SAN DIEGO — Though the Phillies pulled off a come-from-behind, 7-5 win over the San Diego Padres to end a six-game West Coast swing Wednesday, the trip was still borderline disastrous.
The Phils lost leadoff man Andrew McCutchen for the remainder of the season with a knee injury on Monday.
On Wednesday, valuable reliever Seranthony Dominguez walked off the mound with a sore right elbow.
Dominguez would not speak with reporters after the game.
Manager Gabe Kapler described the right-hander as having symptoms of a mild strain. Kapler said there was no immediate concern for the ligament, but more will be known after Dominguez has an MRI in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Dominguez left the game after facing three batters in the eighth. He had also pitched Tuesday night. In fact, he looked quite good in that game, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun.
Regardless of what the MRI shows, Dominguez is likely to land on the injured list. That’s a high-residency area for Phillies relievers as Tommy Hunter, Adam Morgan, Pat Neshek, David Robertson, Victor Arano and Edubray Ramos are already there. Arano is likely out for the season. Hunter could be back by the end of the month. Morgan is just starting to throw.
MLB
Can the Phillies survive another key reliever going down?
“Totally fair question, but probably a little premature,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “We’d like to learn as much as we can before we go down the road of how to solve for being down another reliever. We’re not there yet. That doesn’t mean we weren’t going to start thinking about it immediately, but we’ll get him looked at tomorrow with the off day, so we have some time to game plan for what comes next.”
The Phillies addressed a need when they acquired slugger Jay Bruce earlier this week. There are clearly more needs that must be addressed. The Phils will need help in the starting rotation and bullpen if they are going to break a seven-year postseason drought.
Dominguez’ injury freshened the clamor for the Phillies to sign free agent Craig Kimbrel. He, however, signed a multi-year deal with the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. The Phillies had interest in Kimbrel dating to the offseason, but they favored a short-term deal. The Phils are banking on a healthy return of some of their injured veteran relievers.
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