Max Scherzer and Ryan Zimmerman led the Nationals to a nail-biting 4-3 victory Wednesday night in St. Louis to keep pace with the NL East-leading Mets, but the huge win didn’t come without a cost — Bryce Harper was removed in the fourth inning due to left glute tightness.
Literally a pain in the butt.
“At this point in the season, there’s always aches and pains but this one felt a little different, a little worse,” Harper said, via the Washington Post. “On that last swing it just didn’t feel good. I didn’t want to run it out. It just did not feel good at all. Hopefully it feels better. Hopefully I can see the [physical therapy] and see where I can go.”
Harper picked up the injury with an awkward landing on first base on Tuesday night, saying the glute felt “pretty tight and pretty sore” and “my first two at-bats it just got really, really tight.”
Zimmerman homered twice, then doubled home the tie-breaking run in the eighth inning. Scherzer struck out 11 and gave up 11 hits.
Nationals manager Matt Williams — facing heaps of scrutiny in the nation’s capital for his disastrous bullpen management — used four pitchers to escape the seventh inning, when the Cardinals tied it on Kolten Wong’s RBI single but stranded two.
“We’re trying to get to the eighth,” Williams said. “We can’t run through the bullpen like this every night, but we wanted to make sure we got one at least.”
Drew Storen pitched a clean eighth and Jonathan Papelbon escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam in the ninth to earn his 23rd save in 23 chances.
But one gritty victory matters little if Harper — the MVP favorite in the National League — keeps his achy butt on the bench.