WASHINGTON — Jhoan Durán, one of the prized acquisitions at Major League Baseball’s trade deadline and the much-needed closer for the Philadelphia Phillies, was struck by a batted ball on his right ankle and taken off the field on a bullpen cart in the ninth inning of their Aug. 15 game.
Yet X-rays on Durán’s ankle were negative and he’ll be evaluated further this weekend.
Durán, entering with a 6-2 lead against the Washington Nationals, took a one-hopper off the bat of the Nationals’ Paul DeJong – exit velocity, 94.1 mph – and tried to retrieve the ball as it bounced toward the first base line.
But he pulled up before the basepath and began hobbling, hopping into foul play and standing still. Members of the Phillies’ and Nationals’ training staff and manager Rob Thomson attended to him.
He simply stood there, arm around a trainer, flexing and trying to put weight on his leg. The delay stretched to more than 10 minutes as a crowd of 35,143 anticipating a postgame Sam Hunt concert whistled in mild impatience.
But Thomson said Durán felt better as the delay wore on. Ultimately, the Nationals’ bullpen cart vroomed from beyond the center field wall and took Durán off the field. He was replaced by 40-year-old David Robertson, who recorded all three outs to finish the 6-2 victory.
Thomson said the cart was called upon due to the significant number of steps exiting the Nationals Park field, and they wanted to keep the pressure off the 240-pound Durán’s ankle.
‘He ran like a shot over to retrieve the ball and then once he got there I think the adrenaline wore off and the pain set in,’ Thomson said. ‘Before the cart came out, it took a long time and he said, ‘I feel better, I think I can walk over to the dugout.’ But there’s all these steps here and we wanted to use the cart.’
Durán, 27, has a fastball clocked at 102 mph that he pairs with a 97 mph cutter, making him one of the most dominant closers in the game. He was acquired July 30 from the Minnesota Twins for top prospects Mick Abel and Eduardo Tait to reinforce a Phillies bullpen that has struggled to fill in for projected closer Jordan Romano, who has a 7.24 ERA.
Durán has been perfect in four save situations for the Phillies, pitching four scoreless innings, giving up just one hit, striking out three and walking none before his outing Friday.
This story was updated with new information.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
