WASHINGTON -- Bryce Harper carried his bat almost the entire way up the first-base line on Thursday.
He couldn¡¯t be sure if the ball he hit in the seventh inning would clear the center-field fence or be caught on the warning track. Hitting a ball to center on a chilly day at Nationals Park can change the flight of a baseball, even one as well-struck as Harper hit in the Phillies¡¯ 7-3 Opening Day victory against the Nationals.
Besides, it had been a while since he homered.
Harper last homered in October in Game 2 of the NL Division Series against the Mets. He had 44 plate appearances this spring without one. Not too many people noticed, because it¡¯s Spring Training and Spring Training numbers don¡¯t mean much for somebody like Harper. After all, he batted .179 without a homer the previous spring, but he hit 30 homers in the regular season and finished sixth for NL MVP.
¡°We were talking about it,¡± Harper said Thursday evening. ¡°Me and K-Long [hitting coach Kevin Long], and he reminded me that I homered on the back field [at Carpenter Complex] in my first at-bat [in February].
¡°So, that made me feel good.¡±
Harper homered against right-hander Nabil Crismatt that afternoon.
He homered against right-hander Lucas Sims on Opening Day.
¡°I know he was trying to go down and away; he yanked the fastball, and that was it,¡± Nationals manager Dave Martinez said.
Harper hit second in the season opener behind Trea Turner. Alec Bohm hit third and Kyle Schwarber hit fourth.
It went pretty well. Turner went 0-for-4 with a walk. But on an afternoon when the Phillies struck out 19 times -- the second-most by any MLB team on Opening Day since at least 1901 -- he struck out once. Most importantly, he saw 28 pitches in five plate appearances. Turner worked a six-pitch at-bat against Nats left-hander MacKenzie Gore in the first inning. He worked an eight-pitch at-bat against him in the fourth.
Turner ran up Gore¡¯s pitch count, forcing him out of the game following six dominant innings.
Harper¡¯s homer in the seventh tied the game. Schwarber¡¯s homer later that inning gave the Phillies a one-run lead.
Bohm¡¯s two-out double in the 10th gave the Phillies a two-run lead.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson entered the season knowing he wanted Turner, Harper, Bohm and Schwarber to be his first four hitters in the lineup. He just didn¡¯t know exactly how he wanted to hit them.
He still doesn¡¯t know how it¡¯s going to go the entire season. But his lineup Saturday against Nats right-hander Jake Irvin is probably going to be different. It means Schwarber could hit leadoff, followed by Turner, Harper and Bohm.
¡°We¡¯re still playing with it,¡± Thomson said.
The truth is, it really doesn¡¯t matter all that much. Maybe there is an incremental edge over the course of a 162-game season. But, really, if those four hitters produce like they have in the past, it won¡¯t matter where they hit, just like it didn¡¯t really matter that Harper hadn¡¯t homered this spring.
Good hitters hit.
¡°Definitely felt good on that swing,¡± Harper said. ¡°Felt like it all came together right there.¡±