Brad Lidge On Rehab Assignment From Abdominal Injury

Ouch. Now that you’ve felt some of that pain yourself, probably, here’s what happened in Lidge’s first rehab outing:

Brad Lidge was roughed up a bit in his brief rehab appearance for Class A Potomac this evening, allowing three of four Frederick batters he faced to reach safely in the bottom of the first before being pulled upon reaching his predetermined pitch count.

The veteran reliever, out since late April following surgery to repair a sports hernia, struck out the first batter he faced, then issued a walk and two singles, allowing one run to score in the process. He threw a total of 22 pitches, only 10 of them strikes.

Turned out to be something a bit more serious, a hernia; the good news is that Lidge is now on the road to recovery:

It could take up to three weeks before Lidge is cleared to throw again, and then it’s likely he’ll have to go on a rehab assignment. Thus, the Nats will have to continue to to with Henry Rodriguez as their closer, probably for another month. Rodriguez has pitched reasonably well, recording five saves, but he also leads the National League in wild pitches, with four.