Penny to have MRI on shoulder

If you have watched him pitch these past few weeks, it was fairly obvious something wasn't right. He just hasn't been himself. Below is the story I filed for tomorrow's paper which gives all the details. Should know more on Monday, according to Stan Conte, but my guess is it's highly unlikely that he'll be told nothing is wrong and he can just keep on pitching. That NEVER happens in a case like this.

By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
DETROIT -- On an afternoon that wasn't nearly as long ago as it now seems, a day when Dodger Stadium was bathed in bright sunshine and even brighter hopes for the home team, Brad Penny took the mound and looked every bit the part of a two-time All-Star. He pitched into the seventh inning, shutting out the San Francisco Giants on four hits, and ultimately got credit for the Dodgers' first season-opening victory in five years.
Two and a half months later, the real Penny hasn't been seen since. And after what happened on Saturday, when the Dodgers fell 12-7 to the Detroit Tigers before 42,348 at Comerica Park, the knockoff version might not be seen for a while, either.
Penny, who has been taking oral doses of an anti-inflammatory drug called toradal before starts for most of the season to lessen the effects of discomfort he now says he has been feeling in his shoulder for weeks, will fly back to Los Angeles this morning and see team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday. The veteran right-hander is expected to undergo an MRI exam to determine why he hasn't gotten any better.
The decision was made after Penny's latest implosion, a 3 2/3-inning, seven-run nightmare that was horribly timed to coincide with a day when the Dodgers' train derailment of an offense finally seemed to get itself back on track. And the saddest part of the whole thing is that Penny's potential absence isn't likely to have much of an effect given the way he has pitched lately, and against the backdrop of a starting rotation whose combined ERA drops by nearly half a run (4.43 to 3.98) when you remove Penny's numbers from the equation.
It isn't that the pain has gotten worse. It's just that there is so much more of it.
``I didn't feel good in the first inning, and I didn't feel good in the bullpen,'' Penny told reporters. ``I feel it on every pitch, so that makes it tough. It affects everything. The big thing is location. When you know it's going to hurt, you don't really want to throw it.
``It's not going to get any better, so I need to find out what's going on.''
For two innings, Penny looked fine, even if he didn't feel that way. He retired the Tigers in order in both of them. But it was clear something was wrong by the third, when he walked the first two batters, gave up a game-tying single to Curtis Granderson and was lucky to keep it there when he got Placido Polanco to ground into an inning-ending double play.
By the fourth, the Tigers were exploding for six hits off Penny. Two of them were two-run homers by Miguel Cabrera and Marcus Thames. Another was an RBI triple by Curtis Granderson.
It isn't immediately clear what Penny's absence will mean for the rotation. It also was revealed after the game that long reliever Chan Ho Park, the most likely to step in if there were an opening, also is dealing with a shoulder issue. But that one is believed to be minor, and manager Joe Torre said Park should be available for today's series finale.
It also isn't immediately clear whether Penny will even be absent. But then, these things almost never end well.
``It's obviously something we have to tend to,'' Torre said. ``We'll have to wait and see what Dr. ElAttrache says.''
Although Penny is the Dodgers' alleged ace, he has mostly been a shadow of his usual self, whether because of the injury or not. Although he had given the Dodgers (31-37) quality starts in each of his previous two outings, he hadn't gotten enough run support to win either of them. In his five starts before that, he had given up 29 earned runs in 27 2/3 innings.
Penny (5-9) hasn't been credited with a win since May 2.
At least this time, he couldn't complain about the offense -- not that he ever complained about it anyway. It might have been the pregame meeting called by hitting coach Mike Easler, or it might have been some jitters on the part of Tigers right-hander Eddie Bonine (1-0), who was making his major-league debut. But whatever it was, the Dodgers exploded for seven runs on 13 hits, with six of those hits going for extra bases.
Andre Ethier had a huge day, going 2 for 4 with a two-run double and a two-run homer, and James Loney went 3 for 5 with two doubles and scored two runs.
That, alas, was little comfort to Penny.
``I'm not doing the team any good,'' he said. ``I'm not doing myself any good.''