It’s fair to characterize the Phillies’ first two innings in Arizona on Tuesday night as an unmitigated disaster. For the second straight outing, David Buchanan was roughed up pretty bad, this time to the tune of 11 runs before he could record six outs. That doesn’t exactly equate to a quality start for Pete Mackanin’s club.
Even with a score that got completely out of hand, one individual game is of little consequence to these Phillies even if the bullpen has to work overtime. Buchanan isn’t someone the front office is counting on for the future. For the Phillies, the scariest moment of the night happened in the top of the first inning:
Oof. That was an 89-mph fastball from Jeremy Hellickson that ran straight into Maikel Franco’s left wrist. As you can see in the extended video, Franco writhed on the ground in pain for about 30 seconds before getting checked out by assistant athletic trainer Shawn Fcasni and eventually leaving the game.
My first thought went back to 2007, when Washington Nationals starter John Lannan drilled Chase Utley in the right wrist. The second baseman, who cleared waivers earlier in the day, broke the fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand and missed a month of action before returning. Luckily for Franco…
The results are unofficial, but I have Zolecki winning the Beat Writer Derby by a nose. It remains to be seen how much time the contusion will cause Franco to miss, but in the world of X-rays, negative almost always is a positive.
Maikel Franco is putting together a strong rookie campaign and it would’ve been a tough blow for the Phillies if his season ended tonight. Judging by the initial reports, there is a decent chance that the 22-year-old third baseman got pretty fortunate here. Well, as fortunate as a guy who gets drilled in the wrist can be.
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