PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper may be banged up, however he’s hitting like an MVP once more.
It may be crucial factor to take from the Phillies’ 8-6 loss to the Giants in 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. Harper ripped a game-tying three-run dwelling run off the right-field foul pole within the ninth. It was his third homer in his previous three video games and his fifth in his previous seven. Harper is batting .345 (20-for-58) with 5 doubles, seven homers, 15 RBIs and a 1.228 OPS in his previous 16 contests.
“Just getting pitches on the plate to swing at,” Harper stated. “Not missing them, trying not to chase the pitches out of the zone, taking chances when I can. But just continue to try to square up baseballs. Like I said about a month ago, I’m not worried about the homers or anything like that. I’m just trying to square up baseballs as much as possible. When I’m doing that, we’ve got a really good chance to go out there and win games.”
Harper’s homer left his bat at an exit velocity of 112.9 mph, topping out at 47 toes because it cruised above the turf like a missile till it smashed into the foul pole.
“I saw it curving a little bit,” Harper stated. “I thought I hit it hard enough to keep it over the fence before it went foul. Thankfully, it hit the pole and [was a] three-run shot.”
Harper singled as soon as and lined out twice earlier within the sport. He hit every of these balls with an exit velocity of at the very least 110 mph.
Since Statcast started monitoring exit velocities in 2015, solely Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has put extra 110+ mph balls in play in a sport. He did it 5 instances on Sept. 18, 2022. The solely different participant to do it 4 instances in a sport is Giancarlo Stanton on May 7, 2015. Kyle Schwarber held the earlier Phillies document with three such batted balls on Aug. 9, 2022.
Harper is discovering his energy stroke with 35 video games to play, even when he’s not 100% wholesome. He has performed first base solely as soon as since Friday in Washington due to again tightness. Harper stated the Phillies will consider him once more earlier than they open a three-game sequence Friday towards the Cardinals.
“I don’t want to rush into it and get back out there and go back to square one,” Harper stated.
Harper fouled a ball off his proper knee earlier than he singled within the fourth. It prompted an extended check-in on the sphere with Phillies supervisor Rob Thomson and an athletic coach. Harper remained within the sport, then bought hit by a pitch on the left forearm to load the bases within the seventh.
“I started running, and I hit a little, tiny nerve,” Harper stated in regards to the knee. “It kind of gave out on me a little bit, but I’m good.”
Harper had his forearm bandaged, and he stated he’s high quality general.
That’s excellent news, as a result of a scorching Harper can carry the Phillies to the No. 1 National League Wild Card spot, which might permit them to host the second-seeded Wild Card in a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series. Philadelphia (69-58) has a 2 1/2-game lead over Chicago (66-60) and a three-game lead over Arizona (66-61), San Francisco (66-61) and Cincinnati (66-61), with the Reds enjoying on Wednesday night time. Miami (65-63) is 4 1/2 video games behind.
The Phillies are in a great spot. As of 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, FanGraphs offers them an 83.8 p.c likelihood to make the postseason. Only the Braves (100%), Dodgers (100%) and Brewers (92.3 p.c) have higher odds within the NL. The Cubs (56.4 p.c), Giants (53.3 p.c), D-backs (46.7 p.c), Marlins (27.7 p.c) and Reds (27.4 p.c) path them.
But Philadelphia’s loss Wednesday handed San Francisco the season sequence, 4-2, that means the Giants personal the tiebreaker if the 2 groups finish with the identical document. However, the Phillies gained the season sequence towards the Cubs (5-1), D-backs (4-3) and Reds (4-3), and they’re tied with the Marlins at 5-5, with three video games to play at dwelling from Sept. 8-10.
“It doesn’t really matter where we’re at right now,” Harper stated. “We’ve got to keep going, right? We’ve got to stay there. Thirty-five to go. Got to keep rolling. There are teams trying to chase us down. It’s very competitive in this Wild Card. There’s a lot of teams everybody thought would sell, and they didn’t. Look where they’re at now. We’ve got a pretty tough schedule throughout the next couple weeks. We’re going to see what we’re made of.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com