Victorino returns; Brown stays
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Victorino returns; Brown stays
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Shane Victorino is back on the active roster. And, for the time being, Domonic Brown will remain there as well.
The Phillies obviously saw little sense in keeping Victorino at Triple-A Lehigh Valley for a third rehab start. In his first two, the center fielder went 4-for-6 with a triple and a home run. The original plan had Victorino playing again for the IronPigs tonight and then being activated tomorrow.
"Everything's good," Victorino said.
But Victorino, who missed 15 days with a strained ab muscle, told reporters he felt ready to go last night,. Victorino has had an inconsistent season at the plate -- his contact numbers are down overall -- but against lefties he is hitting .311 with a .360 on base percentage and .557 slugging percentage. Still, he is not in the lineup tonight against tough Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw. Ben Francisco will start in rightfield, with Jayson Werth in center and Raul Ibanez in left.
There would appear to be a second piece of good news as well:
The Phillies have not placed Ross Gload on the disabled list, despite a groin injury that looked serious when it first occurred. A press release from the team listed Gload's status as "day-to-day."
“I don’t know if it’s tomorrow or the next day, but I’m not going to go on the DL,” he said. “I’ll go when they need me.”
Because of Gload's questionable status, the Phillies have decided to keep Brown around for now. The Phillies all but said that they were planning on sending the rookie outfielder back to Triple-A once Victorino was healthy. But the Phillies were already playing with one less bench player when Gload went down. So instead of sending Brown back to the minors, they kept his left-handed bat on the bench and sent 24-year-old lefty reliever Antonio Bastardo back to the IronPigs.
Will Brown head down once Gload is healthy?
"It's a possiblity, but we haven't discussed that yet because Ross got hurt last night and everything," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We look at Domonic as if he's better off playing -- it depends on how much time we can get him, how much we can play him. But at the same time we like him and I like him and he's going to play in the big leagues -- he's going to play a long time. He's not a finished product yet, but that's OK. He's going to be one of these days."
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No, I don't see Polanco in the two slot as a waste. The object of the two hole hitter is either advance the runners on base or get on base for the 3, 4 and 5 hitters to knock him in. Polanco does both.— Russ- As usual, the comments are without any logical thought. With the way positional players have been going down this year, there have to be more of those guys on the bench. Regarding Baez and Herndon, who are you going to replace them with? Getting rid of them for the sake of appeasing your anger is ridiculous and stupid. Just hope and pray for another pre-waiver wire trade.— beegal99
- Polly needs to be hitting 3rd. Rollins, Utley, Polly, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, Victorino, and Ruiz. S,L,R,L,R,L,S,R. It's called balance.— beegal99
- Beaz has sucked the last several years. I doubt next year he will suddenly NOT suck.— Apache9
- Dobbs was red hot last time he got sent down and came back. He hit a few homes runs, so I know he still has it in him. Patience may very well pay off at some point with him and all the naysayers on here will be silent.— ronin32
- hey beegal99, what are you doing commenting on chat boards....you're such a brilliant baseball mind, you should be running the team— cheesesteak17
- Manuel might be the only MLB manager today who prioritizes his Depends toting buddies and other misguided loyalties over WINNING baseball games. This is why Dobbs won't go and when you add to that his inability to process routine baseball strategy at the little league level, you have to put a sponge in your mouth and scream "fire him fire him, I can't take it any more":-) No matter, Amaro still gets his pay checks!— daystrum
- my question is, what has Rich Dubee been doing with all the disasters in the bullpen? Romero had to go watch film of his performance in the 15-9 shellacking the other night. I don't recall one pitcher having a hard time quoting something like, "well Rich and I have been working on..." Jeebus. HE should be held accountable at some point, no?— chris in indy
Comment removed.- @daystrum, Manuel has also created a culture in which players love playing for him, and tell players on other teams how great it is to play in Philadelphia. Even Cliff Lee and Brett Myers, when the left the Phillies, spoke well of the organization. Manuel may be too loyal sometimes, but I am glad to hear Phillis saying how great it is to play for the Phillies. Brad Lidge phoned Oswalt and helped convince him to come to the Phillies.— smel4727
- Welcome back Shane. I really wished Bastardo had pitched better Tuesday night. They're going to need this guy in the very near future.— Rick Wise Guy
- mrrooster - the Phils can't send Herndon down....if he's not on the major league roster, they can waive him and if he clears waivers, he must be offered back to the Angels. Like it or not, the Phils are going to keep him for the entire season so then they have options with him for next season. AlonzoMoselyFBI - I agree about Victorino - I have been saying Shane needs to give up the switch hitting for some time....he's terrible from the left side.— jimyd0315
- Daystrum, do you think the Phils are winning in SPITE of Manuel? He's got a much better baseball mind than either you or I or any of his detractors. You can't argue with his success. He belongs as the Phils' manager as long as he wants the job.— dlscholt
- Please, somebody, anybody...explain to me what the Phillies see in David Herndon that justifies wasting a roster spot all season.— dasher
- WHY in the world is Victorino activated but not in the starting lineup tonight??? I just cant ever figure out Charlie Manuel sometimes!!!— Bob65S
