PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Can you imagine being hit in the face with a 96.9 mph fastball, let alone seeing it screaming toward you? Phillies superstar Bryce Harper doesn't need to imagine it. He lived it.
Wednesday night in St. Louis, the first pitch from 24-year-old Cardinals reliever Génesis Cabrera clocked Harper in the check to lead off the top of the 6th inning in a 3-3 ballgame.
Harper immediately dropped to the ground, but he was able to walk to the clubhouse on his own power with what looked like a cut near his nose.
After the 5-3 Phillies win, manager Joe Girardi said Harper went to the hospital for cat scans. Shortly afterward, Harper posted an Instagram video to say the scan came back clear.
"Face is still there, so we’re all good," Harper said. "See you guys soon."
But that’s only part of the story.
After he hit Harper, Cabrera's very next pitch smacked shortstop Didi Gregorius in the ribs, forcing him to the ground.
Neither Harper nor Gregorius are in the lineup for Thursday's afternoon game against the Cardinals. Nick Maton is playing shortstop and hitting 8th.
Home plate umpire Chris Segal warned both dugouts — to the Cardinals, don't do it again; to the Phillies, don't retaliate.
Phillies General Manager Joe Girardi wanted Cabrera out, yet Segal did not eject him. Cabrera clearly had no command of his heater, and Segal's warnings set Girardi off, as seen in this GIF from The Athletic’s Matt Gelb.
"And I don’t think he did it on purpose, but the for the protection of the players, he’s got to go," Girardi said postgame.
Cabrera apologized through an interpreter.
"My prayers go out to Bryce Harper, and I really wish that he can get back to baseball activities rather sooner," Cabrera said. "The plan was just to come inside with the fastball. I wasn’t feeling it that well, and it kinda like slipped upon release."
He threw only five pitches against three batters, two of which hit Harper and Gregorius. Andrew McCutchen put the Phils in front with an RBI single on the fifth pitch.
At that point, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt removed Cabrera from the game. He said later that he would have taken him out immediately after Harper got hit, but Major League Baseball has a rule that relief pitchers must face a minimum of three batters before being taken out of a game.
"That’s a failure of the three batter minimum," Shildt said.
When Girardi went out to the umpires to argue that Cabrera should have been ejected, he seemed to shout something at Cabrera. Shildt appeared to shout something at Girardi. But after the game, Shildt said Girardi acted appropriately, and he showed no ill will to the Phils skipper.
Girardi said he wasn’t saying anything to Cabrera. He just wanted him gone.
"I understand why [the umpires] give the warning," Girardi said. "I understand that they don’t want things to escalate. They don’t want people to get hit, but if a guy hits a guy in the face and a guy in the ribs with two pitches, he’s got to go."
The incident angered the entire Phillies squad, which may have lit a fire under them.
"[I] think it somewhat ignited our dugout," McCutchen said. "A lot of us weren’t very, of course, happy about what happened."
Reliever Sam Coonrod was the most visibly frustrated. He tossed a scoreless eighth inning, after which he was seen shouting toward the Cardinals.
"I was fired up and I wanted them to just kinda know that it’s really not ok," Coonrod said.
Through 24 games, the Phillies are 12-12. While many other teams are showing similar mediocrity, the Phils are the definition of inconsistent. Their offense hasn’t lived up to expectations, and they haven’t won consecutive games since April 5.
But they erased a 3-1 deficit Wednesday in St. Louis and broke a 3-all tie after their best player experienced the unthinkable. Girardi said he thinks the experience can bring the Phils closer together.
"You see the love and the fight that comes out when one of our guys, or two of our guys, had to deal with what they had to do, and I think it’s a great thing. It stinks that they got hit, but how our guys reacted, I think, is a great thing."