ARLINGTON -- Bryce Harper will be back in the Phillies’ lineup on Wednesday.

They could have used him on Tuesday night in a 7-0 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field. Harper is batting .326 with 15 home runs, 48 RBIs and a 1.013 OPS, but he has not started since Game 1 of Friday’s doubleheader in Washington because of an infected blister on his left hand. He has not played since he smacked a pinch-hit, game-tying double with two outs in the eighth inning in Game 2 on Friday.

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The Phillies have lost two of their last three games without him. They have scored only five runs.

“You take your MVP out of the lineup, it’s going to shorten the lineup a little bit,” Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said.

The Phillies planned to use Harper as a pinch-hitter in the ninth on Tuesday, if it made sense. It looked like it might with the Rangers holding a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the eighth. If the Phillies could keep the score there and get a couple of runners on base, Harper could change the game with one swing of the bat. But Phillies right-hander Jeurys Familia pulled the plug on those plans. He served up a pair of two-run home runs to make it a seven-run deficit.

At that point, it made no sense for Harper to hit.

“Once it got to five, he was probably out,” Thomson said.

Of course, even if Harper played the entire game, the Phillies still might have lost. But what happened in the eighth inning reinforced the Phillies’ bullpen issues. Familia signed a one-year, $6 million contract with the Phillies in March to be a setup man to Corey Knebel, who lost his role as closer last week. Familia, meanwhile, has a 5.55 ERA in 27 appearances. He has struck out 24 and walked 11 in 24 1/3 innings. Most troubling, he has allowed six homers.

Familia averaged 1.52 homers per nine innings last season with the Mets. The Phillies said they were unconcerned about it because they believed in his power sinker. But Familia is averaging 2.22 homers per nine innings this year. His velocity is down, too, which has something to do with the sink of his fastball.

Familia’s sinker averaged 96.4 mph last season. It averaged 95.2 coming into Tuesday.

It averaged 94.8 mph against the Rangers.

Familia’s struggles have dropped him in the bullpen depth chart behind pitchers like Seranthony Domínguez, Brad Hand, Connor Brogdon, Knebel, Andrew Bellatti and possibly José Alvarado.

“I think it’ll come back,” Thomson said. “We’ve got to keep running him out there, maybe give him some spots, like tonight a little bit. And just let him work through it.”

But even on nights like Tuesday, a couple poorly located pitches can change everything. A small deficit turns into a bigger one and any chance of a late-inning comeback is thwarted.

It took the bat out of Harper’s hands in this one.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Familia said through the team’s interpreter. “I’ve been in the league a long time. They signed me to do that. So it is frustrating that I haven't been able to do it.”