As scary as it gets in the Cardinals-Phillies game, with Bryce Harper taking a 97 mph fastball right to the face. But that was just the start.
Although he left under his own power, Harper was obviously gonna leave the game. The crazy thing is that Didi Gregorius got hit immediately thereafter by Cardinals lefty Genesis Cabrera, Phillies manager Joe Girardi came out angry about how it was being handled, and wound up getting ejected … after he ejected the umpire. Yup, it was a scary and bad and weird sequence.
Here’s the whole sequence:
Girardi’s beef was that both teams got warned after only his team got hit twice. Girardi has a point, of course. After two of his guys get drilled – one in particularly scary fashion – he could wind up seeing one of his pitchers ejected (but not Cabrera) if he loses his grip. Warnings are supposed to help in these situations, but poorly deployed, the become a problem.
It was kinda funny to see Girardi eject the umpire, though.
UPDATE: Harper went to get scans after the game, and reports back that everything was clean (and he looks surprisingly good for a dude who took 97mph to the face):
Bryce Harper is good!!! Heโs fine! pic.twitter.com/gOZFrx8B4m
— NBA Slime (@TerryFranconia) April 29, 2021