Nick Piccone
As it turns out, this season could get somewhat worse. Even though Ryan Howard is clearly not the same player he once was, he’s better than any other option the Phillies have to plug in at first base. So naturally, it took him until the last month of the season to acquire an injury that will likely sideline him for the rest of the year.
After a short hop throw by a running Freddy Galvis that bounced up and hit Howard’s left knee during Monday’s game, the first baseman was diagnosed with a bruised knee. When he got home, however, his knee got worse and wound up taking a trip to the emergency room. [Philly.com]
“He had to go to the emergency room to get his knee drained, so that doesn’t look good,” manager Pete Mackanin said. “But we’re just going to go day to day to see what happens.”
“It’s a possibility,” Mackanin said. “Day to day could be eight days from now, so I don’t know for sure. We just don’t want to commit [if], three or four days from now, he says he feels fine. The thing with Howie that’s admirable is this guy wants to play. You’ve seem him over the years, he posts up every day, he’s ready to play every day. That’s a nice trait to have. So we’ll wait and see.”
Awesome. I’m not even suggesting a healthy Howard would make this Phillies team worth watching. He clearly hasn’t. But it just adds another blow to the reality that is the Phillies. The offseason can’t come soon enough.