Phillies’ Brandon Marsh sits with bruised knee; Sam Coonrod sent to triple A

The Phillies were a few hours delayed in releasing their lineup on Wednesday afternoon, and for good reason. Their starting center fielder, Brandon Marsh, hurt his left knee after attempting to catch a ball at the wall in the third inning of Tuesday’s night 18-11 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Initially, Marsh stayed in the game and took an at-bat in the bottom of the third inning, but exited the game at the top of the fourth inning. Interim manager Rob Thomson said after the game that Marsh had a bruise. It’s the second time in a five-week span that the young center fielder has injured himself while attempting to make a catch. On Aug. 17, he was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain.

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Thomson was waiting to see how Marsh came out of hitting in the batting cage to see whether he could start him against the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. He ended up putting Matt Vierling in center field instead. Marsh is day-to-day.

To make room for starter Zack Wheeler, who was reinstated from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday, the Phillies had to clear a spot on their active roster. They ended up going with right-handed pitcher Sam Coonrod, who has given up seven earned runs in his last three outings. Coonrod was optioned to triple-A Lehigh Valley on Wednesday afternoon.

Thomson didn’t rule out the possibility of Coonrod earning a spot on a potential postseason roster, emphasizing that he wanted the reliever to get more regular work over the remainder of the regular season.

“Those are private conversations, but essentially, [I told him] he needs to pitch,” Thomson said. “He needs to get consistent work, he needs to keep pitching. It doesn’t mean he’s not coming back here, even though we’re towards the end of the season. He needs to get some innings under his belt.”

Thomson said utility infielder Edmundo Sosa (right hamstring strain) is “doing well.” They still hope he’ll be ready to rejoin the club by the time the playoffs roll around. … Right fielder Nick Castellanos (right oblique strain) took some more swings on Wednesday. The Phillies hope he can take batting practice in the next couple of days. They don’t know whether he’ll go on a rehab assignment yet, but Thomson would prefer that he did. … Right-handed pitcher Zach Eflin pitched just an inning out of the bullpen Tuesday night because he was dealing with back spams over the weekend in Atlanta, and Thomson didn’t want to push him. Eflin came out of the outing without any pain in his back, and could give the Phillies two to three innings if they need him. Thomson won’t use him in consecutive outings because of his injury history.