Phillies’ Bryce Harper Leaves Game After Getting Hit in Face With 97 MPH Fastball, Shares Update

Bryce Harper dealt with a very scary incident on Wednesday night. The Philadelphia Phillies star player was forced to exit the game against St. Louis Cardinals after he was hit in the face with a 96.9-mph fastball from relief pitcher Genesis Cabrera in the top of the sixth inning. Harper left the game under his own power and went straight to the hospital to undergo testing. The 28-year-old then went to Instagram to share an update.

“Everything came back good, the CT, all of that kind of stuff,” Harper said. “The face is still there, so we are all good. See you all soon.” What made things interesting was Cabrera hit Didi Gregorius on the next pitch – a 94.5 -mph fastball to the ribs. After the game, Cabrera issued an apology to the Phillies.

“I want to again apologize for all the actions that happened,” Cabrera said during the postgame Zoom press conference via MLB.com. “Especially to Harper, I really wish him the best and I hope he has a speedy recovery with whatever it is that happened and then be able to come back to baseball activities. The game kind of got away from me at that point. And I’m really sorry for everything that happened today. None of it was intentional. And again, I’m sorry.”

After Gregorius got hit, Phillies manager Joe Girardi argued with the umpires and was ejected. Both benches then received warnings, but Girardi was angry because Cabrera remained in the game. The Phillies got the upper hand as they took down the Cardinals 5-3.

“I understand why they give the warnings, right,” Girardi said. “They don’t want things to escalate. They don’t want people to get hit. But if a guy hits a guy in the face and a guy in the ribs with two pitches, he’s got to go, right? If you’re really protecting the players, obviously he doesn’t have command. He’s got to go. … I mean, now I got a shortstop that probably might have to have imaging on his ribs. And you’re going to let him stay in the game. He’s got to go. Just for the safety of the players.”