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PHILADELPHIA — The ninth inning was painful for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber were both injured Thursday night late in a 7-4 loss to the Miami Marlins, leaving their availability in question for the team with the best record in the majors.

Elected to his eighth All-Star Game hours earlier, Harper felt his left hamstring tighten as he was running to first base on the final play of the game.

The slugger clutched at the back of his leg and briefly fell to the ground after crossing the bag. Even though the Phillies challenged the call on his groundout, Harper didn’t wait for the result of the replay review and immediately limped down the tunnel.

“It hurts,” he said afterward. “We’re going to get an image tomorrow just to see what that looks like and see how I feel and go from there.”

Harper, who was the National League Player of the Month in May and is in the conversation for the same award in June, extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an RBI double in the first. He is batting .303 with 20 home runs and 58 RBIs.

Harper said he has never had a soft-tissue injury like this before, so he doesn’t know how concerned he should be.

“If I had something to go back on, I would let you know,” he said. “But I’ve never felt anything like this before.”

Schwarber felt tightness in his groin while making an awkward throw from the outfield in the top of the ninth. Usually the Phillies’ designated hitter, Schwarber was playing in the field for only the third time this season.

“I reached down to grab the ball barehanded and kind of planted for the throw and felt it grab,” Schwarber said. “I thought it was just a cramp at first and I finished the inning. But, as I was running in [between innings] I could still kind of feel it, so I talked to the trainer and he didn’t like where the spot was … so he wanted to get me out of there.”

Like Harper, Schwarber has had an excellent June and has been the Phillies’ table setter all season.

He also expects to get imaging done on Friday before a determination is made on his status, but he seemed more optimistic than Harper when talking about it postgame.

“Personally, I don’t think it’ll be super bad at all,” Schwarber said. “But we’ll see what happens.”

The Phillies have already played without shortstop Trea Turner for six weeks this season, and catcher J.T. Realmuto is currently on the injured list after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus. In addition, the team put starting pitchers Taijuan Walker (right index finger inflammation) and Spencer Turnbull (right lat strain) on the 15-day IL in recent days, so the injuries are mounting for Philadelphia.

“I feel like this team over the last couple years, we’ve had to go through a lot of different things where guys have had to step up and fill in spots and did a great job,” Schwarber said. “If that’s going to be the case here, that’s why we have this depth in Triple-A and we have a really good bench here. So, if there’s time to be missed I have all the faith in the world that these guys will keep doing their thing.”

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Pirates catcher Bart returns from thumb injury

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Pirates catcher Bart returns from thumb injury

Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Joey Bart has been activated from the 10-day injured list after recovering from a left thumb injury.

Bart, who last played for Pittsburgh on May 26, went 6-for-17 during a six-game rehab assignment at Triple-A Indianapolis.

The Pirates acquired Bart, 27, in an April 2 trade, sending right-hander Austin Strickland to the San Francisco Giants. The 2018 No. 2 draft pick out of Georgia Tech, Bart failed to catch on with the Giants as Buster Posey‘s successor.

In 22 games before the injury, Bart was batting .267 with four homers and 12 RBIs in 22 games. In 184 career games, he has a .224 average with 15 homers, 50 RBIs and 197 strikeouts.

In a corresponding move, the Pirates sent catcher Jason Delay, 29, to Indianapolis.

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Escalator malfunction at Brewers’ park injures 11

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Escalator malfunction at Brewers' park injures 11

Eleven people were injured after an escalator at the Milwaukee Brewers‘ American Family Field malfunctioned, resulting in “an increased downward speed.”

The incident occurred after the Brewers’ 5-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs while fans were taking the escalator from the terrace to the loge level.

Five of the people injured were treated at the ballpark while the other six were transported to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, according to the team.

The Brewers, in a statement Sunday, said they were in the process of reaching out to those who were injured to “check on their condition and express our best wishes for a complete and speedy recovery.”

The team also said that all of the ballpark escalators were inspected overnight and deemed safe for use. The Brewers host the Cubs again Sunday at 1:10 p.m. CT.

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Guardians send struggling P McKenzie to minors

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Guardians send struggling P McKenzie to minors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Cleveland Guardians are sending Triston McKenzie to the minors to work out his pitching problems.

The AL Central leaders optioned the right-hander to Triple-A Columbus on Sunday, two days after he went a season-low 2⅓ innings in a 10-3 loss to the Royals. McKenzie hasn’t gone past the third inning in any of his last three starts.

McKenzie is 3-5 with a 5.11 ERA in 16 starts. He has given up 19 homers in 75⅔ innings.

To take McKenzie’s spot, the team activated right-hander Gavin Williams from the 60-day injured list. Williams hasn’t pitched for Cleveland this season after he injured his elbow while throwing a weighted ball during a workout in spring training.

Williams had to build back his arm strength the past two months and made seven minor league appearances before the Guardians were comfortable bringing him up. He made 82 pitches in his last outing.

On Saturday, Chris Antonetti, the team’s president of baseball operations, said the club will continue to be patient with Williams, who likely will be on a pitch count for now.

A former first-round draft pick, the 24-year-old Williams went 3-5 with a 3.29 ERA in 16 starts as a rookie in 2023.

The Guardians could be looking to add another starter before the trade deadline. They signed veteran left-hander Matthew Cook to a one-year contract Saturday, but he won’t be ready to join the rotation until August after having Tommy John surgery last year.

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