Romero tried to field a ball knocked back up the middle by Ryan Braun, but missed as he tried to push himself off the mound and immediately began hopping around on his left leg before falling to the ground and grabbing at his right calf.
The trainer came out and Romero was led off the field in obvious pain. After the game, skipper Charlie Manuel and Romero himself made it clear the injury was just as bad as it looked.
"He's probably going to miss a little time," Manuel told the media after the loss.
Romero agreed, saying he would "probably" miss some time. "I don't know," Romero continued. "Hopefully it's 15 days or so."
It sounds like Romero has reserved himself to the fact that he'll be hitting the DL here shortly, and that the only question left is whether he'll be back to full strength after two weeks and one day. Romero strained the same calf during Spring Training, and apparently tweaked that injury Monday night.
With Romero likely to hit the DL, the Phils will need to bring up another lefty to put in the bullpen. With Romero out, the only southpaw available to the Phillies is Antonio Bastardo. Bastardo has performed well thus far this season, but Manuel would likely prefer to keep two lefties in the pen if possible.
With that in mind, Mike Zagurski makes the most sense. Michael Stutes was a hot name during Spring Training, and he's carried a strong offseason into an impressive performance thus far for the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs, but as a righty, he's probably out of the running.
Zagurski, however, will easily fit into the role Romero was expected to fill as a guy who is expected to come in for an inning at most, and sometimes just to give the Phils a matchup advantage against one batter.
With the Phillies set to face the Brewers again Tuesday night at 7:05PM, it's likely a decision will be made quickly Tuesday morning and announced sometime in the afternoon.
