Washington Nationals prodigious left fielder Bryce Harper aggravated a hip injury before Saturday’s 9-2 road victory over the Miami Marlins.

Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post broke the news, noting that it occurred while Harper was hitting:

Harper has been hampered for about a week with the strained left hip. The 20-year-old was scratched from the lineup by manager Davey Johnson just moments before the first pitch at Marlins Park, according to a report by Kilgore earlier in the evening.

Tyler Moore filled in for Harper and performed admirably, recording two hits in five at-bats and scoring once while also logging two RBI.

As Kilgore notes in the report, Harper has been battling injuries since late April, which makes the fact that he made his second consecutive All-Star team all the more impressive—though his popularity helped him in that regard.

Credit the young Harper for sticking it out amid a down 2013 season for the Nationals, who sit 13 games behind the National League East division-leading Atlanta Braves.

For the year, Harper is hitting .273 with 19 home runs and 49 RBI, but this latest ailment seems to be impacting his play on the diamond in a negative way. He only has two hits in 12 at-bats in the month of September thus far.

After Harper was not in the lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, he persuaded Johnson to plug him in on Friday against the Marlins.

There isn’t much incentive for Harper to rush back to the field, but Harper has bucked that type of reasoning and fought through pain all season.

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