Photo: William A. Guerro/Icon SMI
26 July 2007: Phillies 2b Chase Utley #26 reacts after being hit on the hand by a pitch from Nations starting pitcher John Lannan in the game between the Washington Nationals v Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA.
Chase Utely’s broken hand sends him to the disabled list:
Utley, generally considered the best second baseman in the game and a National League MVP candidate, indicated that he will miss at least 3 weeks with a fractured right ring finger.
He will land on the 15-day disabled list today. He will visit hand specialist Dr. Randall W. Culp at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital today to see if surgery is needed.
Both Utley and Magglio Ordonez chased the doubles record this season. Magglio fell off the pace recently, but Utley was still close. Missing at least three weeks is going kill that possibility. Ordonez could get hot again, but his career doubles numbers indicate that’s not likely. While we marvel in the home run records, but Webb’s single season mark and Speaker’s career total have proven much more difficult to conquer.
The drop from Utley to Nunez is only about 300 OPS points. One player is just one player, but in a league as tightly bunched as the NL, the Phillies sure don’t need this major loss. They’re only 2 1/2 out of the wild card, so they may hang in until Utley returns (and hopefully hits as well as he did before the injury).