Franco bruises wrist, unsure when he'll return
Phils rookie hit by pitch and exits, but X-rays negative
PHOENIX -- It looked bad, but it could have been much worse.
Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco suffered a bruised left wrist in the first inning of Tuesday night's 13-1 loss to Arizona at Chase Field. D-backs right-hander Jeremy Hellickson drilled Franco with a fastball, and Franco collapsed to the turf behind home plate, grabbing his wrist before being helped off the field.
Fortunately for Franco and the Phils, X-rays came back negative.
"I was scared," Franco said. "The only thing that I think about when the ball hit me was it was broken."
Franco entered the night hitting .277 (82-for-296) with 22 doubles, 13 home runs, 48 RBIs and 43 runs scored. If he had enough plate appearances to qualify, he would lead NL rookies with an .828 OPS and a .490 slugging percentange.
Franco does not know how much time he will miss.
"I mean, it's pretty sore," he said. "It's pretty bad, in the beginning when the ball hit me, I was just worried -- the only thing I was thinking about was that something bad was going to happen. I have to come in [Wednesday] and we'll see if I'm feeling better. I don't know how long it will take."
Said Phillies interim manager Pete Mackanin: "It looked bad. It sounded bad. I thought for sure it was broken."