Phillies Notes: Worley has a bone chip on his throwing arm

After throwing 110 pitches against Arizona on April 24, Vance Worley went looking for Cole Hamels. The ball was coming out of Worley's right hand just fine. But there was extra pain in his elbow.

He remembered that Hamels had often talked about the same thing last season, when he pitched with a bone chip the size of a Tic Tac in his left elbow.

"What is, exactly, a bone chip?" Worley asked Hamels. "Can you give me some of your symptoms?"

Hamels started listing a few. When he finished, he asked Worley: "Do you have any of them?"

"I have all of them," Worley said.

"You have bone chips," Hamels replied.

Three weeks later, when the pain was too much, two examinations - an ultrasound and an MRI - confirmed Hamels' diagnosis: Worley has a bone chip. It likely will require offseason surgery.

Other than rest, what's the solution?

"Man up," Worley said. "That's the only thing I can do. I'll just grit and grind out there."

The 24-year-old Worley expects to test his elbow by throwing sometime this week. He is eligible to return from the disabled list May 27. Worley informed the team of the pain in his elbow around the time of the Arizona start.

"It got to the point where it was affecting the way I could long-toss and throw my bullpens," Worley said. "I started cutting everything shorter. I was just going out there on game day and pitching with everything I had."

That turned out quite fine. Worley posted a 3.07 ERA and 45-to-15 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his first seven starts. Now, he must manage the pain as Hamels did a season ago.

For the fourth consecutive game, Placido Polanco was missing from Charlie Manuel's starting lineup. Polanco, who pinch-hit Saturday and grounded into a double play, remained sore.

He also said his injury was not a bruised left knee, as originally termed by the Phillies, but a mildly sprained left ankle.

Polanco suffered the injury when he fouled a ball off a knee in Chicago and twisted out of the batter's box.

"When I run, I feel it," Polanco said. "It's sore. But it's getting better. It's getting better, and it's a day-to-day to thing."

About the only bright spot for the Phillies on Sunday was Jake Diekman. The lefthanded rookie struck out the side on 11 pitches in his first appearance since nearly blowing a game Thursday in Chicago.

Diekman fanned Adrian Gonzalez, Will Middlebrooks, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the eighth inning. They swung and missed at four of his 11 pitches.

Diekman has six strikeouts in three innings.

David Ortiz may have had the best 0 for 4 in recent memory. He struck out in his first at-bat but lined three balls for three outs. Two of them should have been base hits even in a normal shifted infield, but second baseman Freddy Galvis was placed perfectly to catch both in right field. . . . Domonic Brown started for the first time since May 7 and only the second time in 17 games for triple-A Lehigh Valley on Sunday. Brown had been sidelined by a left hamstring injury.