‘Man, I should be out there:’ Bryce Harper gets ejected in the first, Phillies lose in 11 to Rockies

DENVER — Bryce Harper was ejected in the first inning on Friday night, and spent the next 10 in the visitors’ clubhouse, watching his team go 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position en route to a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies in 11 innings. It was not an enjoyable experience for him. After recording four or more runs in each of their last 13 games, the Phillies posted only two on Friday.

Harper couldn’t help but wonder how the game could have changed with his bat in the lineup.

“I was kind of in here sitting thinking, ‘Man, I should be out there,’” he said. “When I scream or yell, you guys know. I get upset sometimes and show my emotion, but I really wasn’t that upset about the whole situation. It’s the first inning.”

It was a bizarre sequence of events. Harper conceded after the game that he gets frustrated with umpires at times, but said that he wasn’t really upset with home plate umpire Brian Walsh. What was shown on the broadcast backed that up. Harper took his first pitch for a strike, as well as the second pitch, which was a sinker just outside of the zone but was called a strike. He disputed that call, and then swung at strike three, a curveball in the dirt.

He threw his helmet down, and as he stood in the box, he kept talking to Walsh. He did not appear to be angry. All of a sudden, Walsh threw him out.

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“I spiked my helmet, but that wasn’t frustration from the call,” Harper said. “Then I just kind of asked him, ‘Hey, I don’t believe that was a strike but where do you have it just so I know.’ And he kind of was just like, ‘Ehh.’ And I was just like, ‘No, where do you have it?’ Then he threw me out.

“I told him I just wanted to have a conversation with you. I didn’t scream or anything really. Then [crew chief] Vic [Carapazza] came over and said what he had to say.”

Harper added: “I feel like [umpires] John Tumpane, Alan Porter, Pat Hoberg, even Vic at second tonight, there are professionals in this league and there are guys that are really good at their job and they understand it. I guess 120 [Walsh’s umpire number], he didn’t understand it. It is what it is. Just bummed out we lost that game. It could have been something different if I’m in the lineup. Maybe not, but you never know.”

In a pool report, Carapazza said the following:

“What led to the ejection was that Bryce Harper was clearly upset about the pitches, and Brian gave him a long leash. He kept him in the game, and Bryce just kept arguing about balls and strikes and, at the end of the day, equipment violation is basically a big warning and, if you continue to talk about pitches, then Brian had to handle it. So that’s it really.”

It’s hard to blame Harper, who entered the game batting .350/.426/.650 over his last 10 games, for being upset. The Phillies ran into some terrible luck on Friday night, hitting lots of balls hard, but right at the Rockies’ fielders. Their two runs came on solo home runs by Nick Castellanos and Edmundo Sosa. The lack of offense gave the pitching staff very little room for error, which led to an extra-inning loss.

“I’m not trying to get thrown out in the first inning in Colorado, obviously,” Harper said. “It’s a bummer, man. I could’ve hit a double in the gap or homer and the game’s changed. I don’t know, just kind of bummed that it even happened, because I don’t feel like it should have.”

When José Alvarado stepped onto the mound in the ninth, he did so with a 2-1 lead. Alvarado struck out Jordan Beck and Hunter Goodman, and then allowed a game-tying solo home run to pinch-hitter Jacob Stallings.

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After a misplay by Whit Merrifield on an Ezequiel Tovar single in the next at-bat, Alvarado induced a groundout to send the game into extras. Things got wilder from there. With two outs and the bases loaded in the 10th inning, J.T. Realmuto worked reliever Nick Mears to a 2-1 count. On the next pitch, first base umpire Edwin Moscoso called a check swing on Realmuto to make it 2-2.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson was not pleased.

“Well, [the call] was a little bit late, but that didn’t bother me as much as [the fact that] I didn’t think he swung,” Thomson said. “And then that changed his entire at-bat.”

Realmuto grounded out to end the inning. José Ruiz pitched the 10th. He intentionally walked Elias Díaz, struck out Kris Bryant, and induced a tailor-made double play for Clemens, but Clemens threw the ball wide to Alec Bohm at first base. Bohm recovered it quickly, and the runner at third was unable to score. Ruiz induced a fly out to Brenton Doyle to end the inning.

Johan Rojas and Bohm opened the 11th with back-to-back strikeouts, and Castellanos grounded out. Gregory Soto pitched the bottom half of the inning, intentionally walking Beck, striking out Jake Cave, and walking Ryan McMahon. Tovar hit a single to walk it off for the Rockies.

“It’s baseball,” Thomson said. “I mean, you’ve got to play better to overcome certain situations, like umpires and bad hops and whatever. We’ve got to play better.”

It was an unceremonious ending to an otherwise good night for the Phillies’ pitching staff. Cristopher Sánchez had a strong outing, going 5⅓ innings, allowing one earned run and one walk with two strikeouts. But perhaps more impressive was his changeup.

There have been a few games this year where Sánchez hasn’t thrown as many changeups as the Phillies would like. On April 29, against the Angels, he threw just 15. The last time he saw the Rockies, on April 17, he threw 30 (31% of his pitches).

But on Friday night against the Rockies, Sánchez threw 36 changeups, amounting to 43% of his 83 pitches. He induced nine of his 11 whiffs on that pitch.

“He was really good,” Thomson said of Sánchez. “Changeup was good. I don’t think the elevation affected the changeup like we were talking about before the game.”

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Sánchez, again, showed an ability to pitch through traffic. He allowed seven hits, but he scattered them across his 5⅓ innings, ensuring that the Rockies didn’t build any momentum. In the fifth, they started to make contact with Sánchez’s changeup.

With one out, Goodman doubled, Alan Trejo singled, and Tovar singled to drive in one run. Pitching coach Caleb Cotham walked out to the mound, and Sánchez threw five more sinkers to end the inning on a fly out and a groundout.

Sánchez was pulled in the sixth inning, after Bryant singled, Elehuris Montero popped out, and he issued his only walk of the night, to Doyle. He didn’t induce many strikeouts but saw his velocity tick up again. He averaged 95.3 mph on his sinker, and 85.9 on his changeup. His hardest pitch of the night clocked in at 96.6 mph.

Orion Kerkering entered in relief of Sánchez in the sixth, and pitched 1⅔ innings, allowing just one hit. He’s known for relying heavily on the sweeper, but on Friday, he threw slightly more four-seam fastballs. He said after the game that finding success with his four-seam fastball on Friday was a confidence builder.

“I think just early on, just trying to trust it a little more,” Kerkering said. “Tonight was probably one of the better nights, feeling more comfortable [with the four-seam fastball]. I threw it a lot more.”