The Washington Nationals’ organization went to bed Saturday night fearing for some bad news. Early in the team’s game against the San Francisco Giants that evening, All-Star outfielder Bryce Harper suffered what appeared to be a serious injury.
The ugly-looking scene itself unfolded when Harper attempted to leg out a ground ball in the first inning. The MVP candidate toppled to the ground down the first-base line, ultimately grabbing his knee in agony.
This just happened to Bryce Harper. Hopefully not as bad as it appears. Damn.#Nationals pic.twitter.com/3mL2w5KLTh
— Robert Flores (@RoFlo) August 13, 2017
Harper eventually needed to be carried off the field.
Bryce Harper carried off the field. pic.twitter.com/N1nwZNcHGa
— Rudy Gersten (@DCBarno) August 13, 2017
While the injury itself looked bad, the Nationals and Harper appeared to have dodged a major bullet here. General manager Mike Rizzo announced Sunday morning that his star outfielder avoided structural damage to the knee. Instead, Harper suffered a bone bruise.
Nationals GM Mike Rizzo: Bryce Harper has "significant bone bruise" but no ligament damage. "We feel we dodged a bullet."
— Gabe Lacques (@GabeLacques) August 13, 2017
Harper will be out indefinitely, but this is still some rather tremendous news for the Nationals.
The outfielder entered this weekend’s action hitting .326 with 29 homers and 87 RBI for the first-place Nationals. Boasting a 14.5 game lead in the NL East, Washington can afford to take it slow with Harper from here on out.