PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies find themselves four games back of the Cardinals with 10 games remaining after their 8-2 loss to the Braves yesterday.
And after Roy Halladay’s awful outing against the Braves in which he was clearly being bothered physically, it’s about time the Phillies consider shutting down the ace two weeks early and not risk him further injuring himself.
Halladay was experiencing spasms behind his shoulder on Friday and went ahead and started anyway against the Braves. He threw 51 pitches in 1 2/3 innings, surrendering six runs.
“He didn’t have a whole lot,” manager Charlie Manuel said of Halladay. Halladay felt he should have competed much better than he did despite the issues.
It’s been a tough year for Halladay, who is 10-8 with a 4.40 ERA, his worst numbers since 2004 with the Blue Jays. Halladay also had a stint on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation after his velocity was noticeably down earlier in the season.
“It’s obviously been a tough year . . . going into the DL stint, coming off the DL stint. It seems like it’s been things here and there,” Halladay said. “You do the same things year after year. I feel I need to make some changes and do things differently. I think that comes with age.”
If the Phillies do in fact shut down Halladay, they would need to find a replacement starting pitcher to pitch his final two starts.
A candidate could be reliever B.J. Rosenberg, who made six starts with Lehigh Valley this season, Matt Gelb wrote.
Halladay would prefer that he finish the season, and hopefully on a high note.
“I hope so,” Halladay said Saturday. “See how things are [Sunday]. But like I said, they don’t feel like it’s anything that they’re overly concerned about. It’s probably poor timing more than anything. I don’t think it’s a major concern.”
TTB 