Philadelphia Phillies Weighing the Challenges of Winning and Staying Healthy

After Bryce Harper had to leave the game early, should the Philadelphia Phillies be resting players?

Sep 4, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh (16) reacts after getting hit with a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies during the seventh inning at Rogers Centre / Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies have been finding their groove a bit in the month of September upon us. They defeated the Toronto Blue Jays for their fourth straight win, and the fifth in their last six games. 

This past weekend, the Phillies had a massive series with the Atlanta Braves.

Winning the National League East is an important goal for Philadelphia in terms of playoff positioning, and winning three out of four games against the Braves was massive. 

Following the series with Atlanta, the Phillies were able to complete a two-game sweep of the Blue Jays. However, the Phillies saw their superstar Bryce Harper have to leave the game in the third inning of Wednesday’s win after being hit by a pitch in the elbow. 

Since Philadelphia is building a comfortable lead in the NL East, they have to start thinking about October baseball once again. This is a team that, when healthy, can win a World Series, but maintaining that status over this final month can be a challenge. 

After beating Toronto, Kyle Schwarber spoke about finding the balance of winning and protecting some players who are injured. 

"That's the name of the game, having really good players, but making sure those players stay on the field,” Kyle Schwarber said to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com . "It's been a grind, obviously, for Harp, getting hit and not feeling his best. But he's doing such a great job for us, going out there and stepping up every day. You see Casty playing every single game. J.T. [Realmuto] has been doing a great job. [Garrett Stubbs] and everybody stepped up when he was down. Everyone is doing a good job of taking care of themselves and making sure that we're going to get to the place that we want to be."

Since the Phillies have yet to clinch anything and are still competing with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the National League, they certainly won't be resting anybody any time soon. 

Depending on how things go in the next couple of weeks in terms of the standings for the NL East and the NL overall, the Phillies might look to try and get some banged up players some time off. 

Fortunately, despite leaving the game early, Harper seems like he is going to be alright.

Philadelphia will be starting a four-game series on the road against the Miami Marlins next, giving themselves a great opportunity to build upon their lead to hand out some rest days to players down the stretch.