The Zo Zone

Freddy Garcia is cursed.

Or maybe it's just the Phillies.

In my five years covering the Phillies, I have never seen an injury like the one I saw yesterday at AT&T Park. Garcia (his voodoo doll is pictured at the right) ran into a grounds crew maintenance cart stopped on the warning track in center field during batting practice. He suffered a contusion to his left shin -- contusion is a fancy word meaning "bruise" -- and might not make tonight's start against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Now wouldn't that be a ... ?

“There’s no fracture of any kind,” Phillies general manager Pat Gillick said before last night's 8-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants. “We’ve got him iced down. We just think we’ll have to wait and see how he feels after the game and how he feels tomorrow. Basically, it could stiffen up over night and get sore over night so we’ll have to see how much soreness is there tomorrow.”

The driver actually stopped the cart on the warning track because Ryan Howard had batted a ball to center field and he didn't want to get hit.

Isn't that ironic?

“The guy stopped the cart right in front of him,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “Damn, use that head for something besides a hat rack.”

"Who expects to get hit by a cart during batting practice?" Garcia said

Who expects to get hit by a cart, period?

Who expects a cart on the field during batting practice, period?

To make matters worse for Garcia, he had to be carted to the visitor’s dugout by the same cart that caused the injury.

Gillick said Garcia is not headed to the DL, so if he can't start I'm not sure what the heck Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee will do.

Panic? Hunt down the driver?

"We're suing!" Brett Myers said.