A year later, he graduated high school before his junior year and became the best junior college player in the country. That’s part of why baseball has always looked outrageously simple to him, like it was designed specifically for him.Īt 16, he hit a ball 502 feet at Tropicana Field, the longest in stadium history.
Bryce harper stats by stadium series#
The Phillies celebrate advancing to the World Series by popping champagne and singing Calum Scott's cover of "Dancing on my Own."įor decades now, people have been telling Harper how incredible he is, how prodigious his talents are. He just cemented himself in playoff history." That’s the stuff that legends are made of. Even as he’s rounding the bases, you could see that the moment was his. "The level of concentration and calm as he put that swing on that ball - and really that entire at-bat. "He was on another level today," GM Sam Fuld shared. "He was locked the f- in up there," Castellanos said. Harper was simply too good, too focused, too determined to make history. Still, if you ask the Phillies, it didn’t matter whom Melvin went with. Exactly how skipper Bob Melvin would’ve drawn it up.īut when Realmuto knocked a leadoff single to bring Harper up as the go-ahead run, Melvin opted to stick with Suárez over the lefty Hader, who hasn’t allowed an earned run since Sept.
San Diego entered the eighth with its second-best reliever, Suárez, on the mound and its best, Josh Hader, hot in the bullpen. Down 2-0 after Hoskins’ fifth homer of the postseason gave the Phillies an early lead, the Padres had battled to take a 3-2 lead heading into the eighth behind a Juan Soto solo shot and a bizarre seventh-inning rally that included two passed balls from Seranthony Dominguez. "He’s been destined to be THE guy, a Hall of Famer, a champion, his whole life," Hoskins said.īryce Harper talked to Tom Verducci after winning NLCS MVP and reflected on what it means to bring the NL pennant to Philadelphia.īefore Harper took Citizens Bank Park to Mars, the mood was tense, firmly grounded. Bryce Harper is a f-ing showman," backup catcher Garrett Stubbs screamed when asked why Harper didn’t celebrate his series-winning blast. "He was always different from the rest of us, man," Nick Castellanos, who played with Harper as teenagers on Team USA, told FOX Sports. You see, most people only dream of moments like that. After admiring his handiwork, Harper turned toward his dugout with an expressionless look on his face, gestured toward the bubble-script "Phillies" across his chest and, without a single show of emotion, began that all-familiar trot around the bases, the only calm presence in a stadium of maniacs. Kyle Schwarber screamed "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD" to no one in particular.īut while the Phillies and their fans went berserk, sent into sports psychosis by a single swing, the man behind the madness stayed tranquil. José Alvarado bounced into the air like a small child on a trampoline. Alec Bohm sprinted up the dugout steps onto the field. The Philadelphia Phillies took a 4-3 lead over the San Diego Padres after Bryce Harper launched a two-run home run to left. The ball flashed off Harper’s bat, toward the third row in left field and down onto a horde of Phillies fans suddenly taken over by total lunacy. But no single swing of his life has carried more weight than or meant as much to as many as his final one Sunday. Harper’s 30 years on this planet have been defined by that hack, by his unique ability to impact a ball with unfathomable force. And so, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, the $330 million man uncorked a thunderbolt that nobody in attendance will ever forget. He knew Suárez would come back with a fastball, his best pitch.
San Diego’s Robert Suárez and his high-90s fuel stood 60 feet, 6 inches away, a distance Harper has come to know very well.Īfter fouling off a quartet of Suárez heaters, Harper scoffed at a below-zone change-up to push the count to 2-2.
Realmuto on first base and the Phillies down 3-2 late in NLCS Game 5, Harper strolled to the plate for the biggest at-bat of his life. On Sunday, under a gray and gloomy Philadelphia sky, Harper fulfilled that birthright. The Philadelphia Phillies advanced to the World Series for the first time since 2009 with their NLCS win over the San Diego Padres in Game 5.
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