According to Zachary Levine of the Houston Chronicle, the Astros have scratched J.A. Happ from his scheduled start against the Phillies tomorrow with an oblique injury.
Happ was pulled from Tuesday’s start against the Astros’ Triple-A team with a strained right oblique. It’s really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, since he’ll only be pushed back to face the Reds on Tuesday, but Happ was originally scheduled to pitch opposite Roy Oswalt, the man he was traded for last July.
Still, as Astros manager Brad Mills explained to Levine, they just didn’t want to take any chances with the 28-year-old southpaw.“The more we thought about it and talked about it, we wanted to give him a couple more days,” Mills said. “I know that he used to be a Phillie and he’s got a lot of excitement about throwing against his old teammates, but the smart thing was to give him a couple more days to try to heal that thing.”
“If something was to happen tomorrow, I wouldn’t forgive myself.”Bud Norris will get the nod tomorrow, instead.