LOS ANGELES — Bryce Harper made his much-anticipated Major League debut last year at Dodger Stadium, and on Monday night, it appeared for a time he may have put his big-league career in serious jeopardy there, too.
The right fielder took a bad route on a fly ball hit by Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis in the bottom of the fifth inning and paid for it, going face first into the right field wall. And while Harper didn't come up with the catch, he did come up with a bloodied neck that was rather alarming.
Harper ended up with 11 stitches and a jammed shoulder (but no concussion) in .
Almost like a wide receiver turned around on a throw, Harper changed directions, looked like he wanted to slow up and then ran out of real estate, banging hard into the wall and crumbling to the warning track, shades of Aaron Rowand in 2006.
Harper was down in obvious pain before being attended to by Nationals personnel. As he left the game, he did so with a noticeable trace of blood around his neck.
Ellis wound up with a triple, while Harper headed straight to the clubhouse with the Nationals up 6-0 at the time.
