PHILADELPHIA -- Nobody knows Bryce Harper's swing better than himself.
In the visitors¡¯ clubhouse on Sunday in St. Louis, he talked about the Phillies¡¯ offensive struggles on a 2-4 road trip, when the conversation turned to his own play. Harper was hitting .250 with a .766 OPS, but he had just missed a homer to left-center field that afternoon at Busch Stadium.
How did he think things were going?
¡°I thought the last week has been good,¡± Harper said. ¡°I hit a couple balls really hard in Atlanta. I hit a couple balls [hard] this series as well. I think I¡¯m on time. I think I¡¯m not swinging too much at the slider as much as I did early in the year. I said to [hitting coach Kevin] Long about a week ago, ¡®Give me 10 days and we¡¯ll be good.¡¯ So, we¡¯re about on the seventh day right now. We¡¯ll see.¡±
Harper homered and walked on the ninth day of his 10-day timeline on Tuesday. He homered, singled and walked twice on the 10th day on Wednesday. On the 12th day, he crushed a two-run home run into the second deck in right field in the first inning and walked in Friday's 7-2 victory over the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.
¡°I just thought, '[I'm] walking more,'¡± Harper said, explaining why he felt he was heating up. ¡°When I walk more, I see more pitches, I feel better at the plate. I think when I walk, good things happen. I¡¯m getting good pitches over the plate and not missing them.¡±
Harper hit Marlins right-hander Sandy Alc¨¢ntara¡¯s 0-2 cutter at 106.4 mph and sent it a Statcast-projected 418 feet. It was his fifth homer of the season, and his fourth in his last 10 games.
It gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
¡°I tried to throw a cutter up and in, but I just left it out there,¡± Alc¨¢ntara said. ¡°Easy peasy for him.¡±
Long remembers Harper telling him before he homered in Atlanta on April 9 that he was getting close.
¡°I think in a week, I¡¯ll be red hot,¡± Long remembered him saying.
Long smiled.
¡°He started that day so he kind of lied to us,¡± he said. ¡°Then in St. Louis, that might have been the best I¡¯ve seen him swing the bat. And he only got two hits. He¡¯s got his leg kick going really well right now. He¡¯s got his toe tap working. He always has this phrase when he pulls a ball in the cage. I say, ¡®Whoa.¡¯ He says, ¡®Only in the cage.¡¯ He says, ¡®I don¡¯t do it out there.¡¯ Well, his last three homers have been to the pull side. He¡¯s not trying to pull the ball. But the ball flight and the trajectory is amazing.¡±
Kyle Schwarber has been hitting behind Harper since April 11 in St. Louis. Phillies manager Rob Thomson put them back to back hoping pitchers might be less inclined to pitch around Harper.
Surprisingly, Harper has seen fewer pitches in the strike zone (40.3 percent) since April 11 than he did through April 10 (44.2 percent). But he has seen more meatballs down the middle: 15.7 percent to 20.4 percent entering Friday.
¡°Obviously, Kyle is great behind me,¡± Harper said. ¡°It¡¯s going to make a team think about what they¡¯re going to do.¡±
¡°There¡¯s probably something to having Kyle there,¡± Long said. ¡°Maybe subconsciously, [Harper] feels like, ¡®OK, if they don¡¯t pitch to me, then it¡¯s going to be tough pitching to Kyle as well.¡¯ Because he¡¯ll take a walk. And Nick [Castellanos] is doing a tremendous job. The middle of our order is on fire right now.¡±
Harper has walked 12 times in his past 10 games. He has struck out seven times.
Phillies ace Zack Wheeler allowed two runs in seven innings. He struck out 13. He walked none. He is the first Phillies pitcher with 13-plus strikeouts and no walks in a game since Vince Velasquez¡¯s 16-strikeout shutout on April 14, 2016.
Cristopher S¨¢nchez struck out 12 Giants on Thursday. It¡¯s the first time Phillies starters have struck out 12 or more batters in consecutive games since Roy Halladay (14) and Lee (12) on April 24-25, 2011.
¡°Just watching his home runs over the years, they come at good times,¡± Wheeler said about Harper. ¡°He told me that he was glad he could get me to a 2-0 start. He¡¯s been trying to do that for a while.¡±