NEW YORK -- Bryce Harper's ejection Monday got plenty of attention, because it is Harper, and he is one of baseball's brightest stars, but perhaps more noteworthy than his fourth-inning dismissal is that Phillies pitcher Jake Arrieta said the team was not ready to play.
The Phillies were "flat," he said.
"I thought Jake was spot-on in identifying that we need to be focused as a team, on winning baseball games," Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said Tuesday afternoon at Citi Field. "I thought he was spot-on in identifying that we didn't come out with our best energy last night. I think there's some truth to that in the last game in Colorado as well. So one of the things I'm heavily focused on now is seeing the tone they set today knowing that this is an important game. We've identified this as a group as an important game. It will be interesting to see the sort of tone these guys set today. I think it will be improved."
Arrieta twice mentioned the fact that Monday night's game started late because of rain. Did he see something during the delay that led him to believe the Phillies were not focused?
"I think baseball is who can perform best under suboptimal conditions, and conditions are always suboptimal," Kapler said. "If it rains on one side of the field, if you have a rain delay in one clubhouse, you have a rain delay in the other clubhouse as well. So who can handle those tough situations better? If there's umpiring that isn't ideal, oftentimes it's not ideal on the other side as well.
"One of the things that we pride ourselves on around here is bringing good energy to the ballpark every day. Bringing a high level of intensity, a high level of diligence. And whenever that's not evident -- that high level of energy, that intent with pitchers that we talk about sometimes -- it's always bothersome. That's one thing we can control every day. We can bring the highest level of energy every single day. We can't control whether we perform every day, whether we get hits, miss bats, but we can always control our effort. Our energy levels are really important."
Punishment coming?
Kapler chatted Tuesday with MLB Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre about Harper's ejection and its aftermath.
Kapler briefly made contact with home-plate umpire Mark Carlson as he tried to push Harper away from the umpire. Carlson said he planned to file the contact in his report to Major League Baseball. Torre will decide if there are fines or suspensions.
"I was very cognizant of the space I had between me and Mark, and I feel like I respected that," Kapler said. "I felt nothing. It doesn't mean there wasn't some contact, but it wasn't like, oh [crap], there was just this bump. I didn't feel anything.
"My intention was always to respect the distance and the space. I never felt like I got uncomfortably close to him by any stretch. As always, my main goal is to protect Bryce. In those situations, you can't feel what's happening behind you. The only thing I know is that when Bryce was close to me, that he also kept his distance. I thought that [coaches Rob Thomson] and Dusty [Wathan] did a really good job of assisting in that situation. It was the right play to have our group out on the field, making sure that's where it ended."
Arano update
Right-hander Victor Arano, who is on the 10-day injured list with inflammation in his right elbow, visited team doctors Tuesday in Philadelphia. An ultrasound showed no UCL concerns. Arano will have a MRI exam Wednesday.