Phillies Place Lee on DL

The Phillies placed Cliff Lee on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 19, with a left oblique strain and recalled pitcher Joe Savery from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to replace him on the roster.

Kyle Kendrick will start in Lee's place on Monday and presumably, Savery will become the long-man.

This injury is the that starts to get you feeling like, is this just not our season?  Already five games behind a talented Washington team that reminds me of the 2008 Tampa Rays and the Phillies resemble the 2008 Yankees.

The 2008 Rays were a young, up-and-coming team that was led by solid young pitching and a young core of position players that went all the way to the World Series.  The 2008 Yankees were an aging team that just always seemed to have something go wrong and they missed the playoffs for one season.

Could that be the story of the 2012 Phillies?

Ryan Howard  has an infection around his surgically-repaired left Achilles tendon that isn't completely healed.  His current recovery timetable still points to a late-May or early-June return.

Chase Utley is still rehabbing in Arizona and is expected to meet up with the team when the Phillies take on the Diamondbacks. There's no timetable for his return.

And Lee is hurt.

Lee has a left oblique strain, he said he thinks he's "heading in the right direction" and that his stint on the disabled list will be a short one.

"We were debating on whether to just miss a start or go on the 15-day DL," Lee said. "So we erred on the side of caution and played it safe. I can't really argue with that. The past couple of days it was pretty sore. But today it felt better than yesterday. We're heading in the right direction. Hopefully I’ll miss just a couple of starts and it will be back to normal."

Lee is eligible for activation on May 4, but will he be ready?  Obliques are tricky and rarely result in minimum DL stints.

The way this season has started, nothing would surprise me, including the Phillies missing out on the playoffs.