PHILADELPHIA -- Before he launched a 440-foot homer that he followed with a 448-foot homer, Bryce Harper smacked a slider to dead center. He missed the barrel. He knew it and looked disgusted. He jogged to first base as Julio Rodríguez caught the fly ball, then clapped his hands a few times.
"Just missed it," Harper said.
He kept going because that is what this sport demands. It was the 125th game of the season, the 11th in 11 days, and the second one since the Phillies learned they would be without Zack Wheeler. These Phillies have faced various forms of adversity in recent years, and none of it rises to this -- their ace sidelined by a terrifying blood clot six weeks from the start of another postseason filled with great expectations.
It was impossible to avoid the thought in the hours that preceded Monday's 12-7 win, the club's first time at Citizens Bank Park in 12 days. "When you lose a player of that caliber, it's definitely going to hurt a little bit," Trea Turner said. "You feel it a little bit in here." Everyone kept going. Before the second inning ended, every player in the Phillies' lineup had a hit against Seattle Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. Ranger Suárez threw harder. Turner slugged his first home run at home all season, an unfathomable streak broken. The Phillies collected 21 hits, more than any game in this ballpark since 2009.
They will feel Wheeler's loss for however long he's absent. One night against a good pitcher on a good team changes little. Their odds of capturing an elusive championship might have suffered a serious blow.
After that second-inning flyout, Harper grounded out two innings later. Then he unloaded in the sixth, and did it again in the seventh. No player in Major League Baseball had smashed two 440-foot homers in the same game this season. No Phillies player has done it in at least a decade. Those are just numbers, random round ones, but the Phillies need to create a feeling. They have to believe in something.
"We don't have to rely on one person," Turner said. "We can all step up a little. We can all play a little better defense. We can pitch a little better. We all can hit a little better. Play as a team. If we all pick up a little bit of slack, we can get the job done."
Suárez admitted he was thinking about it on his way into the ballpark Monday afternoon. He has not been his best for weeks, and everyone can see it. The Phillies padded his start with an extra day in an attempt to change something. They had plans for a six-man rotation to help their taxed starters, like Suárez, but that's been abandoned with Wheeler's ailment.
They all have to be better. Suárez especially.
"I was thinking -- and maybe that's what we're all thinking as a starting staff -- is we lost a great pitcher," Suárez said through a team interpreter. "We lost a great player. We just have to do our best and perform as best as we can so we can try to fill those shoes."
Suárez threw a harder cutter. He struck out 10 batters in a start for the first time in 15 months. He was one out from seven scoreless innings before surrendering a homer and hitting a batter, but whatever. This was progress at a time when the Phillies needed it most.
"It's his best start in a while," Rob Thomson said.
The manager has tried to maintain steadiness as Wheeler, who underwent a thrombolysis procedure Monday morning to remove the blood clot near his right shoulder, is absent. The sky might be falling, but it was so overcast at the start of Monday night's game that no one would have known.
"We love Zack, man," Harper said. "He's one of our guys in here. He's one of our leaders. One of the heartbeats that makes us go every fifth day. He's been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball the last five, six, seven years. So it's irreplaceable, man. You start thinking about not just the game, but his family and his kids and everything else. It's bigger than this game."
But there was a game, and 37 more after it. This was supposed to be Wheeler's coronation; he was on a Cy Young Award-caliber streak while atop one of the best rotations in baseball that powered a contender. He will not win Cy Young. He might not pitch again in 2025. The remainder of his career could be colored by whatever ramifications emerge from the blood clot. These are heavy thoughts, and a Phillies clubhouse that is older than most is acutely aware of baseball mortality. Outside of that room, the unfortunate Wheeler injury is but another sign the Phillies' window is closing fast. They can fight and claw and complain, but it's no use.
Then, Turner hit a ball to deep left field.
"Right now, I don't trust anything," Turner said. "If I hit a ball good, I don't trust until it goes over that wall."
It did, his first homer here since Sept. 25, 2024. Turner has 14 hits in his last five games. He has played far better defense at shortstop. This is probably his finest season for the Phillies; it hasn't always felt like it's enough. But it's almost September, and Turner has more hits than any player in the National League.
"It just really feels like the last few days I've hit the pitch I should," Turner said, "hit it where I should, and taken some good swings."
The Phillies are one game behind last season's pace. Their NL East lead is a half-game smaller than it was through 125 games. They are where they are supposed to be, and it hasn't always felt like it's enough. Without Wheeler, it doesn't feel like they have enough. All of the terrifying truths to process were put on hold. The Phillies socked some dingers. They entertained a sold-out crowd for a few hours.
"It's something that's hard to put in the back of your mind and not think about, especially when you get the news," Harper said. "But, obviously, Zack wants us to go out there and play our game and get deep in the playoffs and win a World Series."
There's only one way forward.