Chase Utley promised to be back.
But when?
And when he returns, will it matter?
Those are today's questions, a day after Nationals pitcher John Lannan broke Utley's right hand with a pitch in the fifth inning of yesterday's 7-6 loss at Citizens Bank Park. Utley said he thinks he could be back in less than a month, but nobody will be certain until he visits hand specialist Randall Culp today. But let's say Utley is right and he returns Aug. 21 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He will have missed 22 games. That's not earth shattering in relation to a 162-game season, but it leaves only 39 games to play.
So what seems like a very best case scenario -- Utley misses a little less than four weeks -- he still misses 36 percent of his team's remaining games. When you look at it that way, in terms of how much season is left, it's potentially devastating. Especially because it looks like Pat Gillick will not be able to make a move to substantially improve his starting rotation, which means this team will need to be at its best offensively. And it can't be at its best offensively without Utley, who was making a run at the National League MVP.
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I've received quite a few e-mails about how Lannan absolutely threw at Utley and Ryan Howard intentionally. But nobody on either side, including Utley himself, thought that. Seriously, think about it. The Nationals just exhausted their bullpen in a 14-inning game Wednesday. They needed Lannan to pitch as long as possible. So any beanball call would not have come from the Nationals dugout. And there's no way in hell a 22-year-old rookie pitcher making his big-league debut would go out there and purposely hit Utley and Howard -- a division rival's two top hitters -- with a pitch. Nationals manager Manny Acta might have killed him had that happened.
Like many in the Phillies clubhouse, I think Lannan simply lost his composure and was scared to death.
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In fact, Jim Salisbury got Lannan on his cell phone to talk about it. Lannan felt terribly and swore he never tried to hit Utley with a pitch. But Salisbury also wonders how the Phillies are going to patch the gaping hole in the Phillies lineup? Abraham Nunez is the immediate replacement at second base. Do the Phillies try to find a second baseman? I think the results from today's exam will help determine that. But if I'm the Phillies and I learn today that Utley's best case scenario is accurate, I use whatever chips I have and still try to focus on pitching.
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Which injury this season has hurt the Phillies more?
- Freddy Garcia's right shoulder.
- Utley's right hand.
- Brett Myers' right shoulder.
- Tom Gordon's right rotator cuff/labrum.
- Howard's left quadriceps.
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The rest of the world reflects on Utley, including Balls, Sticks & Stuff, A Citizen's Blog and We Should Be GMs.
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Oh, the Phillies also lost to the Nationals, 7-6, after some poor defense from Wes Helms and one bad pitch from Mike Zagurski.
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Utley is gone, but Myers will be activated before tonight's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates (here are the pitching match ups). What does that mean for Clay Condrey, who has had four stints with the team this season?
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Comments (5)
Dr. Todd, I'm depressed.
What a crappy day yesterday proved to be.
Utley will prove to be the most damning injury to the team. Moving Nunez to second weakens our late inning defense at third and if Dobbs is in for defense, it cuts our options for LF, unless Werth comes back and can be productive. Not to mention Chase's offense, which is obviously unreplaceable.
Agree that Lannan wasn't throwing at hitters, in fact wondered how he could be run with no warning being issued. It actually hurt us, we didn't do much with the Nats pen after that.
Gillick can't panic here and trade for an Utley replacement, it's gotta be pitching, pitching, pitching. If Utley is out for year, sell, sell, sell...although I'm not sure we have much to put on the clearance table.
Finally, what was Manual's excuse for not having Nunez in for defense? I can't defend his Danny Ozark moment in time. If Helms hadn't been on this team, I'm convinced the record would be identical; I don't understand the running out of a guy that would be in the minors if he was anyone else. Walking into the park, you can hear the comments when fans see he is starting. UGH!
Posted by jimmymack | July 27, 2007 10:22 AM
Posted on July 27, 2007 10:22
i'll vote for garcia's right shoulder as most devastating (though utley's could be 10x worse depending on how the phils respond). so much was expected of garcia, and right away he looked hurt with each game he pitched almost a guaranteed loss. then it took them 2 months to admit it and regain their footing. but really, you can make a case for any of them except howard's- dobbs played great as a fill-in.
i guess i'll just kill some time by crying uncontrollably now.....
Posted by mike | July 27, 2007 11:24 AM
Posted on July 27, 2007 11:24
Even a day later, I feel like going all Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes: "[sobbing on knees, pounding fist into the ground] Damn you! Damn you straight to hell!...."
Posted by Mark | July 27, 2007 11:57 AM
Posted on July 27, 2007 11:57
Utley's HBP was on a 0-2 count. There's no way that it was intentional. The guy didn't have control of his pitches and tried to come inside on the two lefties to take back that part of plate. It's extremely unfortunate. A guy like Utley deserves to be out there every night and unfortunately the current set of circumstances is going to impede him from getting his just due. Let's go Phils!
Posted by GE | July 27, 2007 11:58 AM
Posted on July 27, 2007 11:58
Let's hope Gillick doesn't use the Utley injury as an excuse to "stand Pat"
between now and Tuesday...Now--more than ever--the team needs to upgrade it's pitching to hold on until Chase's return. My question is would the Phillies be willing to do (as Glen Macnow and others have suggested) a Bobby Abreu-in reverse...Specifically, take a high-salaried pitcher off a non-contender's hands and give up, as the Yankees clearly did, practically nothing in return? Or will the team's brass continue to cry the payroll blues despite this year's unexpected high attendance, including two straight sellouts against the lowly Nats?
Having merely the ninth-highest payroll in baseball and being unwilling to increase it at the trade deadline to improve the league's worst pitching staff while only two games out in the wildcard standings ought to be considered a crime toward their fans.
Posted by Don/University City | July 27, 2007 1:16 PM
Posted on July 27, 2007 13:16