Bryce Harper forgot to acknowledge the Phillies’ relievers when he snapped his lengthy home run drought Saturday — so the outfielder needed to call the bullpen afterward.
NBC Sports Philadelphia captured Harper holding the dugout phone connected to the bullpen, and then the broadcast cut to the Phillies’ group of relievers and front office staffers acknowledging Harper from the bullpen, laughing as a coach hung up the phone.
When Harper homered in the fourth inning of the Phillies’ second game of a doubleheader against the Padres, it marked his first since May 25 and ended a stretch of 166 plate appearances that was a career-long, according to MLB.com.
The end of his 38-game drought keyed their second win to cap a doubleheader sweep, though Harper said that he has tried to focus on “hitting the ball hard” instead of watching the homerless games string together.
“There’s times when I do it,” Harper said about the bullpen call, according to MLB.com. “There’s times when I’ll say to the bullpen, ‘Hi,’ or whatever. There’s times when I’ll call them.”
Harper has now hit .298 through his first 59 games this season — the encore to the Phillies’ run to the World Series last year — but hit just four home runs, though Harper playing at all seemed perhaps unlikely when the outfielder underwent Tommy John surgery in November.
He didn’t need any rehab games.
He cruised through a return process that takes some pitchers a year.
Harper hasn’t played any outfield yet, only serving as the Phillies’ designated hitter, but manager Rob Thomson still said Sunday is “on the edge of the table” — though “teetering,” he added.
But for one night, Harper found a way to once again contribute in a way that grew to define his rise as a top prospect in the Nationals’ system — the type of power that allowed him to hit a league-most 42 homers in 2015.
“Everybody keeps talking about it,” Harper said about his home-run drought, according to MLB.com. “It is what it is. For me personally, keep hitting the baseball, keep hitting it hard. I don’t go out there to hit homers. I don’t really try to hit homers. When you try to hit homers, it’s just not good. I put a really good swing on the ball tonight, and it was able to get out there. Keep swinging and keep doing my thing.”