Manship strains right quad in extra-inning loss

PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies reliever Jeff Manship, who pitched four perfect innings of relief while striking out six, strained his right quad while trying to leg out a ground ball in the bottom of the 13th inning of Saturday's 5-4 loss to the Mets at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies had runners on first and second with nobody out. With Domonic Brown at the plate, outfielder John Mayberry Jr. moved into the on deck circle to bat for Manship. But when Brown grounded into a double play, leaving Ryan Howard at third with two outs, manager Ryne Sandberg called Brown back and let the pitcher hit for himself.

Manship hit a slow grounder up the middle and, for a moment, it looked as though he might write a storybook ending by winning his own game by beating the throw from shortstop Ruben Tejada. But a few steps before he reached the base he pulled up, clearly injured, and had to leave the game.

Afterward Sandberg said that Mayberry, his only remaining bat on the bench, had been a decoy and that he had always intended to leave Manship in for at least one more inning. After pitching in a 14-inning game on Friday night, right-handers Justin De Fratus and Mike Adams weren't available and he wanted to stay away from lefty Antonio Bastardo if possible.

When Manship departed, Bastardo came in to pitch for the fourth straight game and was charged with the loss.

"In an emergency situation, if we'd continued, we would have possibly had [starter Roberto] Hernandez for an inning, which would have affected his start on Monday," Sandberg explained.

Sandberg said no decision had been made about placing Manship on the disabled list, although after back-to-back 14-inning games it seems unlikely the team would go a pitcher short for even a game. "We're going to need some help for [Sunday]," he admitted.

Said Manship: "I hope this isn't anything major. I don't think it is. It was definitely a frustrating way to go out. I was feeling real good pitching. It's something to build on.

"I realized there weren't too many people left [in the bullpen], so it's basically on me at that point. That's what's really frustrating about getting hurt in that situation. I'm sure we were hoping not to throw Antonio there and we ended up having to. Everything felt like it was working for me there. It's just a frustrating way to go out."

Adding to the sense of futility was the fact that Manship might well have been safe if he hadn't gotten hurt. "It looked like he might have had a pretty good shot at beating that out if he'd been able to continue to run," Sandberg said.

Manship said he didn't feel any discomfort until the last five or 10 feet.

"I was going to do anything I possibly could to get that hit there. That would have been the first Major League hit and obviously a game-winner so I was going to do everything I possibly could," he said.