Has the ‘can’t miss’ Harper finally arrived?
STREAKING: Injury prone until now, Nationals’ young star enjoying breakout with 15 homers in 40 games
WASHINGTON — Is this it? Is this the moment? Is May of 2015 the ignition, the blastoff?
As Bryce Harper’s 10th home run in 12 games streaked into the first row of the right field seats in the first inning of the Nationals’ 8-6 win over the Yankees on Tuesday night, that was the thought that should have run through thousands of minds at Nationals Park.
His swing under control, smooth but fierce, Harper hit a liner that looked like it might short-hop the 14-foot wall, then might slam against it and, in the end, cleared it. Before you could say “going” it was “gone.” Yes, that’s 15 homers in 40 games.
Is this the Harper breakout that doesn’t break down as soon as it’s sighted? Is this the year that an injury doesn’t derail his progress?
Is this the player — who entered Tuesday’s game with a .338 batting average, .476 on-base percentage and .729 slugging percentage, which is right around Babe Ruth’s career marks of .342/.474/.690 — we’ll all witness for the next dozen years?
Slumps will come, as they do for all hitters. But what baseball, Washington and the Nationals have waited for — is it now exploding in Harper’s fourth season at the age of 22? It sure looks like it. First, a moment of sanity. Harper has been scalding hot before.
When he was 19, he had a 1.078 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) from May 13 to June 12. He ended the season with a 1.023 OPS in his last 41 games. In 2013, he hit two homers on opening day and had an OPS of 1.236 with nine homers after 23 games. Last season, after wrist surgery in May, he eventually got stronger and had a 1.001 OPS for three weeks late in the year, then hit three homers in the division series. We’ve been here before. “Noooo, this is different,” Nationals closer Drew Storen said. “I watch him the way a pitcher does — what would I do against him?”
“The main thing is all the walks (36 through 39 games). He’s selective. And he makes mid-at-bat adjustments now, pitch-to-pitch adjustments, that’s veteran stuff,” Storen said. “He’ll chase a pitch early in an at-bat, then figure out the pitcher will come back to it. But he’ll spit on it the next time and walk. Or he’ll look for it and crush it.”
In San Diego on Sunday, Harper swung through a high-away fastball with two men on base. He adjusted his approach, looked for a similar pitch and hit it to the opposite field. “It’s scary,” Storen said. “He’s hot and he knows it. But he’s also playing the chess match.”
When that opposite-field ball with backspin landed eight rows in the left field seats for a three-run Harper homer, Storen stood up in the Nationals’ bullpen, holding both arms outstretched, hands up in the universal hopeless sign of ‘What are you going to do?’ Storen held the pose as Harper rounded the bases.
“Harp’s not going up there to hit home runs. He’s trying to have good at-bats, have a smart game plan,” said Storen. “But he’s just keeps runnin’ into ’em.” Fifteen times, so far. Three of his homers have been tape-measure types, all at Nationals Park; the longest was 452 feet, with a 441- and 431-footer in his threehomer game two weeks ago.
In Arizona last week, Harper stayed on an 82-mph change-up — which he’d seen earlier in the at-bat — and flicked it to right-centre with only one hand on the bat at contact and his weight on his front foot. The fly carried 396 feet. But it landed several rows in the bleachers, leaving players on both teams speechless.
On Tuesday, Harper was asked about winning NL player of the week in consecutive weeks, something done only 10 times and almost always by great players.
“Hope that I win it again, truly,” Harper said. Cocky? Confident? Matter of fact? All those.
What category of production is he proudest of this year?
“My walks and my runs,” he said. “I want to get on base for the guys behind me.”
Piece by piece, the ultimate Bam Bam is materializing.
“As long as Bryce can stay on the field, the numbers will be there,” general manager Mike Rizzo said.
Can he? And if he does stay intact, what might those numbers be?
Perhaps Harper gave his own hint. As he came to bat, his walk-up song was by Frank Sinatra.
“The best is yet to come, and babe, won’t that be fine?”