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Bryce Harper returns to Phillies lineup after suffering ankle injury

Bryce Harper is back in the Phillies' lineup just two days after an injury scare.

Phillies Bryce Harper before batting against the Toronto Blue Jays in a spring training game on Friday, March 15, 2019 at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, FL.
Phillies Bryce Harper before batting against the Toronto Blue Jays in a spring training game on Friday, March 15, 2019 at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, FL.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer
    by Matt Breen
    Published 

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Bryce Harper returned to the lineup Sunday, providing some relief after he was hit in the ankle two days earlier by a fastball.

Harper, batting third Sunday as the designated hitter, missed Saturday’s game after X-rays revealed he had a contusion. Gabe Kapler said before Saturday’s game that Harper was “day to day.” Harper, it turned out, needed just one day.

He will not travel with the team to Florida’s east coast for games on Monday and Tuesday. Harper instead will stay in Clearwater to play in minor-league games on Monday and then train at the complex on Tuesday. He will play in right field on Wednesday when the team returns to Clearwater to play the Tigers.

He entered Sunday’s game against the Yankees hitless in his first five at-bats over just nine at-bats over four Grapefruit League games. The Phillies will want to make sure Harper has his timing and rhythm before the team breaks camp next week ahead of March 28’s season opener at home against the Braves.

“I feel like I need my at-bats and need to feel what it feels like to be out in the outfield and then come back in and getting that at-bat and then going back out as well,” Harper said.