Phillies Notebook: Phillies hope Lopez can recapture old form

His name?

Rodrigo Lopez.

"He's a good competitor," said Phillies third-base coach Sam Perlozzo, who was a bench coach on that 2002 team and later went on to manage Lopez in 2005-06. "There were times when you thought you might have to go out there early in the game, use up your 'pen, and you'd go over to him and he'd say, 'I'll get you four or five more [innings].' "

Seven years after his sparkling rookie season and 2 years after he threw his last pitch in the major leagues, the righthander will take the mound for the Phillies tomorrow night hoping to provide an improbable answer to the questions that have faced the rotation since Brett Myers' season-ending hip surgery.

The 33-year-old native of Mexico earned the opportunity with his recent performance for Triple A Lehigh Valley, where many of the organization's top talent evaluators have spent the last week dissecting potential starters for the beginning of the Phillies' three-game series against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. While top prospect Carlos Carrasco and fellow righthanders Andrew Carpenter and Kyle Kendrick drew consideration, the front office decided that Lopez' recent performance, along with the experience of six-plus major league seasons, presented the most palatable option.

"We just thought with Rodrigo - the experience he had, [the fact that] he's pitched very well - it was time to give him a chance with us and see how he'd throw," assistant general manager Benny Looper said.

Now, Lopez will try to give the Phillies a reason to keep him around. Lefthander Antonio Bastardo, who showed flashes of brilliance - and flashes of the opposite - in five starts, will be sidelined until after the All-Star break with a shoulder strain. And thanks to an uncertain trade market, the Phillies may not have the opportunity to add a starter until closer to the July 31 deadline, if at all. Lopez' spot in the rotation will arrive once more before the All-Star break, meaning he has an opportunity to stick around.

During his early days in Baltimore, Lopez possessed a fastball that sat in the high 80s to low 90s, with a slider and a changeup. Phillies veteran slugger Matt Stairs, who is 6-for-19 in 21 career plate appearances against Lopez, said he did a good job of changing speeds on his fastball to keep hitters off balance.

"He was one of those guys who could frustrate you," Stairs said. "He was a pretty good add-and-subtract guy. He was one of those guys, he made you frustrated because you'd look at one pitch, then he'd add or subtract a couple miles."

Regardless of how Lopez performs, his mere presence on the mound will cap a long comeback. After he lost 18 games for the Orioles in 2006, the team traded him to Colorado, where he went 5-4 with a 4.42 ERA until suffering a season-ending elbow injury midway through the 2007 season. Lopez has spent much of the past 2 years attempting to regain the form he displayed during his early years in Baltimore, when he won 51 games from 2002-05. He started three games in the Braves' system last season before signing with the Phillies as a minor league free agent this spring.

In 13 starts at Lehigh Valley this season, he was 5-4 with a 3.91 ERA, with a fastball that ranges from 87 to 91 mph.

"He's a locating kind of guy," Perlozzo said. "He had a nice little tight slider, and spotted his fastball, and just competed. I'm kind of anxious to see what he looks like after surgery and all."

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For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.

 

Righthander Clay Condrey (strained oblique) long-tossed at 120 feet yesterday but has not thrown off a mound since being placed on the disabled list retroactive to June 18. Condrey is eligible to be activated July 4 . . . Ryan Howard has been named one of the 50 highest-earning American athletes by Sports Illustrated, checking in at No. 39 with a $15 million salary and $1.5 million in endorsements . . . Lefthander Joe Savery, righthander Vance Worley, outfielder Michael Taylor and infielder Neil Sellers will represent Double A Reading in the Eastern League All-Star Game July 15 in Trenton. *