Trea Turner leaves with a strained hamstring as the Phillies fall to the Marlins: ‘Didn’t feel good.’

MIAMI — Trea Turner didn’t reach for the back of his leg or come up limping at first base. But he knew something was wrong.

“It was just kind of grabbing on me,” he said later. “Didn’t feel good.”

So, after reaching on an error in the seventh inning, Turner made a swift right turn and disappeared into the Phillies’ dugout and down the tunnel to the clubhouse.

The diagnosis: a strained right hamstring.

And suddenly, a 5-4 loss to the Marlins wasn’t the worst thing to happen to the Phillies here Sunday.

» READ MORE: Inside Trea Turner’s remarkable improvement at shortstop that has turned him into an MVP candidate

Turner will undergo an MRI on Monday in Philadelphia, at which time more will be known about the severity (strains are typically graded from one to three, with one being the most mild) and how long the star shortstop might be on the sidelines.

Until then, the Phillies will hold their breath.

“It’s never good when he does that,” said Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies’ other MVP candidate, who was on deck when Turner took himself out of the game. “And he’s not like a big reactor, either. You remember last year when he injured himself and he was able to just walk off the field like nothing happened but came out of the game. You just hope it’s nothing too serious, nothing too big.”

Ah, yes, last year. Turner missed six weeks with a strained left hamstring. (The Phillies didn’t disclose details, but it was believed to be Grade 2.) But Turner missed less than two weeks with a milder strain in 2017.

The Phillies don’t have enough information yet to compare this injury with last year’s or the previous one. Turner’s gut feeling: “Hopefully better. Hopefully not as bad as that. A little sore now.”

Whatever the case, this much is clear: As the Phillies (83-60) open a four-game series at home Monday night against the Mets (76-67), they will have the same seven-game cushion in the division that they possessed when they squared off in New York two weeks ago.

But they won’t have their leadoff-hitting shortstop.

“It’s never a good time, really, but having something like this late [in the season] is not fun,” Turner said. “When these games really matter, you need to be out there. Hopefully it’s not too many [games]. We’ll see.”

Said manager Rob Thomson: “There’s some concern there, obviously. He’s having a great year. He’s a big part of this ballclub.”

Turner was in the midst of another do-it-all game against the Marlins. After starter Taijuan Walker gave up four runs in the first inning, Turner hit a leadoff homer in the sixth to slice the Phillies’ deficit to 4-2.

It was 4-3 in the seventh when Bryson Stott waged an 11-pitch at-bat to draw a two-out walk. Turner came to the plate and reached on a throwing error by Marlins shortstop Otto Lopez.

And when he exited, his league-leading .305 average and 179 hits went with him.

“If I could’ve kept going, I would’ve,” Turner said. “Just [decided to] get out of there and try to limit the damage.”

» READ MORE: The Phillies set goals for Trea Turner in 2025, and he has bought in: ‘He’s doing everything we asked’

Last month, the Phillies lost their best pitcher for the season, as Zack Wheeler recovers from surgery to remove a blood clot from his shoulder and awaits another procedure for thoracic outlet syndrome.

If they lose their most productive position player for an extended period, well, the Phillies would rather not think about that.

“I think the biggest thing is he’s back for the postseason, you know?” Schwarber said. “That’s all we really want, making sure that he’s healthy enough to have him out there for the postseason. But unfortunately it’s part of the game. Injuries happen. We’ve got the guys that can step up for him. We’ve seen it before.”

In all likelihood, Edmundo Sosa will step in at shortstop; Schwarber could reprise his top-of-the-order spot.

Even so, the trio of Turner, Schwarber, and Bryce Harper are the strength of the Phillies’ lineup. Subtract Turner, even for a few weeks, and the Phillies will need others to step forward. Alec Bohm, for instance, is slugging .277 with two extra-base hits in his last 12 games. Schwarber and Harper went 3-for-22 and 5-for-25, respectively, on the road trip.

The Marlins built their early lead when Maximo Acosta hit a hanging slider from Walker for a three-run homer. But Walker retired 15 of 18 batters after the first inning to keep the game close.

The Phillies ran themselves out of a fourth-inning rally. With first base open, Harper broke from second base on a grounder to shortstop and got tagged out. Two batters later, Brandon Marsh got picked off at first base.

» READ MORE: The Phillies set goals for Trea Turner in 2025, and he has bought in: ‘He’s doing everything we asked’

Trailing by two runs in the ninth inning, the Phillies brought the go-ahead run to the plate. Schwarber delivered a two-out RBI single to cut it to 5-4. But with the tying run on third base, Harper grounded out.

So, the Phillies won four of six on the road and have another chance to bury the Mets in the NL East after getting swept in New York two weeks ago.

“They had our number in Queens and they knocked us out last year, but we’ve got plans, we’ve got goals that we need to accomplish,” Schwarber said. “It’s not like we’re just going to step up our game just because we’re playing them or we’re playing Miami. We need to have the same intensity every single day.”

For the time being, they’ll have to do it without Turner.