PHILADELPHIA — After striking out with the bases loaded in the seventh inning Sunday, Bryce Harper returned to the dugout, pointed to his hip as he spoke to manager Joe Girardi and bench coach Rob Thomson, and headed into the clubhouse, not to return to the game.
Compared to that visual — and what it could have meant — a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in the final home game of the season qualified as nothing-to-see-here.
The Phillies did lose, 6-3, despite a decent start from Adonis Medina in his major-league debut and three errors committed by the Blue Jays. They leave town now for a season-ending seven-game road trip with a half-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers and Gabe Kapler’s San Francisco Giants for a National League wild-card berth.
But Girardi said after the game that Harper exited with lower back stiffness. And losing Harper for any amount of time would be a blow to the Phillies’ chances of ending an eight-year playoff drought, especially at a time when catcher J.T. Realmuto is out with a hip flexor strain, first baseman Rhys Hoskins is holding his breath that he won’t need elbow surgery, and two-fifths of the starting rotation (Jake Arrieta and Spencer Howard) is injured.
Harper is starting to hit again, too. After carrying the offense for most of the season’s first month, then falling into a prolonged funk, he went into Sunday’s game with seven hits in 13 at-bats, including three home runs. Despite going 0-for-4 Sunday, he’s tied with Realmuto for the team-lead with 11 homers and has a .927 OPS.
If Harper is injured — he was replaced in right field by Phil Gosselin in the eighth inning — it’s unclear exactly when it occurred, though it’s possible he tweaked something while tracking Bo Bichette’s triple off the top of the right-field wall in the top of the seventh inning.
Bichette’s drive preceded Teoscar Hernandez’s two-run homer and widened the Blue Jays’ lead against beleaguered reliever Heath Hembree, who entered a 2-1 game in the sixth inning and gave up two runs in both the sixth and seventh.
The Phillies acquired Hembree and Brandon Workman in an Aug. 21 trade with the Boston Red Sox to help stabilize the bullpen. But Hembree has a 12.54 ERA in 11 appearances, while Workman has a 6.39 ERA in 13 games. Removed from the closer role, Workman pitched a scoreless fifth inning Sunday, marking the earliest he entered a game since April 7, 2019, 88 appearances ago.
All things considered, Medina acquitted himself well.
Stepping into the rotation spot vacated when Arrieta strained his right hamstring, the 23-year-old right-hander overcame both first-start jitters and early inefficiency to complete four innings and keep the Phillies in the game. He gave up three hits, none of which left the infield without first deflecting off a glove.
In particular, Bichette’s line-drive double — the key knock in a two-run first inning — was an unlucky break for Medina. Although it was hit hard, it appeared to be destined for foul territory if it hadn’t gone off first baseman Alec Bohm’s outstretched glove and landed in right field.
With runners on second and third, Medina balked in a run. One batter later, he gave up an RBI single to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. that ricocheted off shortstop Didi Gregorius’ glove.
After the Phillies halved the lead in the bottom of the first on Bohm’s two-out walk and a double by Gregorius, the Blue Jays threatened to break open the game by loading the bases with one out. But Medina escaped by forcing out one runner at home plate on a comebacker to the mound and another runner at second base.
Medina settled from there, retiring the side in order in the third and fourth innings. But with his pitch count rising to 84, he didn’t get a chance to face the top of the Blue Jays’ order for a third time, with Girardi instead turning to the bullpen.
Medina was the 10th Phillies player this season to make his major-league debut, the most since the 2017 season when they had 15 players get into their first game.
Because the Phillies are off Thursday, Arrieta’s spot in the rotation won’t come up again before the end of the regular season. Arrieta isn’t expected to return until the postseason, but just in case, the Phillies placed Medina on the 40-man roster that will be eligible to play in the postseason, assuming they qualify.
Without Harper, that would seem to be in greater question.
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