PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Every season, pitchers try to jam Bryce Harper inside. And every season, the Phillies slugger seems to get rapped on his hand, wrist or elbow, causing him to miss time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, any game that you\u2019re going to miss, it\u2019s tough,\u201d Harper said Friday, with the NL East rival New York Mets in town. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be sitting over here missing games or anything like that. Obviously, the Mets are having a great year, and this is a big series early in the year. Both teams are tied up there for first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty jealous on a Friday night at the Bank against the Mets. It\u2019s always a fun atmosphere. Their fans usually come in and we get pretty rowdy. So it\u2019s always a fun series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper was drilled on the elbow, the same elbow on which he had Tommy John surgery in 2022, with a 95-mph fastball by the Atlanta Braves\u2019 Spencer Strider on May 27. He missed five games and came back to play against the Toronto Blue Jays. But then his right wrist, which hampered him much of last season, became an issue again with painful inflammation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like when I came back and I was feeling the pain, it just wasn\u2019t a pain that I could tolerate on the field,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI understand what I can tolerate and what I can\u2019t. I\u2019ve played through pain in my career, I think everybody has, right? When I can play through the pain, I do, and I got to the point where I just couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper has been on the injured list since June 7. He said whenever he gets back on the field, he plans to armor up with padding on his right wrist and elbow, even after he\u2019s fully healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wore the arm guard when I came back for those couple games in Toronto, so I\u2019ll continue to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Harper is making progress, though there\u2019s still no timetable for his return. He took swings off the tee for the first time on Friday and reported feeling good.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I taped my wrist, so I didn\u2019t tape it today,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I just wore this (brace) and it felt good as I was swinging. \u2026It\u2019s the first day swinging a bat, so I\u2019ll just have to see how it feels tomorrow and see if we can progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper was hitting .258 with nine home runs, 34 RBIs and an .814 on-base percentage before going on the IL. In his absence, recently called-up Otto Kemp has seen time at first base, and he\u2019ll play wherever manager Rob Thomson can fit him in, including platooning him with Max Kepler in left field after Harper returns.<\/p>\n
Weston Wilson was sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to get more reps on Thursday, not hitting enough at the big league level to work in such a platoon.\u00a0The righty was hitting just .194, including 5-for-29 against lefties.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis hitting is really strong right now, and he\u2019s in good place, so it\u2019s probably mostly first and left, maybe a little at third when Alec has a day off,\u201d Thomson said of Kemp. \u201cObviously, what you\u2019re seeing from him, he\u2019s handling the pitching. He\u2019s having good at-bats and he\u2019s doing exactly what he did his whole life, and that\u2019s use the field and drive the ball to right-center field.\u201d<\/p>\n
The righthanded Kemp entered this series hitting .282 with a pair of doubles, a walk and 4 RBIs in 49 at-bats. He said he\u2019s starting to feel more acclimated to life in the bigs, which has included playing more at first base.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a good couple weeks, I feel like I\u2019m starting to build a routine, starting to get a little bit comfortable being able to play,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome that they\u2019ve been able to trust me with that. I feel like the dust is settling a little bit, getting to work with all of the staff, them getting to know me as much as I\u2019m getting to know them. It\u2019s been nice to get comfortable with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The Phillies clubhouse was feeling energized as this series against the Mets got under way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a big game against these guys, anyone in the division,\u201d said Brandon Marsh, who drove in a run with an RBI single in the fourth. \u201cBut yeah, especially, you know, they\u2019re playing some good ball, we\u2019re playing some good ball. It\u2019s a big clash right now. This is why we play. This is going to be a really fun series and, you know, hopefully the Phils come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies entered having won seven of eight, putting up 48 runs in that span.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
NOTES>> Thomson said he wasn\u2019t aware if the Phillies were interested in acquiring third baseman Rafael Devers, whom the Boston Red Sox traded to San Francisco last Sunday. \u201cNot to my knowledge,\u201d he said. \u2026 The Phillies came into this series having won 10 of their last 14 games against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. \u2026 Friday marked 10 years of MLB service time for Kyle Schwarber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Every season, pitchers try to jam Bryce Harper inside. And every season, the Phillies slugger seems…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,25,185,9898],"class_list":{"0":"post-119315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mets","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkmets","15":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-dtd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}