Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard underwent successful surgery on his torn left Achilles on Wednesday.

According to Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, the Philly slugger will be out of action for "five to six months" while he recovers. He hopes his first baseman can still make his first scheduled at-bat of the 2012 regular season in April.

It's a much better result than what was initially-feared following the injury.

Surgery was performed in Baltimore on Wednesday morning by Dr. Mark Meyerson.

Howard's left leg gave out as he tried to leave the batter's box after dribbling a grounder to the right side of the infield for what turned out to be the final out of the Phillies' Game 5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals and had to be helped from the field.

Stay up to date on Ryan Howard's progress at Phillies blog The Good Phight and SB Nation Philly.