Phillies Notebook: Positive news for Halladay and Oswalt

CHICAGO - Around 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, Roy Oswalt climbed onto a bullpen mound at Wrigley Field and went back to work. Earlier in the day, Roy Halladay did the same after arriving at the ballpark from the team hotel off Michigan Avenue.

The reports on both men were positive.

Halladay, who left a 6-1 loss to the Cubs on Monday night in the fifth inning because of heat exhaustion and dehydration, tapered down his usual day-after workout program but expects to resume his usual routine today. Oswalt, who has spent most of the last month on the disabled list, threw off a mound for the first time since June 23, when bulging disks in his back knocked him out of a start in St. Louis after two innings.

While Oswalt seems unlikely to return before the end of the month, he shouldn't need much of August to prepare himself to rejoin the rotation, provided he continues to recover at his current pace. Halladay, meanwhile, plans to make his scheduled start against the Padres on Sunday.

"They don't think it's a concern," said Halladay, who will get an extra day of rest thanks to tomorrow's off day. "I think just getting back home and getting on a regular schedule [will help]. But they said they don't have any concerns. They said go a little easier today, and then get back to normal."

Halladay said that he simply overheated on Monday night, when the game-time temperature was 91 degrees and the humidity felt like a rain forest. He said he has pitched in conditions that were as hot and humid, but for reasons he did not know, his body did not cooperate this time. Pitching coach Rich Dubee said Halladay's hectic All-Star Game schedule might have contributed: The veteran righthander flew to Arizona on a Sunday, pitched two innings on a Tuesday, then flew back across the country.

"In that last inning [Monday], there was a point where I felt like I was about to get wheeled off the mound," he said. "It seemed like in between innings I couldn't get away from it. It's almost as hot in here as it is out there, and you just can't escape it. I think it just got to the point where it just kept continuing and it kept getting hotter and hotter, and I just couldn't stop it."

He tried shedding his undershirt, and changing his uniform, and soaking his body with ice-cold towels.

Halladay said he is always cautious about hydrating, drinking plenty of fluids and ingesting electrolyte pills the day before each start.

"Obviously, you prepare yourself to start, not only working out but hydrating and everything, you do all of it, and sometimes you really can't explain it," said Halladay, who labored through four innings before finally leaving the game after allowing a leadoff single in the fifth. "They couldn't really tell me exactly why that would happen. It was just circumstances, I guess. Sometimes your body gets a little worn down and some of the other circumstances just kind of get you."

Oswalt, on the other hand, looked fresh and rejuvenated during his bullpen session, which will be followed by another one on Friday. He threw all of his pitches, and according to one professional observer, did so impressively.

"By my eyes," Dubee said, "he was pretty good. He threw the ball very well."

Oswalt figures to need more than one rehab outing before he is ready to rejoin the active roster. After his abbreviated outing in St. Louis, he expressed serious concern about his back, which later would be diagnosed as having two bulging disks. Oswalt received a series of injections from a specialist in Houston before rejoining the Phillies.

He opened the season in the same dominant fashion he finished 2010, going 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA while striking out 21 and walking six in 24 innings over four starts. But after a stint on the disabled list in early May, which followed a leave of absence to return to his tornado-stricken home state of Mississippi, Oswalt never regained his usual form. In eight starts before returning to the DL, he went 1-5 with a 4.06 ERA while striking out just 21 batters and walking 11 in 44 1/3 innings.

"He was very limited," Dubee said. "He had a tough time staying on that left side, on that left leg, being able to stay through his line with extension. Today was a good sign, a real good sign."

Righthander Joe Blanton, who suffered what the team described as a "hiccup" in his sore right elbow over the weekend, played catch yesterday in Clearwater, Fla. Rich Dubee said that Blanton was "feeling better," but that there is no timeline for his return . . . Righthander Jose Contreras (elbow) has yet to begin a throwing program . . . Righthander Brad Lidge (shoulder/elbow) is scheduled to make his eighth rehab appearance tonight. Lidge, who will suit up for Class A Lakewood, said on Sunday that he hoped to be ready to rejoin the Phillies for this weekend's home series against the Padres. The Phillies have been noncommittal when asked about the possibility of such a return.