While Bryce Harper has been one of Major League Baseball’s best sluggers for more than a decade, he entered Saturday night’s game against the San Diego Padres in an extended power drought. In his second plate appearance of the game, the drought ended.
Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies were trailing 1-0 when he came to the plate for the second time in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader.
On the second pitch he saw from San Diego’s Ryan Weathers, Harper launched a ball deep into right-center field. The ball was eventually caught — in Philadelphia’s bullpen by closer Craig Kimbrel.
Bryce Bryce Baby#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/QojsxN5Qz2
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) July 16, 2023
Baseball fans were excited to see Harper rounding the bases again.
He’s a bad man! #RingTheBell #MV3 https://t.co/KqtQ7NS4vS
— Dave Pierson (@TheMilfot8) July 16, 2023
Nature is healing. So is Bryce https://t.co/yVSwbREEyA
— Mark Copelovitch (@mcopelov) July 16, 2023
Bryce…so nice to see this again!! #RingTheBell https://t.co/KmkvHjbX4q
— CatTryes (@cathyde) July 16, 2023
As a padres fan this is annoying. As a baseball fan this is great. https://t.co/tBMcO8xwAG
— Aaron Jaffe (@YoJaffe) July 16, 2023
The season has been a struggle for Harper. He missed more than a month at the start while recovering from Tommy John Surgery, not debuting until May 2. Since his return, he’s been used exclusively as a designated hitter in his starts. Though, that will likely soon be coming to an end.
It had already been a positive day for Harper. While he didn’t start the first game of the doubleheader, he pinch-hit in the eighth inning with the Phillies trailing 4-3. Harper tied the game with an infield single and later came around to score the final run of the game in Philadelphia’s 6-4 victory.
This was Harper’s first home run in nearly two months. His last came on May 25 in a game against the Atlanta Braves. In total, he had 141 at-bats between round-trippers.
