Trea Turner’s shortened day was the largest story of the Phillies’ 5-4 loss Sunday afternoon to the Marlins.
Turner has a right hamstring strain and will be evaluated further, the Phillies announced during the game to reporters in Miami.
The Phils’ shortstop immediately exited in the seventh inning after hitting a ground ball and reaching on an Otto Lopez throwing error. He walked into the dugout, spoke with Phillies assistant athletic trainer Joe Rauch and headed down to the clubhouse. Edmundo Sosa entered to pinch run.
Turner told reporters that he has an MRI set for Monday.
“Just kind of grabbing on me,” he said. “Didn’t feel good. If I could’ve kept going, I would have. If not, get out of there and try to limit the damage.”
The 32-year-old Turner has been one of the National League’s top players this season. He leads the NL in hits (179) and batting average (.305) and is second in stolen bases (36). Turner hit his 15th home run in the at-bat prior to his injury.
“There’s some concern there, obviously,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s having a great year, he’s a big part of this ball club and I want to keep people healthy, especially coming down the stretch here. We’ll know more tomorrow.”
The Phillies’ defeat wrapped up a 4-2 road trip and dropped the club to 83-60 overall.
Taijuan Walker was the losing pitcher because of a rough first inning. He logged six innings and allowed eight hits, four runs and two walks.
Former Phillie Tyler Phillips served as the Marlins’ opener and pitched a 1-2-3 first inning. Walker’s first was much longer.
Following a pair of one-out singles, Lopez bashed a Walker slider 424 feet to give Miami a 3-0 lead.
Walker’s first inning became a mess and control was his primary problem. He threw 34 pitches in the first and 17 were balls. Several sailed well above backup catcher Rafael Marchan’s target. Walker did get Xavier Edwards to pop up with two outs and the bases loaded, which stopped the bleeding at four runs.
The Phils trimmed their deficit to 4-1 in the second inning. In his first at-bat of the series, Nick Castellanos lined an RBI triple. Jakob Marsee dove fruitlessly in center field and Brandon Marsh came around to score.
To Walker’s credit, he was a different pitcher after the first inning and the Phillies didn’t have to place any extra strain on their bullpen. He found a nice rhythm and strung together five straight walk-free, scoreless innings.
The Phillies made two outs on the bases in the fourth. Bryce Harper led off with a double vs. lefty Cade Gibson but was caught in a bad spot on Alec Bohm’s grounder to shortstop. Lopez easily tagged him out. Two batters later, catcher Liam Hicks picked Marsh off first base.
Turner only needed to jog around the bases when he began the sixth inning by ripping a solo shot against Calvin Faucher. Kyle Schwarber then walked and eventually scored on a two-out Marsh single that cut the Marlins’ advantage to 4-3.
Turner’s injury came with two outs in the seventh. Schwarber was next up and couldn’t cash in with runners on the corners, flying out to left field.
Miami picked up an insurance run when Lopez homered off of Jose Alvarado and just about sealed the win to avoid a sweep. The Phillies rallied against Lake Bachar in the ninth inning and got a run back on Schwarber’s RBI single, but Harper grounded out to second base with runners on first and third for the game’s last out.
The Phils will return home and host the Mets in a four-game series at Citizens Bank Park. Aaron Nola (3-8, 6.78 ERA) and Nolan McLean (4-0, 1.37 ERA) are the scheduled starters for the opener Monday night.
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