gallardo Stops KC

Players of the Day for Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Grapefruit League

Ryan Zimmerman

Opening Day is less than a week away, so players are making sure to get their best swings in as the exhibition season winds down.

One fellow who got a number of good at-bats on Wednesday was Washington's Ryan Zimmerman, who socked a trio of homers in the Nationals' 11-2 win over Atlanta.

Zimmerman was 3-for-4 with a pair of solo shots and a two-run donk, raising his RBI total to nine in 16 Spring games along with a .308 average.

Washington, NL East champions in 2012, haven't exactly been tearing up the Grapefruit League, tied with the Yankees near the bottom of the standings, at 13-17.

Cactus League

Yovani Gallardo

Somebody had to slow down the runaway KC Royals, so, leave it to one of the top National League hurlers, Yovani Gallardo, to apply the brakes to Kansas City hitters.

Blanking the Royals over the first three innings, Gallardo went on to record his first victory of Spring (against two losses), going 6 1/3 innings, giving up a single earned run on two hits and three walks while fanning two.

The Brewers banged out 16 hits, winning, going away, 9-1.

At 11-17, Milwaukee is still 11 games back of the Cactus League leading Royals, who need only win one more game to claim the exhibition championship, a feat they haven't done in the regular season since the days of George Brett back in 1985, when they won the World Series.