Bryce Harper got bailed out on Monday night.
The Phillies slugger stared at a long fly ball with one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth inning, turning a double into a single in a game against the Rays that was tied 1-1.
“Oh, no,” a frustrated John Kruk said in the Phillies booth after the ball hit off the top of the fence. “You can’t take things for granted. It’s inexcusable. You are fighting to win your division to get a first-round bye. You can’t do that.”
The camera flashed to a shot of Phillies manager Rob Thomson, who also seemed displeased with the turn of events.
“He’s accountable and admits to his mistakes,” Thomson said of Harper after the game, per the AP.
The Phillies overcame the blunder, loading the bases on an infield single and walk before Kody Clemens delivered a walkoff single.
It came after a disappointing weekend split with the Marlins and the red-hot Mets lurking seven games back in the NL East standings.
Ironically, it was Harper who had raised the alarm bells after a 10-1 loss to Miami on Sunday.
“Keep going. This division ain’t close to being done,” Harper told NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“Obviously there are two good teams behind us. We’re going to play the Mets a couple times. We’ve got to keep rolling. We can’t really worry about the magic number or anything like that. The magic number is nothing to worry about when it’s not under 10 games. We’ve got to keep going, keep grinding. Obviously as a team we have to stay healthy the best we can. We still gotta play games and get in.”
Harper may have been a little anxious for the ball to go sailing over the right field fence as he has not homered since Aug. 9.
Philadelphia, though, has continued to play solid baseball — winning 12 of their past 16 — to maintain a lead atop the division they’ve essentially held all season.