NEW YORK — When Bryce Harper went down the ground for the second time after being hit by a pitch Tuesday night [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/...arquis-haynes-jersey]Marquis Haynes Jersey[/url] , the Washington Nationals feared the worst, especially with how much injuries have impacted them.
It turned out there was not a long-term injury to fear for their superstar, just some initial pain.
After getting hit by pitches in the back of the left elbow and on his left foot Tuesday, Harper is expected to play Wednesday when the Nationals conclude their two-game series with the New York Yankees.
“Oh yeah, he’s in there,” Martinez said.
Harper reached base four times, but it was his final two appearances that caused the most angst for the Nationals, who mustered five hits and opened the series with a 3-0 loss.
In the fifth, he dropped to the ground after being hit on the left elbow by CC Sabathia’s 90.1 mph sinker. Three innings later, an 88.8 mph slider from Dellin Betances hit him on the foot and off his big toe, creating some numbness.
“I was really worried,” Martinez said. “He started walking off the field. The good news is he’s walking off the field, He came in a few minutes ago and said he was fine.”
Harper’s exit occurred on a night when the Nationals tied a franchise record by getting shut out in consecutive games for the 12th time since moving from Montreal following the 2004 season. Their scoreless drought is at 19 innings and they have eight hits in the last two games.
Harper batted third and played right field Tuesday. He batted two spots ahead of Daniel Murphy, who was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his season debut after missing the first 63 games recovering from right knee surgery.
Murphy started at designated hitter and will likely do so again Wednesday.
“His timing could have been off,” Martinez said. “I know he’s going to hit.”
The Yankees opened the series by getting two homers from Didi Gregorius, who has three of their 14 multi-homer games this season. Gregorius homered at home for the first time since April 25 and is hitting .286 (10-for-35) in his last nine games after hitting .151 (14-for-93) in 22 games in May.
While Gregorius is starting to rebound from a tough month, Gary Sanchez is in a massive slump and did not start Tuesday. He is not expected to start Wednesday, giving him three days off.
Sanchez is enduring the first significant struggles of his career and spent time figuring a way out of a prolonged slump that has shrunk his batting average to .190 [url=http://www.officialducks.com/...-ryan-getzlaf-jersey]Ryan Getzlaf Jersey[/url] , though the Yankees think he will get rolling again.
“The one thing he never loses is his confidence, because he’s such a gifted hitter,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before the series opener. “He wants to get in there and get it going; he expects to get it going.”
He is hitless in his last 11 at-bats and is 2-for-29 with 10 strikeouts over his last seven games.
Sanchez has yet to heat up in a season when he started 2-for-36 but on May 19-21 he went 4-for-10 in two games, raising his average to a season-high .231. Since those games, Sanchez is 4-for-53.
“Maybe I’m over-thinking this a little too much, that’s why I’m missing those pitches I usually don’t miss,” Sanchez before Tuesday’s game. “I swung at some pitcher’s pitches. Maybe (I’m a) little bit in between.
“But I feel good. I know if I stay healthy, it won’t reflect what I should be hitting. I’m sure I’ll get through this.”
If Boone started Sanchez Wednesday, it would have been as the designated hitter since Sonny Gray is starting.
During the road trip, Gray allowed one run in 14 innings during wins over Baltimore and Toronto. Against teams with losing records, he is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA but against teams with winning records, he is 1-4 with a 7.61 ERA in five outings.
Last Wednesday, Gray turned in his first scoreless start since becoming a Yankee when he allowed two hits in eight innings during a game that Yankees won in the 13th.
Gray made two starts for Oakland Athletics against the Washington Nationals. In those outings, he allowed six runs on 10 hits in 14 innings.
Since Jeremy Hellickson and Stephen Strasburg are on the disabled list, Washington has an opening in its rotation for Wednesday and it will be filled by Erick Fedde, who will be called up from Triple-A Syracuse for his second start this season.
Fedde allowed three runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings as a fill-in starter against the San Diego Padres on May 23. Fedde is 0-2 with an 8.14 ERA in four career starts for the Nationals.
With a career batting average under .100, Jon Lester might seem to be a pitcher who doesn’t care what he does at the plate.Not true.
”It’s important to have good at-bats. I feel like I have done that regardless of the outcome,” he said.
Lester hit a three-run homer that highlighted an eight-run burst in the second inning and wound up with his NL-leading 11th win as the Chicago Cubs held off the Minnesota Twins 11-10 on Sunday.
”I’ve had good at-bats and I haven’t been just a one-pitch out guy. So I have worked some counts and I’ve been able to at least make the pitcher work [url=http://www.officialducks.com/...s-ryan-kesler-jersey]Ryan Kesler Jersey[/url] ,” he said. ”That’s all I’m trying to do.”
”If I get hits, I get hits,” he said. ”The home run is awesome, it’s cool, especially at home. It’s always fun to play here with the crowd and to be able to hit the ball into the bleachers. But at the end of the day I know I’m a pitcher and I’m not a hitter.”
Ian Happ also homered for the Cubs, who have scored at least 10 runs in four straight games for the first time since 1930. Chicago swept the three-game series and has won four in a row overall.
Brian Dozier hit a two-run homer and Jake Cave also homered for the Twins.
Minnesota concluded a 1-5 Chicago road trip that began with two losses in three tries to the White Sox, and fell 10 games below .500 for the first time this season.
Lester hit his second career home run, prompting a curtain call from the cheering fans.
Lester went 10 seasons, mostly in Boston with sporadic at-bats, before getting his first major league hit. Now, in his fourth season with the Cubs, Lester has put more of an emphasis into hitting.
”I really didn’t care about hitting there” in Boston, he said. ”I’m worried about David (Ortiz) and (Dustin) Pedroia and all of the other guys driving in runs as opposed to me.”
”Coming over here, it can change the outcome of a game, so it becomes a little more important and you work on it all year. In spring training you’re doing it from part of the second week on,” he said.
Lester (11-2) allowed four runs, two of them earned, and nine hits in five-plus innings.
Mitch Garver hit a two-run homer off Dillon Maples as the Twins scored five times in the eighth. Maples [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/...n-artis-payne-jersey]Cameron Artis-Payne Jersey[/url] , called up from Triple-A before the game when pitcher Brian Duensing went on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder, also allowed an RBI single to Logan Morrison and a two-run triple to Willians Astudillo.
”Their offense, we just had trouble with it. Lot of big innings, lot of crooked numbers. I think our guys stayed with it. We got some opportunities there and got some big hits to get back in the game. When you get as close as we did late, it makes you think about some of the runs we gave up along the way, so that’s frustrating,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said.
Javier Baez, who doubled twice, Happ and Willson Contreras each had three hits for the Cubs.
Cubs closer Brandon Morrow got one out in the eighth and pitched a scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 19 chances.
”They got out on us pretty early, but I love the fight of the guys in the dugout. I kind of had glimpses of last year’s team and our fight,” Dozier said.
In the third consecutive sweltering day at Wrigley Field with a gametime temperature at 93 degrees and a heat index at 101, the Cubs jumped all over Lance Lynn (5-7) in the second inning.
Baez doubled home two runs and Anthony Rizzo had an RBI double. Kyle Schwarber met reliever Matt Magill with the Cubs’ third straight double.
Cubs shortstop Addison Russell added an RBI single in the fourth inning and made a highlight grab in the sixth inning before leaving the game with an apparent injury resulting in the catch.
Russell bumped into Baez while making the running catch on Eduardo Escobar’s ball down the left-field line in foul territory. He walked off the field and into the dugout after talking to a team trainer and manager Joe Maddon. Maddon said Russell injured his left middle finger and he doesn’t believe it to be serious.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: LF Eddie Rosario, one of three Twins to leave Saturday’s game due to heat was in the lineup on Sunday. Teammates Bobby Wilson and Max Kepler were available, as was infielder Ehire Adrianza, who received intravenous fluids after finishing the game.
”We just encouraged everyone last night to rest and hydrate the best they could again this morning to get themselves in positions to get through the game,” Molitor said. ”You just try to be aware of it. There’s not much you can do: You’ve got to play people and you’ve got to get through the game.” … SS Jorge Polanco’s 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension ends Monday and Molitor said he expects him to rejoin the club in Milwaukee after a stint with Triple-A Rochester.
Cubs: OF Albert Almora didn’t start, but he came in the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement after leaving Saturday’s game due to dehydration. Almora suffered cramps in his legs and was removed in the fifth inning. Almora had a nice sliding catch in center to rob Kepler in the ninth.
UP NEXT
Twins: Visit Milwaukee on Monday as they continue their interleague schedule. Kyle Gibson (2-6) is the scheduled starter. He had another rough outing against the White Sox in his last start on June 27. He allowed five runs on a season-high 11 hits.
Cubs: RHP Kyle Hendricks (5-8) will try to bounce back from his shortest outing of season on Tuesday against the Tigers. Hendricks allowed six runs
