Phillies Notebook: Back spasms sideline Mike Adams

PHOENIX - After pitching in three of the previous four games, Mike Adams didn't warm up on Saturday, when fellow reliever Jonathan Papelbon pitched a five-out save.

Yesterday, Adams wasn't available again. But this time it wasn't related to his workload.

Adams is day-to-day with back spasms. The veteran set-up man said he first felt them while shagging in the outfield during batting practice before yesterday's game.

"I felt it right at the end of BP . . . the last 5 minutes of BP it grabbed me," Adams said. "I tried loosening it up, but I told them in the sixth inning I couldn't get loose."

The 34-year-old Adams pitched through pain last year and had a rib removed during surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome when the season ended. But he said yesterday was the first time in his career he "ever had to bow out of a game."

"I've had little spasms before," said Adams, who winced in pain at one point in the brief postgame interview. "But nothing this extreme."

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said the team would monitor Adams in the coming days. The Phils are off today before beginning a two-game series at home against Cleveland tomorrow night. They're off again on Thursday.

After Jeremy Horst struck out two in a perfect eighth yesterday, before the Phils' game-tying rally, Antonio Bastardo was summoned to keep the game tied in the bottom of the ninth. But after he walked Cody Ross with two outs, Bastardo was taken out with power-hitting righthander Paul Goldschmidt announced as the pinch-hitter.

It would have been the spot for Adams. Instead, Justin De Fratus was asked to get one of the game's hottest hitters out in his first major league appearance since September.

Goldschmidt had four home runs in a three-game sweep over the Dodgers earlier in the week and was hitting .364 with a 1.210 OPS in May. De Fratus, who only joined the Phillies on Saturday, was unaware of those numbers.

"No; I remember his numbers from last year, they were pretty good," De Fratus said. "I just wanted to go up there and attack him and see what happened."

De Fratus struck out Goldschmidt to take the game into extra innings.

"I like that," De Fratus said of coming through in a tough spot. "It was cool."

Adams may have been happier than De Fratus.

"Awesome," Adams said. "To be put in the fire like that in your first outing - and he punched him out."

Last year, things probably would have unraveled for Kyle Kendrick in the same spot. In fact, Kendrick suffered his worst start of 2012 at Chase Field, giving up seven runs on 11 hits in an ugly defeat last April.

But after giving up a home run and a triple to the first two batters he faced yesterday, Kendrick would allow just four more hits.

Kendrick allowed two runs in seven innings of a no-decision. One of those runs came after catcher Erik Kratz flubbed a rundown play to extend the first inning.

Kendrick has pitched at least six innings and allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last seven starts. He has a 1.84 ERA in that span.

Kendrick has a 2.47 ERA in eight starts this season, which ranks 10th in the National League. He was asked if his impressive numbers have started to sink in.

"No," Kendrick said. "I was talking to Roy [Halladay] the other day in the outfield about when you're going like that, you don't think about it. You just move on. Like tomorrow, I'm going to get ready for my next start. In the past, you'd wake up and feel good about yourself. 'Oh, I pitched great last night. Now I can sit on that for 4 days.'

"That's not really how I feel right now. Roy said that's where you want to be, talking about moving forward. You wake up and get ready for your next outing. That game's in the past."

After his first eight games in 2012, Kendrick had a 7.32 ERA.

"I'm trying to just be consistent every time out," Kendrick said. "I'm not that same old pitcher. I just try to go out there every outing and really concentrate on pitching deep into games and give us a chance to win."

A night after recording his first five-out save of 2013, Jonathan Papelbon retired three of the four batters he faced to record his sixth save of the season. Papelbon has converted 14 consecutive save opportunities dating back to last year. He also has a 14-game (14 2/3 innings) scoreless streak . . . Jimmy Rollins' leadoff home run on Friday was the 44th of his career, tying Brady Anderson for fourth all-time. He needs nine more to tie Craig Biggio. Rickey Henderson is first, with 81 leadoff home runs. The home run was also the 195th of Rollins' career, tying him for 10th place in franchise history with Bobby Abreu . . . Freddy Galvis started at third base in place of Michael Young and went 3-for-5. Galvis is hitting .280 (14-for-50) this season. He is hitting .293 (12-for-41) in 12 starts.

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