PHILADELPHIA — A simple foul ball halted Ben Revere’s hot streak.
Revere will have surgery Tuesday on his broken right foot and is expected to miss six to eight weeks, leaving the Philadelphia Phillies looking for another centre fielder.
“I think it’s going to be something that’s going to take a while,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “If that’s the case, we’ll probably be looking for a centre fielder if there’s one available.”
Revere broke his foot on a foul ball before hitting into a double play to end Philadelphia’s 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox in Game 1 of a doubleheader Saturday. Before going down, Revere had been one of the top hitters in baseball over the past two months. He was hitting .347 since May 1 to raise his average from .200 to .305. Since June 12, Revere was hitting .407 (48 for 118).
“It’s one of those deals,” Revere said Sunday. “It’s part of the game. I’ve probably hit a couple balls on the same spot a couple times and really nothing happened, except a bruise. But this was finally the one that cracked it.”
Acquired from Minnesota last off-season, Revere started slow with his new team. But he had solidified the leadoff role, allowing manager Charlie Manuel to move Jimmy Rollins around and have more lineup flexibility. Revere leads the Phillies with 22 stolen bases and his .338 on-base percentage is second to Michael Young’s .344.
“Ben Revere has given us a lift,” Amaro said.
John Mayberry Jr. started the last two games in Revere’s place and hit a game-tying, solo homer in a 2-1 win Saturday night, and had a game-winning RBI single in extra innings Sunday.
Still, the Phillies will be looking for an upgrade.
“John is a good centre fielder, he’s solid,” Amaro said. “He’s not a plus defender, so if we can get a better one, that would be good.”
While they’ll be exploring the trade market for proven centre fielders, the Phillies are considering internal options in their minor-league system. Cesar Hernandez, who filled in a few games at second base last month when Chase Utley was injured, recently was moved to centre field at Triple-A Lehigh Valley and will be heading to Double-A Reading to play the position exclusively.
The Phillies are back in the playoff race after starting this month 9-4 to reach .500 at the All-Star break. They’re 6 1/2 games behind NL East-leading Atlanta and 4 1/2 behind Cincinnati for the second wild-card spot.
