Brandon Inge suffered the same injury Chase Utley currently battles. His story is not encouraging for Chase:

“The pain that is associated with it is not fun,” Inge said. “If I was standing straight up it was fine, and it’s fine until you get into a slight bend, and everything we do as athletes is bending. And the entire time that you’re bending your leg, it feels like someone is stabbing you with a knife.”

Utley, bothered by the injury since the start of spring training, got a cortisone injection Friday in an attempt to alleviate the pain, but he felt no improvement. That news did not surprise Inge. He said the only thing that helped him was something called a glucose injection, and he suggested that may be Utley’s best chance to play through pain this season.

“You have two options: You either get it taken care of now and you’re going to miss the season, or you’re going to have to really, really suck it up and play through pain,” Inge said. “Maybe if you give it a glucose injection and give it some time – give it a month – then maybe it will help. But I didn’t have the luxury of doing that.”

In the NL, the Phillies can’t hide Utley at DH. I also wonder how this injury will hurt his defense, since part of Utley’s value is his ability to prevent runs. Without Chase at full speed, even more pressure falls on the Phillies pitchers to carry this team. The four aces may very well need to all post ERAs under 3.00.