Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler banged up in Phillies’ spring-training victory over Orioles
Kepler slammed into the left-field wall while making a catch and suffered a bruised lower back, the team said. Marsh also left the game early after suffering a bruised left knee.
SARASOTA, Fla. — It was never so serious that the Phillies phoned Bryce Harper to start taking fly balls. But club officials did exhale Sunday after an injury scare involving two-thirds of the outfield.
Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh exited early from a 12-1 victory over the Orioles — both for “precautionary reasons,” according to the Phillies — after getting banged up on outfield misadventures. Kepler bruised his left lower back, while Marsh bruised his left knee.
“Nothing serious,” Marsh said. “Just banged it pretty good.”
Said Kepler: “Yeah, I’m all right. It’s just a bruise. That’s what it feels like, kind of like I got hit by a pitch.”
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Kepler slammed into the short left-field wall while making a catch to end the first inning. Initially, he thought he twisted the wrong way but said it’s more likely that the impact with the wall caused the bruise. He ran off the field without assistance but did not come back out.
Earlier in the first inning, Marsh fell on the warning track in left-center field in pursuit of Jordan Westburg’s double. He stayed in the game but landed on his knee again in the second inning while sliding to catch a line drive that got knocked down by the wind.
Kepler and Marsh both said they likely would have been able to keep playing if it was a regular-season game. But given the nonexistent stakes in the Grapefruit League and suboptimal conditions — a 25-mph wind out to left field and a warning track that Marsh said felt like “ice” — there wasn’t any point in continuing.
“I would have tried to grind through that,” said Kepler, 9-for-26 (. 346) with three homers in a solid spring. “We came in here and I took some dry [swings], and it felt stiff. But then again, it just feels like a bruise. It’s a precautionary thing, and we want to play it smart and don’t want to reaggravate it.”
Marsh surmised he could be ready to play Monday, although manager Rob Thomson said he plans to hold out both outfielders for one more day.
“Nothing happened to it, just impact on the ground,” Marsh said. “It just got a little tight from banging it. You bump your elbow on the wall, you’re not going to move your arm as fast. You know what I mean? It’s just one of those things. Nothing serious.”
But it did reinforce the Phillies’ lack of outfield depth.
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Johan Rojas, a superb defender in center field, has not played the outfield this spring after banging his right shoulder in winter ball. He did have three hits against the Orioles and is 10-for-33 (. 303) as a DH this spring. He’s expected to throw to bases Monday and Tuesday, the last steps before he’s cleared to play defense.
Lefty-hitting Cal Stevenson and nonroster outfielder Óscar Mercado are ticketed for triple A. The Phillies have taken a look at infielders Edmundo Sosa and Buddy Kennedy in the outfield, but it’s doubtful either would be an option to play regularly there.
Suffice it to say, Thomson held his breath about Kepler and Marsh.
“Yeah, originally I did until I got to talk to them,” Thomson said. “I talked to the trainers, and they’re fine.”
Who stood out: Trea Turner drove in a run with an opposite-field flare in the third inning, notable given the emphasis on getting him to hit the ball to right field more often.
It capped a solid few days for Turner. After going hitless with seven strikeouts in his first 15 spring at-bats, he homered Thursday, singled to left-center against reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal on Saturday, and reached base in his first two-bats Sunday against Orioles opening-day starter Zach Eflin.
Sosa’s three-run double cleared the bases in the third inning, but only because Bryson Stott ran through a stop sign from third base coach Dusty Wathan.
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On the mound: In his penultimate spring training start, Jesús Luzardo gave up little more than a solo homer to Ramón Laureano in the second inning. Luzardo threw 53 pitches over four innings and piled up six strikeouts.
Right-hander Nabil Crismatt tossed a scoreless fifth inning, including a sprint to cover first base on a grounder to the right side. Crismatt (2.35 ERA) is a candidate for the opening-day bullpen if lefty Matt Strahm isn’t ready after missing time with shoulder inflammation.
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Quotable: “It kind of takes the load off my back when you have a bunch of boppers in the lineup that can do damage and the pitchers have to work their way through those guys. And then they have me, and hopefully they get lazy with me and throw a meatball in there and see what I can do with it.” — Kepler on joining the Phillies’ deep lineup
On deck: The Phillies will host their annual St. Patrick’s Day game at 1:05 p.m. Monday against a Blue Jays split squad (MLB.com). Aaron Nola is scheduled to oppose Toronto righty Chris Bassitt.