Bruce dodges a longer stint on IL with intercostal strain
PHILADELPHIA >> Could have been worse, Jay Bruce reasoned. He knows of what he speaks in this instance.
The Phillies’ veteran hitter will likely miss a couple of weeks with a pulled muscle near his rib cage after a particularly wrenching checkswing Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Diagnosed with a strained intercostal muscle, Bruce was happy to hear he wouldn’t have to repeat the process of recovering from a strain of an oblique muscle, which is in a nearby area but involves a whole lot more patience and recovery time.
“Obliques can really be pretty lengthy,” Bruce said Wednesday. “This is more of an intercostal sprain, I think they called it. So, optimistic for sure, (but) I’m not going to do anything crazy here for the next couple of days.
“I’ll let it calm down and kind of go from there.”
Bruce figures doing so will take some time but nothing like what would have been involved with an oblique rehab.
“I’m optimistic that it shouldn’t be too much longer ... maybe 10 days,” Bruce said. “It could be 10, it could be 15, I’m not sure. But it’s not nearly as bad as an oblique could be, so that’s a positive.”
And what could an oblique be? “Four to six weeks,” Bruce said. He’s been there, done that.
“I had an oblique in 2010 and it was down here on the side (of the lower rib cage),” Bruce said. “That was a true oblique. This is in front on my ribs. It’s much different. It still hurts when I cough and rotate on it, but like I said it’s the day after. So I’m just going to take a few days, let it calm down, try to keep my legs under me as far as conditioning ... play it by ear, really.”
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Bruce’s injury takes a valuable left-handed power-hitting bat out of the lineup, so the Phillies reached back into their recent memory banks and pulled out someone that fits that description as best possible.
They promoted Nick Williams from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, but not only because Williams showed some power from the left side the past couple of seasons until losing his job amid the offseason rebuilding project.
Williams lost his starting job after the additions of Andrew McCutchen and Bryce Harper, then earned a demotion by not performing, his lack of playing time eating into his batting stroke.
But after a herky jerky bubble ride between here and Lehigh Valley, he put together a very solid streak of weeks for the IronPigs.
Williams is hitting .345 with a 1.032 OPS through 28 games with the IronPigs. He’s also found longsought peace of mind at the plate.
“I just wasn’t putting any pressure on myself,” Williams said. “I allowed myself to just play and not worry about the next day. It was an in-the-moment type thing. I was playing a lot, so I was able to find myself at the plate.
“Mentally, it’s just stay the same. Do whatever I can and not put too much pressure on myself. And just keep the aggressiveness up, I’d say.”
Phillies manager Gabe Kapler put Williams right into a heavylefty starting lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Dodgers and slick right-hander Kenta Maeda.
“Anytime a player has success at any level and a little bit more sustained success, your optimism tends to grow in that player because you have recent evidence that things are going well,” Kapler said with a reference to Williams. “Then you try to ride that. We’ve seen that a little bit with Maikel Franco. When he starts to swing the bat well, you have evidence that things are moving in the right direction and you want to ride that. I think that’s true for Nick, too. He’s had some success in Lehigh.”
Williams’ upswing, he says, partially stemmed from a realization that he had to let go a little of the recent past.
After his last demotion to TripleA, he was able to do that, he said, by reading a lot and clearing out bad baseball thoughts.
“I was able to really clear my mind and just take the time to say when I go down here I’m going to do the best I can in all aspects of the game and just try to feel like myself again,” Williams said. “The few times I was up here I felt out of place just mentally and all together.
“I want to say it was a time for myself to really figure out like who I am and just figure out what I do good and things like that, just to really figure out myself as a player. It was tough. It was one of the hardest things I continue to battle with. But I’ve been keeping a positive mindset and I’ve just been playing my butt off and it’s been working out.”
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NOTES >> Not in the starting lineup for a second straight day was Franco, though Kapler assured him before the game that had more to do with Maeda’s success against righties than anything. Jean Segura was available to pinch-hit and may be back in the lineup Thursday in the series finale . ... Aaron Nola is scheduled to take the mound for Thursday’s 12:30 start against Ross Stripling (4-3, 3.65) and the Dodgers.