Harper and the Phillies have unlimited October possibilities
DH makes most of chance to play deep in post-season, writes Barry Svrluga.
Bryce Harper had done nothing Saturday afternoon by the time he walked to the plate in the sixth inning. Not at the plate, where he had struck out twice and popped to centre in three at-bats. Not in the field, where he no longer appears because he is the Philadelphia Phillies' designated hitter. The chants came anyway. “MVP! MVP! MVP!”
That is Harper's status in this ravenous sports town — the most valuable player and most prominent character on a Phillies team that, in the span of a little more than a week, has morphed into a post-season problem for anyone it comes up against. That's partly because of Harper's talent, which remains enormous and will now be on display deeper than it ever has been in October — in the National League Championship Series.
The Phillies, who pounded the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves out of the post-season with an 8-3 victory in Game 4 of this division series Saturday, haven't been this far since 2010. Harper hasn't been here — ever. That forges a connection between those who are trying to reach new territory and those who are pushing behind them.
“Being able to come into a town that I feel like I'm with them, I feel like they're with us each day,” Harper said. “I feel like I'm hand-in-hand with them and vice versa. When you want to play hard, when you want to be in a city, when you want to be a factor in a city, that's all they want to see. They just want you to play hard. That's it. They want you to go out there and bust your ass each day. No excuses, good or bad. They don't care. They just want you to keep doing it.”
If he keeps doing what he's doing, there are no limits on the Phillies' October possibilities. Harper's contributions in the clincher were a run-scoring single in that sixth-inning at-bat, then an opposite-field, solo homer in the eighth that finished the scoring — plays that were overshadowed by Brandon Marsh's three-run bomb in the second and an unlikely insidethe-park homer by catcher
J.T. Realmuto in the third.
But Harper's contributions thus far in the post-season — a two-game, first-round sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and the four games of this division series — are unmatched: a .435 batting average, a .480 on-base percentage and a .957 slugging percentage (good for an insane 1.437 on-base-plus-slugging percentage) with three doubles, three homers and six RBI.
All of this came after he was limited to 99 games in the regular season because of a broken thumb. In 35 games after he returned from a two-month absence, he hit .227 with a .676 OPS and just three homers.
He wasn't who he normally is. He is now.
“Honestly, coming back from the broken thumb took him some time,” said Kevin Long, Harper's hitting coach for his final season in Washington who's in his first year with the Phillies now. “He's right back to where he was.”
Where he was: the reigning NL MVP. Where can he go this October? Wherever he wants.
“He can take over a series,” Long said. “We saw that. Right in the middle of our lineup, guys on base, not on base — it didn't matter. It was just squaring up ball after ball after ball. There's a reason why he's been the MVP — twice. And we saw it on display in full force in this series.”
That was Harper's world. He doesn't need reminding because it's no longer pertinent, but his Octobers past were either haunted or vacant. Four times as a Washington National, his team won the NL East. Four times, it lost in the division series — each in its own implausible, painfulto-relive-it way.
A 13-year, US$330 million contract ties Harper to this city for the rest of his career.
Eight more wins, and his tie to this town would be forever unbreakable.