According to David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News, Phillies stud 1B Ryan Howard will DH tonight at Citizens Bank Ballpark against the Toronto Blue Jays. Remember, tonight is technically a home game for the Blue Jays as they were forced to play in Philly because of the G20 Summit.
Manuel says that the move is to get Howard some kind of rest and to get Ross Gload some reps at first base. I don’t know about you, but I’m done with Gload. He’s set to bat ahead of catcher Brian Schneider, so expect a really powerful back end of the lineup (you watch, now that I said that they’ll go off).
Howard is still hitting fourth in the lineup, as expected.
Other than the fact that Ross Gload is going to play baseball tonight, I’m good with this move. Guys like Howard and Utley need to be handled with care at times to give them rest. It’s a long season and a little bit of a break might go a long way down the road.
Of course, it is still baseball and standing on first base for a couple of hours isn’t all that taxing.
