Brandon Phillips came back and played Monday after leaving Sunday’s game with a cramp in his left calf, but it appears he made the injury a whole lot worse tonight.
MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon has the quotes from the Reds second baseman:The calf is no bueno right now. I tried to play [Monday] because the [10-game] win streak was gorgeous and I wanted to keep it going, so I tried to man up and go out there and play. I hurt it [Monday] just playing, period.
To tell you the truth, I’m not going to be playing for a while. Dr. [Kremchek, Medical Director] looked at it and he said it was worse than what they expected. I didn’t know. I just knew it felt bad.
The Reds are already without their best player in Joey Votto, and now their second best could join him on the DL. Of course, they haven’t missed a beat without Votto, but Phillips will be a bit more difficult to replace at second base. Light-hitting veterans Wilson Valdez and Miguel Cairo are the team’s fallbacks at the position.
If Phillips lands on the DL, 22-year-old second baseman Henry Rodriguez could be called up to make his major league debut. Triple-A Louisville’s other middle infielder, Didi Gregorius, is a more promising prospect, but his experience at second base consists of one appearance in a minor league game in 2009.