Game 49: The Utley maintenance program
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Game 49: The Utley maintenance program
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
After two days of playing, Chase Utley will rest Wednesday. He is not in the lineup as the Phillies take on Reds lefthander Travis Wood, who almost threw a perfect game against them last season. Instead, Wilson Valdez is at second.
All parties involved, from Manuel to Utley and GM Ruben Amaro Jr., have said Utley's right knee will be managed with caution. Manuel said he had a schedule for Utley sitting inside his desk but would not reveal it to reporters.
In his first two games, Utley is 1 for 9. He had a bunch of challenging plays in the field Tuesday and looked fine. He's also running every ground ball out hard, like usual.
But the chronic problems in his knee will require restraint. Wednesday is the first example of it.
With the lefty on the mound, Charlie Manuel will also sit Domonic Brown. That means Ben Francisco is in right, batting... second. He did that all of one time in 2010.
The lineup:
1. Jimmy Rollins 6
2. Ben Francisco 9
3. Placido Polanco 5
4. Ryan Howard 3
5. Raul Ibanez 7
6. Carlos Ruiz 2
7. John Mayberry 8
8. Wilson Valdez 4
9. Roy Halladay 1
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
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Awesome ... more Ben Francisco— shawnmac- glad to see Ruiz batting 6th again...he needs to stay higher in the batting order— danielboyer
- We gon' get no-hit.— jeffmacnow1234
- Why not Mayberry hitting second, instead? He has more speed than Francisco and maybe the whole team except Victorino.— EL Zorro
- My guess is that Chase Utley's timing is not where it needs to be and there is nothing to be gained by sending him up to hit a hfilthy left hander.
Move Along!! Nothing more to see here!!!— bluejfk - fact is there is no fix for the knee, its degenerating, this is probably his last season if he even makes it through, phils have been lying to the fans for years on this guy, been breaking down for 4 years now, probably stopped juicing...go ahead start flaming away, to bad its the truth— tooltime
- Matt, are you seriously trying to figure out why Cholly has his line-up a certain way? Are you trying to get into his head? His way of thinking? Good luck with that.— homerjay99
- Why would anyone flame? As soon as he takes the field next year, you'll be proven wrong. As far as juicing, without any proof, doesn't look like the truth at all.— HandNik
- tool, you can't just make stuff up and then say it's the truth. People deal with degenerative problems for many years, they don't simply dissolve...But yea, so you made that up, the part about them lieing, and the part about chase juicing and then followedit up with how you will be flamed for telling the truth. I'm sorry, but liar liar pants on fire.— MFPhils
- "Manuel said he had a schedule for Utley sitting inside his desk but would not reveal it to reporters."
This is some sort of baseball punishment? Isn't Manuel's desk a might small for Mr. Utley?— yahzooman - LOL - "He had a bunch of challenging plays in the field Tuesday and looked fine." I love Utley like the next guy, but his fielding is totally subpar, has been so far in these two games and was for the past 2 seasons. Please keep it realistic/accurate Gelb!— Truth B. Told
- That line-up looks pretty solid to me. I wish all of the bench guys got rotated in so that they started 1 game per week (not on the same day of course!).— Dan in Holmesburg
Yeah, Mayberry batting second does make a lot more sense, strange that Francisco is up that high in the lineup. Charlie has a way of pushing the right buttons, so maybe he's just trying to help Francisco catch a groove.
Utley is sitting because of tomorrows day game - rather than sit him down tomorrow (day game after night game), Charlie made the right call to sit him againd the tough lefty, Wood, who Utley has had very little success against. He'll be back out there tomorrow.— CosmoK- I wish everyone would just relax a bit. Things are starting to look up with the injuries. Utley is back and we have been told all along that he is going to be rested more. That is a good thing. Pitchers are coming back, Worley is better than Blanton anyway and once Victorino comes back, we will have our real team for the first time all season. We are 10 games over .500 and it is ok to try and figure out what we have with Brown, Francisco, Mayberry now. RELAX!— andrewc23
- Why would Charlie ever reveal his Utley schedule to reporters, and therefore to everyone else managing in MLB? Duh!— PhanNan
