Red-hot Harper showing MVP form at right time for WC-chasing Phils

PHILADELPHIA -- Bryce Harper might be banged up, but he is hitting like an MVP again.

It might be the most important thing to take from the Phillies’ 8-6 loss to the Giants in 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. Harper ripped a game-tying three-run home run off the right-field foul pole in the ninth. It was his third homer in his past three games and his fifth in his past seven. Harper is batting .345 (20-for-58) with five doubles, seven homers, 15 RBIs and a 1.228 OPS in his past 16 contests.

“Just getting pitches on the plate to swing at,” Harper said. “Not missing them, trying not to chase the pitches out of the zone, taking chances when I can. But just continue to try to square up baseballs. Like I said about a month ago, I’m not worried about the homers or anything like that. I’m just trying to square up baseballs as much as possible. When I’m doing that, we’ve got a really good chance to go out there and win games.”

Harper’s homer left his bat at an exit velocity of 112.9 mph, topping out at 47 feet as it cruised above the turf like a missile until it smashed into the foul pole.

“I saw it curving a little bit,” Harper said. “I thought I hit it hard enough to keep it over the fence before it went foul. Thankfully, it hit the pole and [was a] three-run shot.”

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Harper singled once and lined out twice earlier in the game. He hit each of those balls with an exit velocity of at least 110 mph.

Since Statcast began tracking exit velocities in 2015, only Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has put more 110+ mph balls in play in a game. He did it five times on Sept. 18, 2022. The only other player to do it four times in a game is Giancarlo Stanton on May 7, 2015. Kyle Schwarber held the previous Phillies record with three such batted balls on Aug. 9, 2022.

Harper is finding his power stroke with 35 games to play, even if he is not 100 percent healthy. He has played first base only once since Friday in Washington because of back tightness. Harper said the Phillies will evaluate him again before they open a three-game series Friday against the Cardinals.

“I don’t want to rush into it and get back out there and go back to square one,” Harper said.

Harper fouled a ball off his right knee before he singled in the fourth. It prompted a long check-in on the field with Phillies manager Rob Thomson and an athletic trainer. Harper remained in the game, then got hit by a pitch on the left forearm to load the bases in the seventh.

“I started running, and I hit a little, tiny nerve,” Harper said about the knee. “It kind of gave out on me a little bit, but I’m good.”

Harper had his forearm bandaged, and he said he is fine overall.

That’s good news, because a hot Harper can carry the Phillies to the No. 1 National League Wild Card spot, which would allow them to host the second-seeded Wild Card in a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series.

But Philadelphia’s loss Wednesday handed San Francisco the season series, 4-2, meaning the Giants own the tiebreaker if the two teams end with the same record. However, the Phillies won the season series against the Cubs (5-1), D-backs (4-3) and Reds (4-3), and they are tied with the Marlins at 5-5, with three games to play at home from Sept. 8-10.

“It doesn’t really matter where we’re at right now,” Harper said. “We’ve got to keep going, right? We’ve got to stay there. Thirty-five to go. Got to keep rolling. There are teams trying to chase us down. It’s very competitive in this Wild Card. There’s a lot of teams everybody thought would sell, and they didn’t. Look where they’re at now. We’ve got a pretty tough schedule throughout the next couple weeks. We’re going to see what we’re made of.”