The Phillies are losing a key piece to their infield depth
Phillies utility man Andres Blanco suffered a broken left index finger Sunday afternoon against Pittsburgh, and is expected to be placed on the 15-Day disabled list. Blanco was spiked by Pirates right fielder Gregory Polanco while covering third base.
Polanco was stealing third base, and catcher Carlos Ruiz fired a Vincent Velasquez pitch over to Blanco, who started for Maikel Franco.
The Phillies third baseman’s glove was wedged in-between the base and Polanco’s spikes, and his finger was outside of the glove at the time of the play.
Great picture of the Blanco injury from Gene J. Puskar of the Associated Press pic.twitter.com/5khSxx4YZT
— PHILLIES TBOH (@FS_TBOH) July 24, 2016
He immediately fell to the ground in pain and headed to the Phillies dugout. Team trainers gave him gauze pads to control the bleeding, but when examining the finger decided to take a look in the clubhouse.
Blanco was pulled from the game and replaced by Maikel Franco, who was sitting out for a second consecutive day after getting hit in the wrist by a pitch.
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Blanco hit a solo home run in the first inning against Pirates starter Jameson Taillon. The home run should have produced two runs, but Cesar Hernandez was caught sleeping over at third base. He finished the game 1-2 with a strikeout in his second at bat.
The most-likely option for the Phillies is to call-up Emmanuel Burris from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Burris started the season with the Phillies, but hit just .121 in 27 games. Since being sent to Lehigh Valley, Burris is hitting .286 with five doubles.
Over his last 10 games however, Burris is hitting just .235 with seven strikeouts.
The Phillies/Pirates game was forced to go into a rain delay midway through the bottom of the eighth inning with the Pirates up 5-4.