Ryan Howard can relate to Wainwright's Achilles' tear

ST. LOUIS - Outside the home dugout at Busch Stadium yesterday afternoon, minutes before the Cardinals took batting practice, a herd of reporters gathered. General manager John Mozeliak announced that longtime ace Adam Wainwright had a complete tear of his left Achilles' and would miss the remainder of the season.

Across the way, inside the visiting clubhouse, Ryan Howard felt for his fellow competitor.

"You never want to see anyone go down with injury, especially one like that," Howard said. "It's definitely tough."

Howard and Wainwright both broke into the big leagues around the same time, and have stuck with their respective National League teams through the duration of their big-league careers. When Howard won NL MVP honors in 2006, his first full season, Wainwright was closing postseason games for the eventual world champion Cardinals in his own rookie year.

Their teams met in the 2011 playoffs, when Howard tore his own left Achilles' on the final out of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park. Wainwright didn't throw a pitch that season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Wainwright, who has won 19 or more games in four of his last five healthy seasons, will have basically missed two of the last five seasons after he undergoes surgery on Thursday.

"I know what that means, I know what that's like," said Howard, who didn't have his first full season following Achilles' surgery until 2014. "It's tough, man. Especially with an injury like that, any injury, you have to prepare yourself mentally. The mental grind. And being the competitor and the athlete that he is - obviously going through Tommy John - I'm sure he's going to look at this as a challenge to get back again. Coming back from Tommy John, look what he's done. So it's just another obstacle."

Wainwright, who has finished in the top three of NL Cy Young voting four times since 2009, is expected to be sidelined 9 to 12 months.

"As long as he gets his surgery, and it's good and it's clean and the wound heals," Howard said. "Because that's what my complication was, the wound didn't heal properly, which prolonged everything else. So as long as the wound heals properly and he can start the rehab process, I think he'll be all right."

Howard had his Achilles' surgery in October 2011 and was able to begin running before spring training began 5 months later. But then the complications arose.

Howard is living proof that few rehabs continue with a smooth, upward progression back to the playing field. Although he was taking batting practice that March, his wound never didn't heal properly and it had to be cleaned out; he didn't make his 2012 debut until July.

"The wound never properly closed, which set everything back," Howard said. "So as long as the surgery is a success, the wound heals and he listens to his docs and gets into the rehab process - and continues to stay positive. Obviously, this isn't the first big surgery he's had."

Howard also had knee surgery on the same leg 21 months after Achilles' surgery. Although it's not 100 percent certain the two injuries were related, Howard warned against possibly overcompensating.

"The one thing you don't want, is you don't want to try to create complication patterns," Howard said. "With using your other side, and putting more weight on [the other] leg, having it work extra, that stuff."

More than anything, Howard understands coming back from any major injury means practicing a lot of patience.

"Once you go through all the physical rehab, and everything feels good, you're going to feel better than you think you do at times," Howard said. "And you're like, 'I think I can push it a little more.' So early on it's really pulling yourself back, just staying with the progressions and slowly working your way back."

Phillies righthander Severino Gonzalez is set to make his big- league debut opposite St. Louis' Michael Wacha tonight.

Gonzalez, 22, was 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA in three starts at Triple A Lehigh Valley. The 2013 recipient of the prestigious Paul Owens Award as the top minor league pitcher in the farm system, Gonzalez went 25-23 with a 2.99 ERA in 86 games in the last five seasons.

Gonzalez made a cameo this spring, throwing three scoreless innings in a Grapefruit League game against Atlanta.

"I was real impressed with his tone, he got the ball and threw it," manager Ryne Sandberg said. "He set a good tone for the defense behind him and threw strikes. He features a moving fastball and that'll be important to get ground balls. I think the first thing for him will just be to relax, settle in and establish the strike zone. I think that's always key to any pitcher that'd be in those shoes."

Although he could pitch himself into a permanent place in the Phillies' plans, Gonzalez is currently holding rehabbing righthander Chad Billingsley's place in the rotation. Billingsley (elbow) is expected to be activated early next month.

"He's closing in," Sandberg said. "As far as getting his pitch count up, he's getting closer to [us] having serious conversations about him."

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese