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A Phillies minor leaguer made his first in-game appearance since suffering a serious injury last summer on Monday in big-league Spring Training.
Nick Podkul, whose breakout season in the minors was cut short last July after he was struck in the face by a fastball, went 0-for-1 with a walk in his return to action as Philadelphia fell 7-6 to the Red Sox in a Grapefruit League exhibition at JetBlue Park.
Podkul, a seventh-round Blue Jays draft pick out of Notre Dame in 2018, signed with the Phillies organization before last season. After a brief stint on the development list, the infielder started a red-hot campaign at Double-A Reading that earned him a promotion to Triple-A in July.
Nick Podkul, welcome to the Lehigh Valley
— Lehigh Valley IronPigs (@IronPigs) July 15, 2023pic.twitter.com/4pHDUx3Ce9
His success continued early on for Lehigh Valley, but Podkul was hit in his face by a pitch in his eighth game for the team, sidelining him for the rest of the 2023 season. The right-handed hitter slashed .284/.407/.584 with 14 home runs in 53 minor-league games before the facial fractures put him on the injured list.
Now, after six months of dealing with the challenges of his injury, the 26-year-old is a non-roster invitee in major-league Spring Training for the first time. And with his first game back under his belt, Podkul will have a chance to try to return to the form that brought him success when he was healthy last year.
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