Phillies Notebook: Rehab start in big leagues for Oswalt

ST. LOUIS - It turns out that Roy Oswalt will need at least one more rehab start after all.

It's just that he's going to do it in the major leagues instead of the minors.

Oswalt will pitch in the big leagues tonight for the first time since April 26, when he allowed five runs in three innings at Arizona, then left the team to help his family clean up tornado damage around their Mississippi properties. When he returned he still was experiencing the lower-back inflammation that had bothered him before he departed and was placed on the disabled list. He made a start for the Class A Clearwater Threshers last Thursday, but his velocity was down.

So even he admits he has no idea what to expect when he faces a Cardinals lineup that includes Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman.

"It should be interesting," he said casually. "The biggest thing is just getting my arm strength going again. You've got to build your arm strength when you haven't thrown in a while. It may take a start or two to get going."

A start or two to get it going? Was any consideration given to letting him work himself back into pitching shape in the minors?

Apparently not. "No, they needed somebody to throw [tonight]," he said.

Which isn't strictly true. To make room when Oswalt was activated, the Phillies yesterday optioned righthander Vance Worley back to Triple A Lehigh Valley. Worley made two impressive starts when called up from the IronPigs.

Ruben Amaro Jr., however, said there was never any question that Oswalt would pitch if he was physically able.

"I'd rather have him start here than there," the general manager declared. "Why? He's healthy. And he's a professional."

But Oswalt said his arm strength isn't where it needs to be?

"If he said he was not feeling healthy enough to pitch, then we would not pitch him," Amaro continued. "We'll see how it goes. Hopefully he'll be fine. I asked him if he felt OK to pitch, he said fine, so he's pitching."

But there were choices, right?

"We could have [kept Worley]. But I'd rather have one of our best pitchers pitching than not," Amaro said.

Manager Charlie Manuel said Oswalt probably won't be allowed to throw more than 60 to 65 pitches, so the bullpen figures to get some work.

Oswalt sort of shrugged off the whole issue. "I'm going to go out and give 100 percent. And if it don't work, it don't work. I'm going to try, though. That's all you can do. It might not be good enough this time, it might not be good enough next time. But if I keep doing it, it should be," he said.

He also seemed genuinely unconcerned that his fastball wasn't as crisp as it has been. "The biggest thing about it is when you have a back issue, your workouts ain't the same. You don't get to do your leg workouts because you're trying to protect your back," he said. "So that might be a little bit of the reason the velocity wasn't there the last start. I don't know. But I feel good and we'll see how it goes.

"When you don't have 94 or 95, you have to learn how to pitch. If you don't know how to pitch, you're going to get hit around. Hopefully I can get my location going. Velocity ain't no big deal to me. I feel like I can throw enough offspeed pitches and locate the ball well enough where I can pitch."

As Oswalt himself said more than once, we'll see.

Charlie Manuel had nothing but nice things to say about 23-year-old Vance Worley, who started and also relieved in a variety of roles. He was 2-0, 1.13 in four appearances, allowing just nine hits in 16 innings while striking out 15.

"There was a lot of thought to keeping him. At the same time, we do have question marks about Roy [Oswalt]. We are concerned about Roy and Joe Blanton. So we figured we'd better keep Worley stretched out," Manuel said. "We could keep him here and use him in our 'pen. But at the same time, right know we feel it's more important to have him stretched out and keep him on a regular turn. If we leave him down in the bullpen too much, we'd be back to square one with him.

"He can pitch here. There's a spot on our team for him. We'll get him."

Rehabbing second baseman Chase Utley played a second straight game for Class A Clearwater last night.

Utley, who went 1-for-4, played the entire game. That's significant only because Ruben Amaro repeated yesterday that he believes Utley (patellar tendinitis in right knee) needs to play back-to-back complete games before the team would seriously consider activating him.

"He needs more at-bats," the general manager said.

Utley will not play today.