Phillies Notes: Phillies' Ruiz takes a seat with back pain

PHOENIX - If the four-hour plane ride home for Carlos Ruiz was comfortable, it was only due to some painkillers.

The Phillies catcher felt pain in his lower back after hitting a fly ball to left field in the first inning of Wednesday's 8-4 win over the Diamondbacks. It was serious enough that Ruiz asked out of the game without even crouching to catch.

The catcher said he is concerned about the injury because it's something he has felt before, but never this painful.

"I feel sore right now," Ruiz said after the game.

Ruiz will see a doctor during Thursday's off day for some tests. He said the pain is sharp in his lower back, and it goes all the way down his right leg.

"I felt it a little bit when I swung," Ruiz said. "When I was running, I didn't feel anything when I stopped at first base. When I started walking to the dugout, that's when I felt it."

Ruiz is mired in an 0-for-23 slump that has dropped his season batting average to .226. Charlie Manuel gave him the day off Tuesday and had him start the day game Wednesday against a lefthander.

But when Cole Hamels took the mound in the bottom of the first, it was Brian Schneider calling the game, not Ruiz.

"I didn't even notice," Hamels said. "We have a plan. No matter who is going to call the game, you just stick with the plan. That's what I was able to do. It's not like it was Schneider's first game catching me. That would be a little hairy at times. We know each other."

If the Phillies need another catcher, the likely option is Erik Kratz, who was signed as a minor-league free agent this winter and was hitting .333 (8 for 24) for triple-A Lehigh Valley entering Wednesday's play. Dane Sardinha, who saw time with the Phillies in 2010, was hitting .088 (3 for 34).

Ruiz said he was not sure if he would need to go on the disabled list.

"I can't tell you right now," he said.

Placido Polanco, the one batter in the Phillies lineup whose approach has needed no tinkering, had another four hits and three runs Wednesday. Polanco is hitting .389, and that leads the National League.

"That's why we brought him over here, because he can flat-out hit," Jimmy Rollins said. "He's carried a lot of the offense."

Polanco hit .500 (12 for 24) on the seven-game western trip. He has 37 hits this month, becoming the seventh Phillie in the last 42 years to have at least 30 hits in April.

Raul Ibanez struck out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning to raise his hitless streak to 26 at-bats. John Mayberry Jr. started in left field against lefty Joe Saunders and was 1 for 3 with two walks.

Meanwhile, Domonic Brown was 2 for 4 with a home run in his first rehab game with single-A Clearwater.

Antonio Bastardo allowed a solo home run to Chris Young in the eighth, snapping his scoreless streak of 92/3 innings to begin the season. . . . Wilson Valdez was 0 for 4. In his last 24 plate appearances, he has failed to hit a ball out of the infield. . . . Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee each struck out at least 12 batters on consecutive days in their last starts. It was the first time that has happened in Phillies history dating from 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.