Rookie hits HR, triple in win over Mets
The first ball screamed over the outfielders’ heads and landed with an audible thud against the base of right-field wall. The second one slammed off the facing of the second deck and recoiled back onto the playing field. Both sounds told the story: Bryce Harper is back.
The Nationals rookie outfielder, slumping for two months now, showed signs of life on the recent 10-game road trip. But he finally saw some tangible results against the New York Mets in a 5-2 win Sunday afternoon.
Harper tripled home a run in the third inning, and in the fifth inning he crushed a Jeremy Hefner pitch off the digital board below the railing of the second deck in right field.
“He’s a special talent. That ball today, I don’t know how far it went,” Nats manager Davey Johnson said. “But he crushed that ball. I haven’t seen one hit that hard.”
Harper’s home run was his 12th of the season and put him on a list with Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Ken Griffey Jr. and Tony Conigliaro as the only players in major league history to hit that many at age 19. He is the only member of that group to also have six triples at 19, too. But Harper doesn’t seem impressed.
“I’m never satisfied with my work. I’m never satisfied with anything I do,” Harper said. “We’re in first place, and that’s the biggest thing I care about. My numbers could be really crappy, but we’re in first place. That’s all that matters.”
Those hits helped Washington (75-46) win yet another series, its fifth in a row. The Nats are 21-7 since July 22 and now head into a critical three-game series this week against the Atlanta Braves with a five-game lead in the National League East. The Braves (70-51) lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 on Sunday.
Danny Espinosa hit an opposite-field two-run homer from the left side of the plate in the second inning, and Ryan Zimmerman singled home Harper in the third.
Starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez wasn’t very efficient with 110 pitches thrown in just 52Ú3 innings. But he kept the Mets at bay with one earned run allowed on seven hits and two walks. Gonzalez (16-6, 3.23 ERA) also struck out three batters as he tied for the major league lead in victories.
“I was just going out there and trying to keep us in the game as much as possible,” said Gonzalez, who had to shrug off a 2-hour, 26-minute rain delay that pushed the start time to 4:01 p.m. “I was battling out there, everything I had out there. [Catcher Kurt Suzuki] did a great job mixing it up, keeping me where I needed to be.”
Harper was 4-for-8 against the Mets with two home runs, a triple and four RBI. He also drew a walk and scored four runs with just one strikeout. Johnson had given Harper off Saturday save for a late pinch-hitting appearance.
“I think he was trying to send a message to me,” Johnson joked. “?’Don’t bench me.’?”
