PHILADELPHIA — A rare bad night for the Phillies may have turned exponentially worse when Bryce Harper grabbed his left hamstring and limped off the field on the final play of Thursday night’s 7-4 loss to the Marlins.
Harper said he felt something in his lower hamstring when he was halfway up the first-base line on his game-ending groundout at Citizens Bank Park.
Harper will undergo further testing on Friday morning.
“He just felt his hamstring grab coming down the line,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Don’t know anything more than that, so we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to check him out.”
That was also the case for Kyle Schwarber, who left the game in the top of the ninth due to left groin tightness.
“He just felt his groin tighten up,” Thomson said. “So I got him out immediately, as soon as I knew about it. But again, I have no other news about that until tomorrow.”
Neither Harper nor Schwarber had much to add about their respective injuries in the immediate aftermath.
“Felt my lower hammy just a little bit,” said Harper, whose injury came on the same night he was named the starting first baseman for the National League in the 2024 All-Star Game. “We’re going to get an image tomorrow just to see what that looks like. See how I kind of feel tomorrow and go from there.”
Added Schwarber: “We’re going to see how it feels tomorrow and go from there. Personally, I don’t think it’s going to be super serious. See how we come in tomorrow and see how it feels.”
Contributing to the uncertainty is that neither player has dealt with his respective issue before.
Harper has landed on the injured list over the past few seasons due to Tommy John surgery, a fractured left thumb and a left forearm injury. During his time with the Nationals, he had IL stints for a hyperextended left knee, left thumb surgery and left knee bursitis.
He’s also missed games here and there with a sore back, a stiff neck, a jammed shoulder and groin tightness — but never once a hamstring issue.
“I’ve never had any soft tissue injury besides my elbow,” Harper said. “So just going to see what imaging looks like tomorrow and go from there.”
“I don’t know,” Harper said. “If I had something to go back on, I’d let you know, but I’ve never felt anything like this before. It hurts, but we’ll see what it feels like tomorrow.”
“I think everybody’s different,” Harper said. “Each body is different. So we’ll see.”
Making just his third start of the season in left field, Schwarber said he felt something “kind of grab” when he planted to throw the ball on an awkward play in the eighth.
With a runner on third, Marlins second baseman Otto Lopez hit a hard grounder toward shortstop Edmundo Sosa, who was playing in with the Phillies trailing by one. The ball went right under Sosa’s glove and Schwarber charged, barehanded it and threw off balance to second base in an attempt to get Lopez.
Schwarber initially thought it was a cramp, but it still didn’t feel right as he jogged back to the dugout after the game.
“You’re always concerned when you have to take a guy out of a game,” Thomson said of both injuries. “But until tomorrow, what are you going to do?”
The late injuries capped a night that took a sudden turn for the Phillies.
Leading 3-0 through six innings, Zack Wheeler looked to be on his way to another scoreless gem before a tough break spoiled his night. With two outs and a runner on in the seventh, Wheeler threw an 0-2 pitch to Ali Sánchez that appeared to catch the corner but was called a ball.
Sánchez ultimately singled on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, ending Wheeler’s night. Reliever Matt Strahm allowed both inherited runners — and two of his own — to score as the Phillies’ 3-0 lead turned into a 4-3 deficit. Though Philadelphia tied it up in the bottom of the seventh, things unraveled in the eighth and ninth.
“It stinks,” Wheeler said. “You hate seeing guys get hurt. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious for both those guys. … But we can’t sulk on it. We just have to get ready to play tomorrow.”
Whether that will include Harper and/or Schwarber remains to be seen.
“If there is time to be missed,” Schwarber said, “I’ve got all the faith in the world in these guys to keep doing their thing.”
