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Chase Utley still has not played in a spring training game and is destined to start the season on the disabled list.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — As with any news on Chase Utley’s right knee injury, the answers seemed to generate more questions. But one thing is clear: The biggest news in Camp Clearwater will soon become the biggest baseball news in South Philadelphia, too.
When the Phillies open the 2011 season a week from today at Citizens Bank Park, Utley will almost certainly begin the season on the disabled list.
“I would think so,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said of the likelihood Utley begins the season on the D.L. “We haven’t seen him on the field yet and we’re a week away. It’s likely he’s not going to be making our club, at least not right now.”
Utley hasn’t appeared in a game this spring, let alone been cleared to begin running exercises or regular fielding drills. He was diagnosed with patellar tendinitis, chondromalacia and bone inflammation in his right knee March 9.
Utley hasn’t spoken to the media about his condition since that date. Amaro said Utley will accompany the team to Philadelphia when camp breaks Monday, but offered no other clues as to what the next step is for the ailing second baseman.
“Nothing new,” Amaro said of Utley’s progress. “I think he feels better. We’ll see. It’s kind of a long-term process. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Utley has fielded ground balls while seated on a stool in the last week and a half, but hasn’t taken part in regular fielding practice in a month.
Roy Oswalt sat at his locker and answered questions candidly as if nothing was new in his preparation for the regular season. The only thing that reminded you of the scary day he went through less than 24 hours earlier was the bump behind his right ear.
A day after taking a line drive to the back of the head from Manny Ramirez, Oswalt said he was headache-free and feeling fine.
“It was a little bit stiff this morning but overall it went pretty well,” Oswalt said.
Surprisingly, Oswalt popped up after about a minute and first tried to talk his way into staying in the game.
“I’ve been in a few fights in my life and I’ve been hit pretty hard, but that right there stunned me for a little bit when it first hit me,” Oswalt said. “Before I went down, I was thinking, ‘Get the ball.’ I thought it might have just deflected enough where an infielder could have gotten it. In the game I’d have probably gotten up and gotten the ball.”
The severity of such an injury wasn’t lost on Oswalt. When he was a rookie with the Astros in 2001, Oswalt was a teammate of Mike Coolbaugh.
Three summers ago, Coolbaugh was killed when a foul ball, line drive struck him while coaching first base in a minor league game.
“We used to play cards all the time in spring training,” Oswalt said. “I knew him pretty well.”
Oswalt had X-rays and a CT scan taken Wednesday; all came back negative.
Much to his surprise, Placido Polanco’s name was not in the batting order when the card was thumb-tacked to the corkboard in the Phillies clubhouse Thursday morning.
His name wasn’t even listed among the reserves in the lineup card, prompting Polanco to first pencil his name in among the right-handed reserves and then to go ahead and write “Poli” into the phantom 10th spot in the order behind Cole Hamels.
But Polanco was doing all of his morning scribbling with a smile.
“I took the day off to make sure everything was good,” Polanco said later in the day.
Polanco hasn’t played in a game since hyper-extending his left elbow March 15. He said he was ready to return after hitting for the third straight day Wednesday.
Manuel said Polanco will play today against the Braves.
Brad Lidge pitched in his first Grapefruit League game since March 11 in the Phillies’ 7-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins Thursday.
Lidge, who had been sidelined with right biceps tendinitis, struck out the first two batters in the ninth inning before his outing unraveled. His second pitch to the third batter, Dustin Martin, landed over the fence for a solo home run.
Lidge then allowed a single and back-to-back walks. With the bases loaded and two outs, he was replaced with Mike Zagurski, who cleaned up the mess by striking out the only batter he faced.
“Brad hadn’t been out there for a while,” Manuel said. “His fastball looks a little bit better.”
Lidge wasn’t made available to comment.
Luis Castillo was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Thursday. He is 0-for-8 after his first two games since signing a minor-league contract. … Carlos Ruiz, who was hit with a pitch in the left elbow Tuesday, returned to the lineup Thursday. Ruiz was 2-for-3 with a double. … According to STATS Inc., Cliff Lee threw first-pitch strikes at a 69.7-percent clip last year, the highest percentage among ERA qualifiers. But opposing hitters also hacked at 37.2 percent of Lee’s first pitches, also the highest percentage by a significant margin, and they had a great deal of success: Hitters batted .348 and slugged .504 on his first-pitch offerings. Lee limited opponents to a .222 average and .340 slugging percentage in all other counts.
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