Harper’s energy is keeping season alive

PHILADELPHIA >> The homestand that would test everything about the Phillies, their structure, their abilities and their pride began with Andy MacPhail making strangely pessimistic noises.

If it was going to end any other way, that would be up to Bryce Harper.

Reeling and injured, stung by a pre-All-Star-break portion of their schedule that had gone mostly wrong, the critics thirsty, the springs of optimism running dry, the Phillies would face seven treacherous games against the Nationals and Dodgers. If they were buried, if they were outclassed, if their “suboptimal” bullpen situation, as Gabe Kapler would call it, would not allow them to compete, it would be over. The buyers would become sellers. The masses would flee. Even the wild card would have floated from their reasonable reach.

But they agreed to pay Harper $330,000,000 for a reason. And if that reason was to make certain that there would be meaningful baseball in Citizens Bank Park well past July, their 7-6 victory over Los Angeles Sunday was an early and tidy dividend.

Capping a four-game series in which he’d go 6-for-13 with three doubles, seven runs, three walks and a home run

that nearly overturned the condiment table on Ashburn Alley, Harper went 2-for-3 with a double, two uniform-dirtying slides for extra bases, two runs scored and valuable defensive play in right. That enabled the Phils to earn a 2-2 split with the team with the best record in baseball.

That might not be cause for lamp-post climbing, but it did keep the lights on for a while.

“We came out against one of the hotter teams in baseball in the Washington Nationals and arguably the best team in baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Kapler said. “We came out of it with a 3-3 split (in the final six games). We think it’s strong but it’s not our best baseball.

“I’m proud of the way that we continue to fight. The character continues to be strong in the clubhouse and between the lines. The most important thing is how we bounce back when we take our lumps. And I think we continue to do that well.”

That the Phillies are resilient is accurate. That they keep putting themselves in a situation where that is necessary is troublesome. All they knew Thursday as they packed for a trip to Pittsburgh and Detroit was that they not only survived the Dodgers series, but did so with a growling refusal to be dismissed. After being belittled in a 16-2 loss Monday, the Phils responded Tuesday with a ninth-inning rally capped by Harper’s two-run, walkoff double. Wednesday, they were held to two hits and lost. But Thursday, Harper provided a first-inning RBI and another in a four-run seventh. That made him 33-for-89 with 14 extra-base hits and 47 RBIs this season with runners in scoring position.

There is no bigger reason why a season trusted to an inexperienced 38-year-old pitching coach and overseen by a team president clearly out of patience has not already crumbled.

“I think we’ve got 25 guys in here that come in here every single day with the right mentality to play the game,” said Harper, fulfilling his in-room obligation to spread the credit. “This isn’t about one guy or one person on this team or staff. It’s about us. It’s about the 25 guys in here and how we pull on the same rope every day. If we don’t get the job done one day, another guy’s going to get it done. That’s how we are.”

That’s how they are because their wealthiest player is also the one most likely to run hard, dive to make plays in the outfield and terrorize pitchers when there are runners on second or third. His home run total of 17 is a touch mild, but Harper has gone 25-for-79 since June 22, a .316 average.

“Harp had a big series,” Aaron Nola said. “There were a lot of big hits for him. He brings a lot of energy, too. It’s just good for our ballclub, good for everybody.”

The Phillies are paid too much and were hyped too thoroughly to have fallen so deep in the NL East race as the trade deadline nears. And they were only 3-4 in that homestand, the one MacPhail opened with the pronouncement that they were too far from a World Series to make franchise-rattling trades. But after wasting a late lead against the Nationals, they won on a walkoff Maikel Franco homer. Then after the two-touchdown loss to the Dodgers, they won on Harper’s walk-off hit. Then they won Thursday, even with Nola sputtering.

“It’s huge,” Harper said. “That’s one of the best teams in all of baseball, if not the best. For us to be able to get that split today after a long night, we had to really go out there and really do our job. And we were able to do that and get the split.”

As the series ended, the Dodgers stood in their dugout, reluctant to leave, agitated that Hector Neris had stared too long at them after surviving a challenging ninth. If they have a chance to retaliate, it will have to be in the postseason.

If so, it will be because Bryce Harper did not allow one dangerous July homestand to justify their president’s pessimism.