Report: Philadelphia Phillies’ Slugger Ryan Howard Sprains Right Ankle

Things just couldn’t get worse for the Philadelphia Phillies.

First, after landing the best player on the trade deadline market in Roy Oswalt, he struggled in his debut against a terrible team in the Washington Nationals. It was not a good sight to see, as Washington marched to an 8-1 victory.

Then, entering a game against the Nats again, it seemed that Philly would win and shake off that loss they suffered from.

They didn’t. The Nationals won again.

And now, the team’s best player and slugger in Ryan Howard left today’s game with a sprained right ankle. Oh Lord, please help our beloved Phillies!

Howard was injured after a throw by Washington’s right fielder Michael Morse. Howard tried immediately to scramble back to second base, sprained his ankle, and had to be helped off the field by manager Charlie Manuel and a team trainer.

Things couldn’t get worse for Howard.

He is currently on a slump as he has been oh-for-14. That is not a good sign.

Along with that, he just had his X-Rays and they did not turn out that good. He had X-Rays on his ankle, and it turned out negative.

He also had to have X-Rays on his elbow, too, after getting hit by a pitch from John Lannan. The results on his elbow were negative as well.

Howard has been hitting .292 with 23 home runs. He also has 81 RBI. Hopefully he can recover soon so he can start slugging away again.

Right now, the Phils are a pretty banged up squad.

Second baseman Chase Utley has a sprained right thumb and center fielder Shane Victorino has a abdominal strain. Both are on the disabled list. Along with that, Raul Ibanez has a sore left wrist after trying to dive for the ball in last night’s game against Washington.

Hopefully everything will get recovered soon.

 

Josh Dhani is a Philadelphia Phillies beat writer. You can see more of his work regarding the MLB at clementeatthebat.com

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Roy Oswalt to Make Phillies’ Debut Against Washington Nationals Tonight

Things couldn’t get better for the Philadelphia Phillies.

They just landed the best pitcher on the trade deadline market in Roy Oswalt. And now they have a nice saying for their farm system: Two Roy’s are better than one!

Ruben Amaro Jr. continues to make some solid trades and finally made another great one.

It all started when he traded for Cliff Lee in last year’s trade deadline. Lee performed well and helped the Phillies land a spot in the World Series against the New York Yankees. Sadly, the Yanks won to get their 27th World Series title.

Then the offseason came, and Roy Halladay was available. He traded Lee to the Seattle Mariners for the best pitcher in baseball. So far, the Phils have not been let down or unsatisfied.

Halladay has pitched well, including that perfect game he had earlier in the season.

The Phils are also coming off a great win against the St. Louis Cardinals, winning their eighth straight game along with their eleventh straight at home.

And what could make things better as they face a bad team where their star pitcher can perform well in? I think Oswalt can get a no-hitter in his debut with Philly.

Okay, yeah, you’re right.

I’m taking it too far right there.

But, if you haven’t noticed, things couldn’t get better for Roy Oswalt either.

He was the best pitcher and player on the trade deadline market, and many teams wanted to go after him.

And now he went from joining a bad team like the Houston Astros to the hottest team in the league with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies can now easily pass the Atlanta Braves in the National League East division if they can keep their consistency going.

Oswalt can also fix his ERA along with that 6-12 record during the rest of the 60 games of the season. Then, once the playoffs hit, we might see Oswalt getting real hot.

But let’s start it off slow with the Washington Nationals. I say the Phils win today’s game as well as this series. What do you think?

The only thing that could make this better is if Stephen Strasburg were starting tonight.

Enjoy tonight’s game!

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

MLB Rumors: Tejada to Padres, Brett Myers, Ted Lilly, and More

Hey guys, what’s up? Welcome to today’s MLB Rumor Mill!

After officially signing away his no-trade clause, Roy Oswalt has been sent to the Phillies for J.A. Happ and two prospects raising questions for many regarding last minutes roster changes.

With the ace pitcher of the docket many wonder who teams like the St. Louis Cardinals will opt for in the final hours of trade.

With Lee, and Oswalt settled with their new respective teams, who is next for an major league shift?

Will pitcher Brett Myers get traded?

Will Baltimore Orioles’ Miguel Tejada head to the San Diego Padres?

Who is in the race for Ted Lilly?

Begin Slideshow

MLB Rumors: Cliff Lee Coming Back to Phillies, Pedro Martinez, and More

Hey guys, and welcome to today’s rumor mill for Major League Baseball!

We’ll be discussing some pretty good rumors around the MLB, so you may want to stick around to catch the excitement.

Will Cliff Lee be traded back to his old team, the Philadelphia Phillies?

Will Pedro Martinez join him? Or will he go to a different team?

All of these rumors and a lot more on today’s MLB Rumor Mill!

So check out the rumors.

Hope you enjoy them.

Begin Slideshow

The 2009 Philadelphia Phillies Midseason Report Card

The Phillies went through some tough and some good times this year. With the season at their midway point, it’s time break down the Philadelphia Phillies this year. Here is the Philadelphia Phillies mid-season report card.

Philadelphia Phillies: 36-31 (as of June 22, 2009), 13-22 at home and 23-9 on road, first in NL East, interleague play: 3-9, streak: lost six.

Strengths: The Phillies have been doing great on the road this year, being number one in the MLB with a 23-9 record. Also, you have Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard who keep flying dingers with Ibanez having 22 and Howard having 20.

Chase Utley and Jayson Werth are right behind with 15 homers and twelve homers for Werth. I think all the Phils batters are doing excellent and Jimmy Rollins is actually improving as well.

Also, Shane Victorino has been excellent as well with his .304 batting average. And Cole Hamels leads the Phils with strikeouts with 72. It’s been pretty good in strengths, and it looks to improve further as the Phillies are reaching their peak.

The Phillies bullpen has been doing pretty good lately, with their ERA being eighth in the league at the time, now at eleventh though. The bullpen has been doing well and let’s see if they can get much better after mid-season.

Weaknesses: The Phillies are right now the enemies in Citizens Bank Park as they have 13-22 at home. It hasn’t been good at all for the Phillies at home and they are also are on a six-game losing streak which may affect them to keep their title in the NL East. The Phils also haven’t done good at all in interleague play as they are 3-9, worst in the NL East.

Other weaknesses. Yes and this may happen all year after what I have seen. It’s the performance of the pitchers the Phillies have. Cole Hamels has the lowest ERA with 4.24 for the Phils, which is not good in the MLB overall.

Jamie Moyer has been struggling as well with his 6.35 ERA and a record of 4-6 this year. And also, don’t forget what happened to Brad Lidge (injury) which made him fall to minors as well as Brett Myers’ season-ending injury.

But Lidge has been struggling as well, too, and let’s hope he improves after his knee is all better.

Nothing good has been happening with the pitchers in Philly. They have some good moments but most of it is not positive.

Questions Coming In After Midseason:

Can Brad Lidge’s knee heal?

Can Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard keep hitting like they have been and continue this tandem throughout the season?

Can Philadelphia’s pitchers rebound after midseason after not doing very well?

 

That’s it. This is the Philadelphia Phillies midseason report card. Are there any questions you’d like to add, any other weaknesses and strengths you would like to include? Why don’t you share your opinion by commenting below!

Done by request from the assignment desk.

Josh Dhani is a writer for the Phanatic Phollow Up and The Batter’s Eye.

Boston Red Sox Get It on Against the Phils In 13, Slaughter Them 5-2

It wasn’t really a pretty game for the Philadelphia Phillies.

They looked to hand down the Red Sox at home in Citizen’s Bank Park. After a successful road trip and being the No. 1 team in the MLB on the road, the Phillies weren’t the team for home. They fell to 12-15 at home while Boston improved to 16-16 on the road as the BoSox slaughtered the Phillies, 5-2, in a 13-inning matchup.

I wouldn’t particularly call it a “slaughter” but I just like to put things in my own “fancy” way. But as you can see right here, it’s a slaughter:

Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Jayson Werth combined to go 0-for-15 with six strikeouts in the loss.

But I am not done yet. Take a look at this as well:

The Red Sox are now 12-2 against the Phillies in their last 14 meetings.

See? If you look at it that way, you would technically call it a slaughter. But there was much more to this “slaughtering loss”, and this recap will explain it all:

Boston Red Sox’s Jon Lester was magnificent on Friday as he did something that only two other pitchers have done. From ESPN Stats:

Jon Lester became the first pitcher since Johan Santana and John Lackey to go three straight starts with six innings pitched, 10-plus strikeouts and one run or less allowed.

Pretty good, huh? I think so. Reporters, journalists, and even bloggers were making such a fuss over this. Then came Jason Varitek, who joked this to the Associated Press, “Did he pitch tonight?”

So, you can see what happened.

This was a matchup between division leaders, and Boston showed they were the bigger leader of the pack.

“Lester was so good,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Well, duh. He allowed only one run and two hits, but screw that—he struck out 11 guys in seven innings. Now, that is what I am talking about. He also retired 18 out of the 19 batters he faced. Okay, I have to stop acting like a BoSox fan, because I hate them so much. However, they did so good that day.

The Phillies could have won this easily. It all started out in the second inning with Pedro Feliz’s hit to make Raul Ibanez score. The Phils were up, 1-0, but then the Sox tied the game in the fourth and took the lead in the fifth inning when J.D. Drew homered to the left. The Sox were up, 2-1.

The Phillies were down, but then Ryan Howard saved the day when he homered to right to tie the game at two. After that, it was all Red Sox, and they saved the day for themselves after ending everything in the 13th inning, scoring three runs.

It was all over, 5-2.

The Phillies look to face the Red Sox today and bring revenge. Watch out, BoSox, the Phils will strike. They came close, but screwed it up.

So, here we are today, as the Phils look to strike against the Red Sox.

Josh Dhani is a writer for the Phanatic Phollow Up.

Phils Fall to Padres 8-7: Don’t Give Up on Them, 150 Games to Go!

Cole Hamels allowed eight hits, five runs, one walk, and three home runs on the day of honoring announcer Harry Kalas. Hamels played terribly. Worse than worse. Horrible!

The Phillies did have the game but blew the lead. They had a two-run lead in the eighth inning but couldn’t hold it with Ryan Madson allowing three scores.

Greg Dobbs came in with the tying run and the inning ended with Ryan Howard up to walk the plank. The Phillies did mess up Padres’ Chris Young. He allowed seven runs in almost four innings!

Chase Utley started out with a three-run home run in the first inning. The Phillies came back in third, including a triple by Raul Ibanez and a run scored in the fourth.

Hamels had allowed 11 hits in pretty much three innings in his debut on Friday versus the Rockies, who made it to the World Series a couple of years ago. He did improve from 85-86 mph to 89-90 mph.

But it couldn’t hold a win in the ballpark. Let’s hope they come back strong. Don’t give up hope like Cody Swartz said. Got 150 games to go, they can improve, easily.

Just don’t give up hope. If you do, nothing can be satisfied.

Records for comparison:

Phillies: 4-5

Padres: 8-3

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