Jim Salisbury: Rodrigo Lopez's long road back

As good as doctors have gotten at fixing elbow ligaments that have been shredded by years of throwing baseballs, there's always some doubt in a pitcher's mind when a scalpel pierces the tool of his trade.

Will I ever pitch again?

Will I ever make it back to the major leagues?

"That goes through your mind when you go through something like that," Rodrigo Lopez said last night. "Especially when you can't move your arm for two months."

Hundreds of pitchers have had their elbows surgically rebuilt since Frank Jobe performed the first ligament-transplant surgery on Tommy John in 1974. The success rate is amazingly high, more than 80 percent by most accounts.

Still, an uncomfortable uncertainty lives within any pitcher who has had the surgery, and it doesn't disappear until he gets back on a major-league mound and is effective again.

That's what made last night such a good one at Citizens Bank Park.

Sure, the Phillies finally acted as if they - not the opposing team - owned Citizens Bank Park.

Sure, the offense, led by James Calvin Rollins - are you here for a while, or just visiting, Jimmy? - erupted for 11 hits and seven runs.

Sure, the Phils beat the hated New York Mets, 7-2, and the 29th sellout crowd of the season loved every minute of it.

It was one heck of a way for a team that had been awful lately - the Phillies had lost 14 of 18 - to start a 10-game homestand that will take it to the all-star break.

But the best part of the night walked off the field with one out in the seventh inning. And before getting to the dugout step, where he was greeted by a row of happy handshakes, Lopez tipped his cap to the crowd, which had given him a standing ovation in advance of his first big-league win since July 7, 2007.

"It's been a while since I've been in an environment like this," the 33-year-old righthander said afterward. "It was very exciting. I was trying to keep the same face, but it was pretty emotional coming out to that ovation."

In need of starting pitching, both in the short and long term, the Phillies reached down to triple-A Lehigh Valley and plucked Lopez for this start. He rewarded the club with 61/3 innings of two-run ball in his first big-league start since July 26, 2007.

Lopez also rewarded himself. He had undergone Tommy John surgery in August 2007. The road back was long and difficult. In fact, Lopez nearly went home to pitch in the Mexican League 21/2 weeks ago. On June 15, he had an out in his minor-league contract with the Phils. Two days earlier, he had been thumped by Charlotte. His confidence was down. Rod Nichols, the Lehigh Valley pitching coach, talked Lopez out of leaving.

"Your best chance will be here," Nichols told Lopez.

Some members of the organization had favored giving last night's start to prospect Carlos Carrasco. There was talk that Drew Carpenter, who had strung together a bunch of good starts, deserved the nod.

But Phillies officials decided that this game and this opponent - it's always an event when the Mets come to town - called for experience. That's why Lopez, a veteran of 187 big-league games, 161 of them starts, got the call. Oh, yeah, allowing just two earned runs in his last three starts (21 innings) also swayed the Phillies.

"The biggest thing was they said he was pitching well," manager Charlie Manuel said. "That's what earns you your way back.

"I thought he pitched a good game. He's got a little sinker, a slider, and a change-up, and he threw strikes."

Lopez has experienced big-league success. He made three opening-day starts during his time with the Baltimore Orioles and twice won 15 games.

He went to Colorado in 2007 and went down with the elbow injury that required surgery.

Lopez pitched briefly in the Atlanta Braves' system late last summer, but they let him go. The Phils signed him to a minor-league deal March 8. It was similar to the chance they took on Kris Benson last season. Benson, who was recovering from shoulder surgery, never made it to Philadelphia.

Lopez did.

And when he got here, he received a series of nice welcoming gifts – a 3-0 lead after one inning, a 4-0 lead after two, and a 7-0 lead after three innings.

"It makes you more aggressive in the strike zone," he said.

After the game, Lopez reflected on how far he had come since having elbow surgery two years ago.

"It was a long battle," he said. "I didn't know it would take that long, but I made it back, and I'm pretty proud of that."

Yes, Rodrigo Lopez made it back last night.

And he gave a team in need of a lift a very nice one.