Jesus Flores

will have an MRI on his sprained left ankle tomorrow, and while manager Manny Acta said Flores would likely play again this season, he qualified it by saying "I'm not a doctor -- and I didn't stay at that hotel last night, either, so don't take my answer for it."

It was about the only joke floating around a shaken Nationals team, who likely lost their young catcher for at least two weeks after Chase Utley slammed into him at home plate in the third inning.

No Nationals player I talked to said the hit was dirty--they all know Utley is an aggressive player and had no chance to score on the play unless he tried to knock the ball out of Flores' hand. But it was a scary moment for a team that just saw its longest winning streak of the season end at seven games.

As we reported earlier tonight, the Nationals wasted little time in calling up Luke Montz from Class AAA Columbus to be the second catcher while Flores is out, contacting him almost immediately after Flores went down. It was a little surprising Montz didn't get a Sept. 1 call-up, considering some in the organization have talked about him competing for the backup job next year, but he'll be here tomorrow. He wasn't on anyone's radar to start the year, didn't get invited to big-league camp and Acta said, "I've never seen him before in my life." But he hit 16 homers in the minors this year, 14 at Class AA Harrisburg, and has caught some eyes with his bat.

A few more quotes from the Nationals and Phillies on the Flores-Utley play:

Acta: "We looked at the video several times. (Flores) was right in front of the plate, (Utley) went hard, just trying to knock the ball out of his glove. His cleat just got stuck in front of home plate, and that's why his ankle wouldn't give in, but we didn't think it was a dirty play."

John Lannan: "That's the way (Utley) plays, you know? It wasn't dirty. That's just the way he plays. They're in a playoff race. He's going to do whatever it takes to get an extra run. At first, I was in shock, because Flores was on the floor. But everybody knows how he plays. It wasn't dirty."

Ryan Zimmerman: "He's a player that plays hard. I don't know if it was out of line. I didn't think it was. It looked like Flo was in good position. He kind of just got it rolled up on (him). (Utley) was just trying to jar the ball loose. I haven't looked at it, but it didn't seem like it was anything out of line."

Charlie Manuel: "That's the way you play. I wish every one of my players played that way. That would be good."

And one more (funny) one from Manuel: "That's not old school. That's good school. That's the way you play the game, unless you want to put some rouge and makeup and lipstick on. (In a high voice:) 'Ooh, I gotta run over this guy.'"

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