Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Blurred vision had Harper frightened
PHILADELPHIA >> Ever welcoming, always available, Bryce Harper had one request Sunday when a posse of TV cameras approached his locker.
“Any way you can turn your lights off?” he said, squinting.
He’d already experienced enough sight challenges for one day.
In a moment that he’d found personally frightening and which for a while carried the potential to threaten damage to an already dented Phillies season, Harper experienced blotchy vision during the fifth inning of a 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres.
With that, he was removed from the game, replaced by Adam Haseley in right, and received an I.V. treatment for what the Phillies would report was dehydration.
His request for a minimum of lighting honored, Harper seemed relieved and ready to join the Phillies for their upcoming trip to Boston and Miami.
“It was weird,” he said. “I went up to hit and then slid into second and felt fine. I got in the dugout and felt fine. Then I ran to right field and just had little splotches and just didn’t feel right. So Vargy (Jason Vargas) went one, two, three that inning. I came back in and put some eye drops in my eyes. I just thought it was allergies or something like that. But it just wouldn’t go away.
“And I can’t really play with vision like that.”
Harper said he’d experienced no such vision troubles in his career.
“I haven’t,” he said. “And feel better now. So it’s weird. An hour ago, I couldn’t see in front of me, kind of. Now I feel fine.”
In his abbreviated appearance, Harper mattered, walking and scoring on a Jean Segura double in the first. In the Padres’ fourth, he registered his ninth outfield assist of the season, catching Austin Hedges trying to stretch a single at second. And after a single in the fourth, he hustled to second to try and break up a double play.
“Bryce was experiencing some blurred vision and we weren’t sure what was going on with him, so we took the most precautionary measure we could and got him out of that baseball game,” Gabe Kapler said. “Turns out he was dehydrated. He got an I.V. and we were able to clear the symptoms for the time being.
“I thought our medical staff did a great job making sure we took good care of him.”
While relieved, Harper admitted to having been frightened by the symptoms in a game that began in 90-degree heat.
“Yeah,” he said. “Any time something like that happens, you’re not excited about that. I just have a little headache right now. So I don’t know.”
••• Vargas provided a professional 5.2-inning start, fanning four and walking two, allowing six hits and a two-run Luis Urias home run in the fourth.
“I thought it went all Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper stretches before batting in the second inning of Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres. Harper left the game after the fifth inning because of dehydration. right,” the left-hander said. “I would’ve liked to make a better pitch on that homer, but it is what it is and that’s really what ended up costing us. Other than that, we hung in there and had a chance to win. We just weren’t able to pull it off at the end.”
Vargas has fashioned a 3.41 ERA since April 19. In 13 of his last 20 starts, he has allowed two or fewer earned runs.
••• Rhys Hoskins continues to struggle, going 0-for-4 Sunday as his average dropped to .237.
The new leadoff hitter has one home run in his last 17 games and none since Aug. 3. But he did drive a pitch to deepest center in the eighth, Manuel Margot corralling it just in front of the fence.
“Yeah, look, I feel great,” Hoskins said. “Obviously it’s not good, but swing-wise, I feel great. I feel like for the most part I’m seeing pitches. I’m seeing the ball fine. It’s just that for whatever reason things are a little off. And the last couple weeks when I do click something, it’s right at somebody.
“That’s baseball. Unfortunately, I know that’s really cliché. I wish I had a different answer. I’ve sat for hours and hours and looked at film, trying to find something that I can go in the cage and take a thousand swings to fix. But at some point you just have to keep going up there and stuff will turn. Water will find its level.”
••• The Phils are off Monday. Aaron Nola (11-3, 3.56) will start Tuesday night at 7:10 in Fenway Park. Wednesday night, it will be Drew Smyly (26, 7.09.)
The road trip will conclude with a three-game weekend series in Miami. With 38 games to play, the Phillies understand their straits.
“It’s immeasurably important,” said Kapler of the trip. “We have to go on the road and play good baseball. We have to swing the bats the way we did in the Cubs series. We have to continue to make pitches and give our team a chance to win baseball games.
“It’s not going to be easy, obviously. We have two games in Boston. That’s a really good baseball team. Miami has played us tough all year long. We have to go on the road and perform.”
••• With two doubles and a run scored, Segura provided his 40th multi-hit game of the season Sunday, a team high. He is batting .333 since July 19. ATLANTA >> Ronald Acuña Jr. has been removed from the Atlanta Braves’ game against the Los Angeles Dodgers after he stood at the plate admiring a long flyball that did not leave the park.
Acuña, an AllStar outfielder for the NL East leaders, was pulled before the fifth inning after failing to run out a drive off the right field wall in the third. The ball bounced off the wall for a long single. The 21-year-old Acuña likely would have had an easy double if he had hustled from home plate.
Manager Brian Snitker followed Acuña into the tunnel for an apparent conversation during the fourth inning before Adam Duvall entered the game in left field in the fifth, with Rafael Ortega moving from left to center field.
The move by Snitker came in the decisive game of a threegame series between the teams with the National League’s best records.
Acuña just missed robbing Cody Bellinger of a three-run homer in the first with a leaping try in center field.
Acuña is hitting .296 with 35 home runs and 85 RBIs, and leads the NL with 29 stolen bases and 104 runs scored.