Outshone by Harper, Escobar in the midst of his best season at the plate

WASHINGTON — Bryce Harper has been the Washington Nationals’ shining light this season, the best player in baseball and the lead National League Most Valuable Player candidate. Harper’s 3-for-4 performance on Sunday raised his major league-best average to .343 and his on-base-plus-slugging percentage to 1.143, the highest since Barry Bonds’ 1.422 OPS in 2004. But Harper’s excellence and the deserved attention it commands make it easy to overlook Yunel Escobar.

Escobar is in the midst of the best season of his career, too. The 32-year-old third baseman’s 4-for-4 game on Sunday pushed his season average to .324, the fifth-best in the major leagues. His 120 OPS+ (the on-base-plus-slugging percentage adjusted for ballparks and leagues) is the best of his career. Over the weekend, he set a new career record in hits (159) in a season, and then added to it.

“I have a clear mind,” Escobar said in Spanish. “You know, I’m relaxed. It was a good year of preparation and good preparation in the offseason.”

Despite nicks and bruises here and there, Escobar has been a consistent force for the Nationals. He doesn’t provide much power— he has nine home runs and a .429 slugging percentage — but his high-contact, relatively-fewer-strikeout bat complements the Nationals lineup well. He hits the ball to all fields, keenly aware of what the situation calls for.

In Sunday’s sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Escobar drove a fastball on the inner half of the plate to deep right-center, a big part of the field where he could send the ball to drive his teammates home. This season, he has four games of four hits or more, including three 5-for-5 performances.

“His secret to success is the ball hit to right-center field,” manager Matt Williams said. “When he’s going well, that’s what he does. Got a couple of them back through the middle [Sunday]. Just a really good game. But for him, the ball to right-center is indicative of him seeing the ball well and staying on it.”

The Nationals have never had a batting title champion in their team history, let alone having two players finish in the top five or top 10 in average. Harper and Escobar could be the Nationals’ firsts.