Harper tumbles, Phillies stumble to 0-2

PHILADELPHIA -- Bryce Harper cartwheeled into the camera well.

He had pursued a popup near the Phillies' dugout in the first inning on Saturday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, when his momentum carried him into the railing and flipped him head over heels into the well below. Harper landed hard on the metal floor that supports the TV cameras for the broadcast. It looked awful, but seconds after Philadelphia athletic trainers Joe Rauch and Paul Buchheit arrived at his side, Harper hopped up and rejoined the game.

He suffered a cut on his left index finger, but otherwise the Phillies said he is fine.

Sore, but fine.

“I’m really glad he didn’t hurt himself as bad as I thought he did,” right-hander Aaron Nola said following a 12-4 loss to the Braves. “From my angle, it did not look good. It looked like he hurt his neck pretty bad from my angle.”

Harper’s spill should have been the worst part of Saturday, but it was just the beginning. After the Phillies chased Braves lefty Max Fried from the game after throwing 43 pitches in just two-thirds of an inning -- the shortest start of Fried’s career -- Nola suffered one of the worst starts of his own career. Making matters worse, the Phillies’ bullpen allowed five runs following a late-game meltdown on Opening Day.

The Phillies have allowed 21 runs in the season’s first two games. They allowed 27 in the first two last year.

Those are the only two times the Phillies have allowed 20 or more runs in the season’s first two games since 1935.

So much for a good start.

“We’ve got a veteran clubhouse and we understand it’s a long season," shortstop Trea Turner said. "But you try too hard sometimes; you’ve got to take a step back and relax a little bit. Sometimes, early in the season, everybody gets caught up in things. You’re trying to settle in a little bit.

"Obviously, you want to win the games. You don’t want to give them away because they matter at the end of the year. It’s balancing urgency and trying to clean things up as fast as possible, but at the same time, we started off bad last year and we ended up having a great season.”

Nola allowed a career-high 12 hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings. He had never allowed more than 10 hits in a game until Saturday. It is only the second time a Phillies pitcher has allowed 12 or more hits in a game since Aaron Harang allowed 12 on Aug. 10, 2015.

Nola did not give up a lot of hard contact early, but he did leave pitches over the plate, and he induced only eight swings and misses.

It was the 36th time Nola has faced the Braves in his career, including the postseason. He had forced fewer whiffs only four times.

But Nola wasn’t sure why he didn’t miss more bats.

“I think just really not having a putaway pitch necessarily -- we got to two strikes -- we just didn’t execute enough to put guys away,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said.

Ozzie Albies hit a 1-1 changeup for a two-run homer in the first inning to make it 2-0. Nola walked Michael Harris II on a 3-2 curveball to start the second. Nola then hung a 1-1 curveball to Orlando Arcia, who doubled. Travis d’Arnaud poked an 0-2 curveball out of the zone down the right-field line to score a pair of runs to make it 4-3.

“I could throw that 10 more times and it might go foul or swing and miss,” Nola said about d’Arnaud’s double. “He put a decent swing on it and kept it fair. Maybe try to bounce it next time.”

It continued from there.

Luis F. Ortiz replaced Nola in the fifth. Ortiz made the Phillies’ Opening Day roster following a strong spring and the Phils planned for him to be the long man out of the 'pen, but he sprained his ankle jumping for a double-play ball in the fifth. He returned for the sixth, then left the game.

Ortiz was limping noticeably in the clubhouse. The Phils might make a roster move before Sunday’s game because they are suddenly short on pitching.

“It’s definitely frustrating, but at the end of the day it’s two games and we have 160 left,” Realmuto said. “It’s a frustrating start, but we don’t want to put too much into it.”