Dusty Baker giving Harper 'a mental day off'

Washington Nationals skipper Dusty Baker is hoping rest will help clear the head of struggling slugger Bryce Harper.

Harper found himself out of the starting lineup for Monday night's game against the Miami Marlins, as Baker opted to sit the reigning NL MVP in hopes of recharging his batteries.

"Everything is fine," Baker told reporters. "I could see his concentration waning some so I thought I give him a mental day off. I wasn't going to give it to him tomorrow against (Jose) Fernandez. I wasn't going to give it to him the next day because he's had pretty good success against (Tom Kohler). I wanted to give (Chris) Heisey some at-bats in there too. So everything just pointed towards today."

The Nationals sit comfortably atop the NL East, but will need their biggest offensive weapon to get hot in order to make a deep postseason run. Harper is hitting just .184/.339/.286 with one home run and 16 strikeouts in 15 games this month.

Baker said he talked to Harper about the lineup move and expects him back Tuesday.

"You can just see a difference in a person and most times it's concentration," Baker said. "Sometimes you get a little tired, you have trouble concentrating or at least holding that concentration for a long period of time. It's just time."