Jhoan Duran leaves Phillies’ 6-2 win, X-rays negative after line drive strikes right foot

WASHINGTON — Seven minutes is a long time for a pitcher to go without taking a step.

And for his teammates to hold their breath.

But by the time the bullpen cart rolled up to whisk Jhoan Duran off the field in the ninth inning of the Phillies’ 6-2 victory here Friday night, there were signs that they dodged a serious injury to their new star closer. J.T. Realmuto cracked a smile. Bryce Harper chuckled.

At one point, as he stood there waiting, Duran reassured everyone.

“I feel better,” he said. “I think I can walk.”

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No chance, Duran was told.

“I mean, there’s like 20 steps or whatever it is to get up here [to the clubhouse],” Harper said later. “It was smart to get in the cart probably.”

Said manager Rob Thomson: “He’s 240 pounds. I don’t want anyone to carry him up stairs.”

So, it appears the Phillies will live to tell about the night that their prized trade-deadline addition took a liner off the outside of his right ankle. X-rays were negative, according to the team. Later, Duran walked on his own power through the clubhouse and into the training room for treatment.

He will be evaluated Saturday, the Phillies said.

The Phillies held a four-run lead, built on back-to-back homers by Kyle Schwarber and Harper in the seventh inning, when Duran came into a non-save situation. But before angry fans storm Thomson’s office with torches, Duran hadn’t pitched in five days and wanted to get into a game.

Paul DeJong hit Duran’s fourth pitch off the pitcher’s leg. The ball deflected toward third base, and Duran raced after it. But when he crossed the foul line, he stopped and didn’t move again, getting examined by Phillies and Nationals trainers until the cart arrived roughly seven minutes later.

“He ran like a shot over to retrieve the ball,” Thomson said. “Once he got there, I think the adrenaline wore off and the pain set in.”

Duran’s injury obscured a feel-good victory for the Phillies (70-52), who halted a three-game skid and extended their National League East lead to a season-high six games after the free-falling Mets lost for the 14th time in 16 games.

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In addition to Schwarber and Harper’s homers against Nationals lefty reliever Konnor Pilkington, the Phillies got five solid, if inefficient, innings from Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler’s velocity rebounded from his previous start five days earlier in Texas. After he uncorked his first pitch, the scoreboard behind him lit up: “95.7 mph fastball.” The second pitch: 95.9. Pitch No. 4: 96.5. And No. 6: 97.1.

“I felt better,” Wheeler said. “I felt better as I went, too. Something clicked in the James Wood at-bat in the third inning, I think it was. Something clicked mechanically and tempo-wise to where I said, ‘This is it.’

“Today was just a lot better.”

It wasn’t perfect. Wheeler’s fastball command remained imprecise. He got only 10 swings and misses and expended 97 pitches to complete five innings.

“In typical fashion, he was mad that he came out of the game at 97 pitches,” Thomson said, smiling. “So, that was good. We’ll keep moving forward.”

The Phillies made Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore throw 37 pitches in the first inning. But although they scored two runs, they neither blew the game open nor knocked out Gore, who somehow made it through six innings.

By then, the Nationals had tied the game on Daylen Lile’s homer against Wheeler.

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But the Nationals set up the Phillies’ rally by using a righty reliever to face the bottom of the order and a lefty against the top. Lefty-hitting Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh came off the bench and drew walks against righty Clayton Beeter before Schwarber and Harper took Pilkington deep.

Schwarber moved into a tie with Shohei Ohtani for the NL lead with 43 homers, 17 against a lefty, most in the majors by a left-handed hitter. Schwarber also has 11 homers against a lefty reliever, tied with Barry Bonds in 2002 for the most by a left-handed hitter since 1969.

It’s almost like bringing in a lefty to face Schwarber is doing him a favor.

“He hits lefties and righties well,” Harper said. “Pick your poison what you want to do.”

Said Thomson: “There’s a lot of teams now that just stay away from bringing in a lefty on him just because he has so much success against them. And that was a big home run to give us a lead and kind of get the air back into our lungs.”

But after the line drive hit Duran, that air became trapped in the Phillies’ bodies. Nobody exhaled for a while. Maybe not until Duran finally said he would be able to walk off the field.

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Probably not until the X-rays came back clean.

“You’re just hoping for the best, right?” Schwarber said before anyone knew for sure. “You’re just kind of holding your breath, and you’re still waiting to see what the result’s going to be. You just kind of keep your fingers crossed there and hope it’s nothing super-serious.”

A few minutes later, Duran walked through the clubhouse and into the training room.

“I think he’ll be OK,” Harper said. “Obviously a bad spot to get hit in. But I think he’ll be good.”