On Monday night, Ryan Howard took a short-hop throw from Freddy Galvis off of his leg in the seventh inning. In the eighth, he was lifted from the game. What looked to be an innocent ground ball could turn into the season ending for Howard, who needed to go to the hospital for his knee.
According to Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News, Howard had to made a trip to the ER after Monday's game after his knee condition continued to get worse that night.
"He had to go to the emergency room to get his knee drained, so that doesn't look good," manager Pete Mackanin said. "But we're just going to go day to day to see what happens."
With just over two weeks remaining this season and the Phillies continuing to look at young players, the possibility of Howard getting shut down for the rest of 2015 seems likely. He left the ballpark on Monday with crutches and was still using them on Tuesday to keep weight off of his leg.
"It's a possibility," Mackanin said. "Day to day could be eight days from now, so I don't know for sure. We just don't want to commit [if], three or four days from now, he says he feels fine. The thing with Howie that's admirable is this guy wants to play. You've seem him over the years, he posts up every day, he's ready to play every day. That's a nice trait to have. So we'll wait and see."
If Howard misses the rest of the season, it will give the Phillies yet another look at Darin Ruf. He's primarily seen time against left-handers, slashing .369/.427/.595 in 96 plate appearances. When Ryan Howard was out with a knee injury in 2013, Ruf hit .247 with 14 home runs in 73 games.
