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Nationals' slugger Bryce Harper leaves game with apparent injury after collision

Washington Nationals' slugger Bryce Harper left this afternoon's game in the first after colliding with Miami Marlins' second baseman Derek Dietrich while rounding the second base bag on a groundout. No word on the extent of any injury...

By Patrick Reddington
Rob Foldy/Getty Images

Bryce Harper grounded into a force at second in his first at bat against Miami lefty Brad Hand this afternoon, but on the play, Marlins' second baseman Derek Dietrich, in his first start at second this season, failed to get over to cover the bag because of his positioning, so shortstop Miguel Rojas had to hustle to beat Anthony Rendon to the base.

So when Jayson Werth grounded to short with two down in the next at bat, Dietrich hustled to the bag in case Rojas threw to second for the force, but Harper was hustling too and tried to round the base as the throw went to first, only to collide with Dietrich as they both arrived simultaneously.

Harper tumbled to the ground and remained there until team trainer Lee Kuntz and Nats' skipper Matt Williams came out to check on the 22-year-old slugger. Harper left the game after a discussion with the two.

Here's video of the collision via MLB.com (sorry, no embed code available yet):

Harper entered today's game ranked 1st in the NL in AVG (.333), OBP (.464), SLG (.649), runs scored (104) and Wins Above Replacement (+8.5 fWAR).

As per usual, except for the last time Harper was injured with a left glute issue a few weeks back, there is no word from the Nationals yet on what injury led to Harper leaving the game.

Team policy is that they usually wait until after the game before providing any injury updates.

Washington just lost set up man Drew Storen to a non-displaced fracture in his right thumb which he injured slamming his locker closed after a rough outing in last week's series against the New York Mets, in the latest in a long line of injuries this season.

More information on Harper's status when it's available...

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