"The crowd at Nationals Park wasted no time. When third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was announced as a starter prior to Tuesday's home game against the St. Louis Cardinals, a loud cheer went up from the stands.

It was as much a roar of relief as anything. Zimmerman hadn't played since April 9 thanks to a torn abdominal muscle and subsequent surgery on May 3 and the Nationals' hapless offense has looked lost without him.

Zimmerman warned before the game that his presence alone will not provide instant relief. He is but one player, after all. Point taken. But his teammates were still glad to have Zimmerman back. And their joy was only compounded after a six-run seventh inning capped a thrilling comeback in an eventual 8-6 Washington victory.

The Nats (31-36) had scored 12 runs total in their previous six games. Like his teammates have for weeks now, Zimmerman looked rusty at the plate early with two quick strikeouts and a double-play groundout with two runners on base and one down in the fifth inning. But for one night at least, Washington's bats came alive.

In the end, Zimmerman doubled home the first run during that seventh-inning rally to help erase a 6-2 deficit. Michael Morse had an RBI groundout and Danny Espinosa and Jayson Werth each produced RBI singles. St. Louis reliever Trever Miller threw a bases-loaded wild pitch to allow another run to score. But Laynce Nix had the key at-bat, an epic 11-pitch sequence where he finally drew a bases-loaded walk to push home the go-ahead run. Zimmerman may have returned, but he didn't have to win it by himself."