TORONTO — Before Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Rob Thomson sat in the visitors’ dugout at the Rogers Centre and brushed aside concerns about Bryce Harper’s right elbow.
The Phillies first baseman was caught wincing after swinging through a pitch in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 10-9 comeback win over Toronto. Harper had recently told MLB.com he’s been “grinding” through nagging injuries to his right elbow and wrist.
“He’s fine,” the Phillies manager said. “My concern lies with the concern of the trainers and Harp, and they seem to not have any concern. I think it’s just something he’s got to play through and he’ll be fine.”
As it turns out, in the Phillies’ 4-2 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday, the present concern didn’t lie with Harper’s right elbow. The focus was on his left one.
In the first inning, Harper was hit on the left elbow by a pitch from Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis. Harper immediately looked in pain and was examined by a trainer and Thomson before taking his base.
Harper initially remained in the game, but the elbow started to stiffen up on him, so Edmundo Sosa pinch hit for him for his second at-bat in the third inning. The club later announced Harper had exited the game with a left elbow contusion and would be re-evaluated.
After the game, Thomson said Harper’s left elbow was feeling good.
“As of right now, I think he’s fine,” he reiterated.
Bryce Harper left today’s game with a left elbow contusion after being hit by a pitch in the 1st inning pic.twitter.com/rGUvanCZyz
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) September 4, 2024
With a little under a month left in the season, the Phillies have built a 7 1/2-game cushion atop the National League East. (The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets were both in action Wednesday night.) Success in October is the ultimate goal, but in the meantime, the dual priorities remain winning enough to claim the division title and the top seed in the playoffs, while also staying healthy during a part of the season when players are especially banged up. “Strike that balance,” as Thomson put it.
Did the Phillies strike that balance in this series? Well, the concern over Harper’s elbows (left and right) seemed low following Wednesday’s win.
On his left elbow, Harper said, “he’s good” after receiving treatment in-game. On his right elbow, Harper said sometimes he feels pain on a swing-and-miss or after hitting a foul ball, but playing through it won’t lead to further injury. As for taking a day or two off to rest some of these bumps and bruises?
“I just don’t know how good I’ll feel if I take one or two days,” Harper said. “I feel like I’ll feel the same if I do take two days off, or anything like that. That’s a conversation we’ve had before.”
As for the winning side of the equation, the Phillies swept the short two-game series over a Blue Jays team now rife with rookies that already has its eye on 2025 after this season was lost following a poor first half.
At the centre of both wins was leadoff man Kyle Schwarber, who emerged from his late-summer slump with a 7-for-9 performance featuring four home runs — including three in Tuesday’s emphatic victory. Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt said of Schwarber, “When he’s hot, he might be the best hot hitter in all of baseball.”
Speaking of hot, the Blue Jays sent Francis to the mound on Wednesday, fresh off winning his first American League Pitcher of the Month award after holding opponents to a 1.05 ERA and a record 0.41 WHIP in five starts in the month. In Francis’ last two starts, it took until the ninth and sixth innings for the opposing team to get a hit off the right-hander.
But Francis wouldn’t flirt with a no-hitter today. Instead, on the second pitch he threw, a four-seam fastball, Schwarber hit his fourth home run of the series — and 32nd of the season — to put the Phillies up 1-0. It was Schwarber’s 13th leadoff homer of the season, tying Alfonso Soriano’s MLB single-season record for leadoff home runs, which was set in 2003.
“Those guys, him, Trea, Harp, those guys that are power guys, slug guys, typically it comes in bunches, and that’s where he’s at right now,” Thomson said of Schwarber’s performance in Toronto.
This is getting ridiculous#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/thp089TvUI
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 4, 2024
The Blue Jays went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first thanks to three straight doubles from Daulton Varsho, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk off Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez, who made an adjustment on his changeup after the first inning and settled in from there. Kody Clemens put the Phillies back ahead 3-2 with a two-run home run off Francis in the second inning. Thomson said he was pleased with how his team grinded through at-bats against the Blue Jays starter.
“I thought our at-bats were really good. He’s got good stuff,” Thomson said.
Bowden Francis allowed three runs in six innings with six strikeouts and no walks. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)
J.T. Realmuto homered off former Phillies farmhand Ryan Burr in the ninth inning to give them an insurance run.
After their successful series in Toronto, the Phillies will fly south to Miami for a four-game series against the last-place Marlins. It’s an opportunity to strengthen their hold on the division lead (Meanwhile, the Blue Jays travel to Atlanta to play three against the Braves and could do the Phillies a solid by winning the series). Third baseman Alec Bohm, who has missed five straight games with a left hand injury, could return in Miami. Thomson told reporters Tuesday that Bohm’s sore hand was getting better and he doesn’t expect him to go on the injured list.
Wins are the priority, but staying healthy remains paramount, too.
“I’m always concerned about health, doesn’t matter what’s going on,” Thomson said. “Really it doesn’t matter what time of the year we’re in —whether it’s spring training, early in the season, mid-season, late in the season. We need healthy bodies. We check everybody every day.”
(Top photo of Bryce Harper: Cole Burston / The Canadian Press via Associated Press)
