In the battle between two of the most star-laden clubs in the National League, arguably the biggest star on the Philadelphia Phillies has come up surprisingly small.
Bryce Harper, a two-time NL MVP and the 2022 NLCS MVP, came up empty in three at-bats Monday, with a crucial strikeout in the sixth inning of the Phillies’ 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday.
Harper is the highest-paid Phillies player in term of overall contract — despite Trea Turner’s higher annual AAV, Harper did, after all sign a 13-year, $330 million deal after the 2018 season — and has played to that value in the postseason for the Phillies in the past.
Yet, in a showdown against the Dodgers, and their fellow former MVPs like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, Harper is slugging just .143 and has only reached base twice in two games.
The Phillies will need to win out against the reigning champs to avoid elimination, starting with Game 3 at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
Bryce Harper’s Sixth-Inning Strikeout Changed The Momentum Of Game 2
Game 2 was a scoreless battle of aces for six innings.
Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo gave up a walk and a hit in the first inning then retired 17 in a row, and he was matched by two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who did not surrender a hit to the Phillies until Edmundo Sosa’s two-out, fifth-inning single.
So with the game still deadlocked at 0, the Phillies threatened to break the ice in the bottom of the sixth. Trea Turner rallied from down 1-2 to work walk, then Kyle Schwarber followed with a walk to set Philadelphia up with its best chance to score with two on and one out.
TBS broadcaster Brian Anderson said, of Harper “there’s no one else the Phillies would want at the plate,” while citing his impressive credentials. Yet, Harper stepped up to the plate with a 1 for 11 mark against Snell in his history with a home run, two walks and six strikeouts.
Snell threw Harper four straight sliders to start the at-bat, getting ahead 1-2. Snell tried to get Harper to chase a curveball that he did not bite on before delivering a wipeout slider that Harper waved at for strike three.
According to MLB .com, Harper’s strikeout dipped the Phillies’ chance of winning by 6.1 percent — to 56.5 percent — which made it the fourth-most meaningful play of the game from a reduced win-probability standpoint.
Alec Bohm followed by grounding into a fielder’s choice, where Miguel Rojas beat Turner with a head-first lunge while tagging third, to end the threat. The Dodgers countered with four runs in the top of the seventh that put them ahead for good.
“I came up short right there,” Harper said after the game. “Obviously, I’ve got to do a better job with guys on base. I got a couple of opportunities, myself, and didn’t get it done. [I’ve] just gotta be better.”
The strikeout also wasn’t Harper’s only failed chance to deliver. With two outs, and the Phillies trailing 4-1 after Turner had driven in their first run of the night with an RBI single, Harper popped out to end the eighth inning.
The Dodgers’ Stars Are Outperforming The Phillies’
Harper may be the biggest star, but he isn’t alone in wilting in this series.
Harper and Schwarber, who combined for 84 home runs and 207 RBIs during the regular season, have a combined OPS of .488 through two games. Add Turner, who like Harper is 1 for 7 in the series, and that trio has a .240 on-base percentage with 11 strikeouts.
You’d like those guys to be swinging the bats,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “You have to have confidence that those guys will get it going.”
Meanwhile, Ohtani had the difference-making RBI single in the seventh. Freeman is 2 for 7 with two runs scored in, and perhaps the most unsung hero of them all, Teoscar Hernandez, is killing the Phillies with two more hits and one run scored Monday.
Harper said the Phillies “have our work cut out for us” going to LA for the next two games. Thomson accused his stars of trying to force the issue, albeit against two very good starting pitchers.
âI think those guys are trying to do a little bit too much right now,â Thomson said, “instead of just being themselves and looking for base hits and the power will come.”
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