Don't expect Harrison Bader to be a full-time player anytime soon originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
LOS ANGELES – So here’s the situation that is facing the Phillies now, some of them known, maybe some not.
They are down two games to none in this best-of-five National League Division series against Los Angeles with Game Three to be played Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
In order to keep themselves alive in this series, the Phillies will have to start getting some offense from the top of the lineup and receive continued good pitching from their starters. Next up: Aaron Nola.
The part that wasn’t so well known but now has seem to come to light a little bit more is that Harrison Bader probably won’t be a major participant for the rest of this series in now what we know is a hamstring strain.
The frustration in Bader’s voice was as noticeable as the purplish bandana holding back his long locks as he described his injury and the struggle to get himself to be 100 percent. The feeling is, he just isn’t going to get there before this series is over, whether that be on Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday back in Philadelphia. Pinch-hitting appears to be the only chore his body will allow at this time.
Asked how close to normal he felt in Game Two when he hit a pinch-hit single in the ninth before being pinch run for, Bader said, “If normal is not having a hamstring strain, it felt abnormal. You do your best. It’s the playoffs and I’ll just give whatever I can to help the team. In that moment it was just getting off an at-bat. Hopefully I can certainly do more tomorrow because it’s really bothering me not being out there.”
He went on to say what his workout plan was for Tuesday, including some running, fielding and batting practice. But with a long travel day that started early in the morning, the Phillies cut their time on the field very short. Bader was seen doing a couple of 60-foot semi-sprints before leaving the field.
A betting man would certainly take the money that he’s not going to be manning center any time soon. And you can see it’s killing Bader to not be able to be out there.
“Your body has limits to it and trying to take that first step out of the box, even though it wasn’t necessarily a sprinting play, you still feel a little bit limited,” said Bader about his pinch-hitting duty. “But I can swing. It’s better than it was at two days ago. Just assess it realistically and go through whatever we can do today, and I have a full day to recover and come back tomorrow and hopefully it will be better. It’s certainly progressing better. It really is minor. It’s a strain, certainly. It’s affecting me from being 100 percent out there, but I don’t have to be 100 percent to go out there and help this team win. I’m just going to do whatever I can to my limit to just try be effective.”
Effective is not what the Phillies’ offense has been against the Dodgers in this series so far and now they will face Los Angeles starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who has given up a total of five earned runs in his last seven starts for a 0.96 ERA in 46.2 innings.
“Pitching’s been good, on both sides of the ball,” said Bryce Harper, who is 1-for-7 in the series with a walk and three strikeouts. “I don’t think, there’s maybe two guys that have kind of played well on both sides. It’s always tough in the post season. You get into it, you’re excited, you’re ready to go and then you run into the juggernaut of pitching. That’s our team and that’s their team as well. I think those are two really good matchups, the first two matchups, two of the better ones in baseball, all through. I expect tomorrow night to be the same thing. Obviously, we need to do a better job of hopefully hitting the long ball or making things happen anywhere, any way we can.”
Particularly at the top of the order. Harper, leadoff hitter Trea Turner and No. 2 Kyle Schwarber have combined to go 2-for-21 with 11 strikeouts and left12 on base so far in this series. But Harper insists it’s nothing you can dwell on.
“I think the postseason you got to flush it as quick as possible because any at-bat can change the course of a game or change the course of a series,” he said. “Any time you go up there if you get out you’ve got to flush is as quick as possible because that at-bat has no merit on what your next one is going to be. You just got to go up there and get the pitches that you can. I don’t let an at-bat like that affect me any way. Especially this time of the year you can’t let that happen. You just have to let the game come to you a little bit and go from there.”
Aaron Nola will be the somewhat surprise starter for the Phillies, coming off a phenomenal outing his last start of the season when he allowed two hits and one earned run in eight innings against the Minnesota Twins. He’ll be followed closely by Ranger Suarez.
“He’s more comfortable starting,” Thomson said of having Nola start. “You’re going to see Ranger tomorrow. I would be shocked if you don’t see Ranger. The numbers on their lefties are very similar, Ranger versus Nola. And the trust factor. I have trust in both of them, don’t get me wrong, but Noles has pitched some really big games for us. I regret having either one of those guys not pitch in this series.”
What Thomson didn’t regret was the bunt he called for Bryson Stott to execute in the ninth on Monday that ultimately got Nick Castellanos thrown out at third for the first out of the inning.
“I just think they made a great play,” Thoms said. “Mookie Betts did a great job by breaking very late so the hitter can’t adjust (to slash at the ball) and it’s tough for Nick to get a proper secondary (lead) or bigger secondary because Betts is sitting right behind him. At the end of the day, they made an aggressive play and they made it work. It was a good play.”
NOTES: The Phillies will wear their powder blue uniforms for both games of the series, something they decided about 10 days ago, according to Thomson. He said the players just like them and wanted to wear them on the road in the playoffs… Harper, who grew up in Las Vegas, professed his early childhood love of the Dodgers, which went directly against his dad who was a Cincinnati Reds fan… The early morning cross-country flight didn’t involve a lot of baseball talk, Harper said. “Played a lot of cards, so that was fun.”
