Pregame notes: Recovering pitchers

If the Phillies want to leave town with Luis Robert Jr. on their team bus, they will at least get a chance to get a final in-person look at him.

It just might not be Robert at maximum capacity after he added a bruised right forearm from Sunday's ninth inning hit by pitch, to his already sore groin.

"He’s banged up, but he’s in there," Will Venable said. "He’s in a good spot to play. But definitely sore on the forearm and still working his way back with the adductor. He’s grinding like a lot of these guys are and that’s part of it."

Robert is also hitting .294/.422/.544 against left-handers this season, explaining as he has in the past that not needing to worry about sliders running away from him simplifies his approach, and Cristopher Sánchez is one of the best left-handers in the league. So, he's sort of needed, and the lavish praise that was being issued reflects that.

"He’s extremely competitive and he wants to be on the field," Venable said. "Especially this last stretch we’ve been on, he’s been a big part of that and he understands his value to this club and the impact he has and wants to be out there. At the same time, we want to do the right thing by him and make sure he’s healthy, like we want all our players to be healthy. Find that balance. It’s great to have a guy who wants to go out there and compete with his teammates."

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Speaking of competing with his teammates, Martín Pérez believes he's about two weeks away from being able to do that after throwing two simulated innings against teammates in the searing heat of Wednesday afternoon.

Sure, he allowed home runs to Josh Rojas and Michael A. Taylor, but those are kinks to work out during the rehab assignment. As a pending free agent in his 14th season, Pérez has plenty of reason to see value in showing what he can do over the home stretch of the season.

"Especially when you are 34 years old, you have to tell the people you are healthy," Pérez said. "I want to be back to the rotation. I want to be with my teammates, the starters. I want to feel that I’m a part of the team. I was focused on my rehab and trying to do everything and get ready to get to this point."

Speaking of innings-limited pitchers that the return of Pérez could account for, Shane Smith threw a bullpen that went well enough that he's expected to activated during the coming road trip, without a rehab assignment needed.

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Statcast grades out Colson Montgomery as +2 Outs Above Average at third base in limited time, even after his eventful Sunday. That gives Venable some extra standing to laud how Montgomery has handled his transition to playing there, after only playing four games at the hot corner this season in Triple-A, even in light of his eventful Sunday.

"I thought those were tough plays," Venable said of Montgomery's two errors. "We’ve seen him make some really good plays over there and with every play, every rep he gets he’s going to learn something to get better. Certainly, he’ll benefit from those plays and learn from them. He’s been great. I thought those were just a couple of tough ones and we’ve seen him make those before. Just got to keep going and continue to grow and get comfortable over there."

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