Bryce Harper was going to hit a home run again someday. That was a given, even as the Phillies first baseman played through elbow and wrist soreness. But the days became a week and the weeks became a month and of course it became a topic of conversation.
Last Sunday in Miami he ripped a long fly ball to left that bounced off the top of the wall for a double. Another foot or so and it would have been a home run.
“Man, I’ll take hits any way I can right now,” he said after that game. “Obviously, home runs will come. I know it’s been awhile. But I’ve been taking some good swings and getting some good results. So just got to keep going.”
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The very next night, back at Citizens Bank Park, he just missed again. This time the angle was that he was convinced he’d connected against the Rays, didn’t run out of the box and was held to a single when the ball caromed off the right field wall.
Tuesday, incredibly, it happened again. This time he’d circled the bases before the umpires got together and decided – correctly – that a fan had reached over the fence and interfered with the ball. He later admitted he was a little flummoxed. “I don’t see how the ball’s not going,” he said.
Someday finally happened Saturday in the Phils thrilling, 6-4 come-from-behind win over the Mets. And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
He homered in the fourth, a solo shot, his first bomb since August 9 at Arizona. That ended a 30-game drought encompassing 113 at bats, the second-longest of his career. He followed with a two-run homer in the sixth that pulled the Phillies within one and put them in position to put it away in the seventh.
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“That was fun,” he said after the game. “I got two pitches I was able to handle and was able to get the job done.”
He shrugged off the notion, though, that breaking that streak had any particular resonance. “It is what it is,” he said. “I’d go another 200 at bats, a hundred at bats, without one. I’m having good at bats. We’re winning games. Obviously I want to hit homers. But I’ll take the doubles. I’ll take the singles. Any time we can win a game. That’s what matters most.
“It felt like a good atmosphere. It felt like a playoff atmosphere. Felt like a big at bat, big situation. We’ve got a lot of goals in our minds. We want to have the best record and homefield advantage. We want to win the division. Those are all things we’re possibly able to get. We want to keep that going.”
Manager Rob Thomson isn’t going to make any predictions, but he wouldn’t be surprised to see Harper go on a bit of a home run binge.
“I said last week that those big-time power guys, (home runs) come in bunches,” he said. “So I felt like a bunch were going to come and they were going to come pretty soon. He’s been getting his hits. A lot of production.
“(Bench coach) Mike Calitri and I were commenting on it every day. He was fouling pitches straight back. Like three or four a game. And that told me he was right on them. And he was using the whole field. When he does that he’s on the pitch and I feel like his swing is in good shape.”
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