Nationals rookie outfielder Bryce Harper just keeps adding to his legend. He lost out on the final National League spot in next week’s Major League Baseball All-Star game in Kansas City thanks to a fan vote that went against him early Thursday. No matter. Harper will gladly take a few days to rest back home with his family and his new dog, Swag, in his native Las Vegas over the break.
“I just want to thank all the fans that went out and voted for me,” Harper said. “And everything that the Nationals did and everybody else in the entire world that went out at the end and really voted for me. Hopefully in the next couple of years I can get in there.”
But before he goes home for a few days, Harper seems intent on showing what fans in Kansas City will be missing. He was 2-for-5 with two RBI in a thrilling 6-5 comeback win over the Giants on Thursday at Nationals Park. Harper had an awesome 10-pitch at-bat with San Francisco ace Matt Cain in the sixth inning, fouling off one two-strike pitch after another before finally grounding out to third base. But he had run Cain’s pitch count into the mid-80s and set the stage for a seventh-inning rally.
In that inning, Harper followed solo homers by Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa with an RBI double to pull Washington to within 5-4 in a game it once trailed 5-1. Left fielder Melky Cabrera lunged for the shallow hit, missed it and had it skip past him. That was all Harper needed. As the cutoff throw made its way back to the infield he tore around first base and took second. The crowd of 29,819 was ignited as Mark DeRosa scored and Steve Lombardozzi took third. He was just helping his own prediction come true.
“Once [Desmond] hit that bomb, I’m sitting there and I said to [Adam] LaRoche ‘We’re going to win this game. Let’s be ready for it’,” Harper said. “After Desi got that going in the seventh I think that’s when the tide started to roll our way.”
Okay then. LaRoche confirmed that account.
“You know how Bryce gets. He gets fired up when stuff like that happens,” LaRoche said. “And you got to love it. He’s a sparkplug out there offensively and defensively and a big part of why we’re winning a lot of these games.”
It was impressive enough that Harper shook off a terrible check-swing call by third-base umpire Jerry Meals that would have made the count 3-0. Replays showed the bat barely moved off his shoulder, let alone broke the plate. But even with reliever Jeremy Affeldt back in the count at 2-1, Harper, after receiving a stern rebuke from home-plate umpire Gary Darling for his initial reaction, regained his composure and drove in the run.
“I’m not too sure on that checked swing they called,” Nats manager Davey Johnson said. “I didn’t get it on replay. How’d was it? It wasn’t even close? I don’t know what Jerry was thinking about down there. But he got the hit after that.”
And Harper did it again in the ninth inning. Teammate Tyler Moore had led off with a fine at-bat of his own against Giants closer Santiago Casilla – a double into the left-center gap. Steve Lombardozzi bunted and reached base on Casilla’s error trying to handle the ball. That allowed Harper to hit a chopper through the right side of the infield and tie the game at 5-5.
All that more than made up for the All-Star decision going against him and in favor of St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese, last year’s World Series hero. Harper has said repeatedly that some time to rest back home in Nevada is fine with him. His teammates see the benefits, too. Being a sparkplug takes a toll no matter how young a player’s legs are. And pushing the envelope more than most has left Harper with some aches and pains in his first 10 weeks as a big leaguer.
“[Harper] should be able to play every day all day,” third baseman Ryan Zimmerman joked. “No, he’s played great. He’s played hard every day, he comes here ready to work. Even when you are 19 years old you need a break every now and then. He can heal up a little bit and get some of those bangs and bruised that all of us need some time off to let heal. So it’s good. We would have liked to have seen him go obviously. He’s been a real big part of this team and he’s fun to watch. It would have been good for the game, but I think Freese is obviously very deserving as well.”
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