Phillies

Phillies Lose Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto and a Lifeless Game to Blue Jays

Phillies lose a game and maybe Harper and Realmuto in lifeless Saturday slumber originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

A road trip that has already seen J.T. Realmuto miss a couple of games with a leg contusion and Didi Gregorius miss three games with a swollen right elbow claimed another casualty Saturday night.

Bryce Harper walked off the field in the fourth inning of the Phillies' sloppy, lifeless, 4-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida.

Harper has already missed time this season with lower back tightness and a sore left wrist.

He exited Saturday night's game with something new — a sore right shoulder.

His status for Sunday afternoon's game, the finale of a nine-game road trip, was not immediately clear. Losing him for any amount of time would hurt. He's hitting .313 with a 1.013 OPS.

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As if losing Harper wasn't enough, Realmuto left the game for a pinch-hitter in the top of the eighth. There was no way Joe Girardi would have pulled his bat down three runs.

Girardi was expected to provide an update on Realmuto's condition shortly after the game. It appeared that his left hand may have been sore. He missed time a couple of weeks ago with soreness at the base of that hand, the result of his trying to block a pitch in the dirt.

Harper struck out in his first two at-bats before leaving the game.

The strikeouts didn't make him unique as Phillies hitters struck out 14 times. It was the 24th time in 40 games that Phillies hitters reached double digits in strikeouts.

The offense produced just six hits on the night and one of them was a bloop and another an infield hit.

The Phils weren't much better defensively. They committed three errors and had a couple of other miscues that weren't scored errors but could have been.

It was an all-around shoddy performance.

Aaron Nola lost for the second time on the road trip. He gave up a booming home run to Vladimir Guerrero in the bottom of the first inning and two more runs in the second.

Early on, it had the look of another short night for Nola, but he managed to grind out 6⅔ innings and keep the Jays at three runs. He allowed nine hits, a walk and struck out eight.

It was a grind for Nola all night, but he kept his club in the game. Alas, the offense did not bail him out.

Earlier on the trip, Nola lasted just four innings and gave up five runs in a loss at Atlanta.

The Phils are 4-4 on this trip and 21-19 overall. They close out the trip Sunday afternoon against the Jays with Chase Anderson pitching against lefty Robbie Ray.

Still to be determined is what kind of lineup the Phils are able to put on the field. Gregorius probably won't play. Will Harper? Will Realmuto?

And for that matter, will the bats show up? And what about the defense? They were both AWOL on Saturday night.

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