Phillies star Bryce Harper summed up his thoughts succinctly at the end of the benches-clearing feud with the Rockies on Sunday.
Harper stormed out of the dugout after Rockies reliever Jake Bird taunted the Phillies dugout following a scoreless top of the seventh inning.
After the two sides had been separated, Harper was shown waving his hand in disgust and shouting an insult in the direction of Rockies players.
“You’re a loser f–king organization. Every single one of you,” Harper said, according to lip readers on social media.
Harper does have a point.
The Rockies, currently 17-24, haven’t been to the postseason since 2018, when they won a one-game wild-card round, and last won a full playoff series in 2007.
The Phillies are 20-20 this season, but are coming off a run to the World Series last year — losing to the Astros in six games.
“I get emotion,” Harper said after the Phillies missed out on their chance for a Coors Field sweep with a 4-0 defeat.
“I understand getting fired up for an inning and stuff like that, but once you make it about a team or make it about yourself and the other team, that’s when I’ve kind of got a problem with it.”
Harper, 30, has been on fire since his amazingly quick recovery from offseason Tommy John surgery.
Through 10 games, Harper is hitting .333 with two home runs.
Philadelphia is 5-5 in those games but had won five straight before Sunday’s loss.
One of the announcers on the Phillies broadcast exclaimed, “Watch the elbow,” out of fears the slugger would re-injure himself in the fracas.
“After that point, I went out there just to go,” Harper said. “J.T. (Realmuto) was right behind me. Taijuan (Walker), same thing. I appreciate my teammates for coming out with me and doing that. It was the heat of the moment.”
It is Bird’s second season in the big leagues, and he is in the midst of a respectable campaign with a 3.00 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 27 innings.
Harper claimed the setup man seemed to disappear after things got heated between the two teams.
“Once we got out there, (Bird) just flew into the dugout and went away,” Harper said. “Nobody really saw him after he did what he did.”
