In the bottom of the sixth inning last night, Braves' relief pitcher Eric O'Flaherty beamed Chase Utley in the back of the head. What, no brawl? I'm not ranting about how classless and trashy Atlanta is? Although I appreciate Ricky Bottalico's musings on which Brave will pay for it when revenge strikes, I have to say that it didn't look intentional at all.
The bright side:
1. Chase has great instincts and managed to whip his head around and have his helmet take the brunt of the pitch. He seemed stunned by the incident, and I'm sure it hurt(s) like hell, but his batting helmet did its job last night by keeping Utley's brains on the inside. Plus, no damage to that pretty face we love so much.
2. This incident could have have happened weeks from now. The implications of that are obvious, I'd say. Let's hope that this bump in the road will leave Chase feeling rested and healthy for October.
3. Wilson Valdez is no Chase Utley, but he's a pretty damned good sub. Injuries within our lineup are never fun, but the Phils have a knack for holding down the fort well when someone is out.
4. We have some breathing room. I'd neve suggest lying down and playing dead - but the truth is, we're 10.5 games ahead of the Braves in the East. If we didn't have such a cushion, I'm sure there would be a lot more panic in this city right now.
5. Chase has shown us that he can bounce back from an injury and perform extremely well on the field and at the plate. I'll be the first to admit that I was hesitant about getting excited for Utley's return from his DL stint earlier this season. Clearly, I was wrong. His speed and range of motion actually look better to me than they did pre-injury.
6. Our favorite second baseman is in good care. Team doctor Michael Ciccotti and Phils' trainer Scott Sheridan are being cautious and monitoring Utley. In a couple days, he will perform ImPACT testing, which will compare his reaction and response times to his baseline scores. The fact that Team Utley isn't taking this lightly is a good sign - it means that everyone is working to ensure his health and safety.
Why I'm worried. Maybe I shouldn't say "worried." I'm concerned about this incident for one reason: it happened to his head. It's a mild concussion, but a concussion nontheless. I'm generally pretty freaked out by any sort of head injury because so much could go wrong. After getting hit, Utley turned to the home plate umpire to ask him what had happened. I don't read lips very well, but I think the umpire replied with something in the neighborhood of "Ummmm ... you just took a 91 mph sinker to the head. That's what happened."
I guess the only thing we can do is wait and see (and make homemade glittery get well cards for Chase, of course). My best advice is to sit tight and see what the doctors tell us. Ruben Amaro, Jr. thinks that the injury is "very mild," and continues, "He got a 90-mile-an-hour fastball off the melon, so we're going to be cautious about it." Fair enough. Get well soon, Chase.
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