Ryan Howard Injury: Achillies’ Injury Serious Concern for Philadelphia Phillies

The phrase “adding insult to injury” has never been more true than it is right now for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Friday night, the Phillies watched their record-breaking season come to an end in Game 5 of the NLDS in a 1-0 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals.

For the second season in a row the Phillies playoff run ended with slugger Ryan Howard at bat.

Howard cracked a grounder down the first base line and took off for the bag. Within the first couple steps he crumbled to the ground grasping his ankle.

He underwent an MRI early Saturday, and Philadelphia radio personality Howard Eskin reported the results via Twitter: “I was told MRI did reveal torn achilles. Out til at least may or june.”

Not very good news for a Phillies team that struggled offensively all season. The loss of their big bat raises a lot of questions entering the offseason.

Howard has been quite durable throughout his career, but battled ankle problems all through the 2011 season. He reached his limit on the final play.

Now, it’s unclear if Howard will be ready to go to start next the beginning of the 2012 season. That’s a big issue for a Phillies team that just lost 1-0 in the final game of their season.

Moreover, the Phillies already have plenty of issues to deal with this offseason.

Pitchers Ryan Madson, Brad Lidge, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels are all facing contractual situations, while Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez could be on their way out as well.

Those are a lot of holes to fill. Now there is another major one that needs to be looked at due to the Howard injury.

Come the start of next season, the Phillies could have new faces at first base, shortstop, third base and left field.

It will be a crazy offseason in Philadelphia. Baseball’s oldest team needs to get younger.

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NLDS Schedule: 3 Keys to Phillies Victory in Series vs. Cardinals

The Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals kick off their NLDS series Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET.

The Phillies finished the regular season with the best record in the league at 102-60.

Despite this, they seem to be the team on upset alert for the Division Series of the 2011 postseason.

The Cardinals do present some potential matchup problems for the Phillies, but the chances of them pulling off the upset are still relatively slim.

Here are three reasons the Phillies will avoid an upset from St. Louis.

1. Matchup of Relievers

The Philadelphia Phillies relied on relief pitchers less than any other team in the league this season. Obviously, this is because of the talent of the starters.

Halladay, Lee and Hamels all logged over 200 inning this season. They play deep into games keeping the bullpen fresh.

The bullpen for the Phillies blew eight saves this season, less than any other team in baseball. The Cardinals blew 36, second most in the league.

2. Cardinals Batting Advantage

All of the talk about batting points the finger towards St. Louis for the advantage. Although this is true, the advantage is less than people are making it out to be.

First off, Matt Holliday will be missing Game 1 with a finger injury. Even though it’s only one game, any time a star player misses time it’s an issue.

Second, Albert Pujols may be a beast, but he struggles against the three aces in Philadelphia. Pujols is just 7-42 in his career against Halladay, Lee and Hamels.

Lastly, the Phillies batting has improved vastly since the acquisition of Hunter Pence at the trade deadline. The addition has given Philadelphia a boost at the plate.

3. Pitching Postseason History

If there is any reason for Philadelphia fans to feel confident, it’s the history of the Phillies pitchers in the postseason.

Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels are all proven veterans with fantastic postseason play.

Sometimes there is a fear that players under duress can’t perform in high stakes situations like the playoffs. It’s something nobody in Philadelphia will have to worry about.

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MLB Playoffs: 3 Reasons to Watch for a St. Louis Upset vs. Philadelphia

Two nights ago the Philadelphia Phillies finished off the Atlanta Braves with a 4-3 score that booted them out of of the playoffs after a disastrous collapse.

The Philadelphia team ended the year with more regular season wins (102) than ever before and Charlie Manuel now holds the title for most wins in Phillies history.

That’s all nice and wonderful, but more importantly it knocked the Braves out of the postseason. It opened the door for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Will winning come back to haunt the Phillies?

Here are three reasons to watch for a St. Louis upset over Philadelphia.

1. Starting Pitching

There is absolutely no denying that the Phillies have one of the best pitching rotations Major League Baseball has ever seen.

They have three pitchers in Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt who have Cy Young ability. Cole Hamels has led the team to a World Series. Vance Worley is a rising stud.

The Cardinals may not have the big names and prestige, but they have actually been more effective when the teams have met this season.

Chris Carpenter and Jamie Garcia each pitched 15 innings and allowed just a .60 ERA. Kyle Loeshe’s 15.33 innings were no less impressive, allowing just a 1.76 ERA.

The Phillies were less impressive. The only pitcher who allowed under a 3.00 ERA was Cliff Lee.

This could be one of the surprising keys that may catch people off guard.

2. Lineup

The reason for the above stats isn’t that the Cardinals have better pitching than the Phillies.

The success has come because they have better batters. Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday may get all of the attention, but the entire Cardinals lineup is one to fear.

As a team, St. Louis has an on-base slugging (OPS) of .766. The Phillies OPS is .717.

The stat puts St. Louis at the top in the National League.

3. Confidence

Now, I’m not suggesting that the Phillies aren’t a confident team. What I’m saying is that the Cardinals are much more confident right now.

St. Louis had to pull off miracles to make the playoffs.

Here they are. Despite the odds the Cardinals are set to face the Phillies tomorrow night in the first game of the series.

The organization is flying high right now. Nobody thought they’d be here a month ago.

To add to it, the Cardinals dominated the Phillies in a series earlier in the month just to keep their hopes alive.

The 6-3 regular season record has to be an extra ego boost heading into the games.

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