PHILADELPHIA — A lot can happen in 91 days.
It’s enough time to, say, break your thumb, have surgery, and come back to hit major league pitching. But when you are Bryce Harper and you go 91 days without hitting a home run, well, time can feel like it’s standing still.
So, after continuing a years-long torment of high school classmate Erick Fedde by taking him deep in the third inning Saturday night, Harper stomped on home plate to punctuate the first of four Phillies homers in an 8-5 thumping of the Washington Nationals.
Nick Maton, Brandon Marsh, and Kyle Schwarber also left the yard. Edmundo Sosa provided yet another spark. And Connor Brogdon walked a ninth-inning tightrope as the Phillies won for the 12th time in 14 games over the worst-in-baseball Nationals before 37,185 at Citizens Bank Park.
But it was Harper’s first homer since June 9 that held as the most important swing of the night. It came in his 13th game back from the injury, after a night off Friday night that preceded 10 strikeouts in 15 at-bats.
Leave it to Fedde to awaken the monster in Harper. They attended Las Vegas High School and played together before Harper went to junior college. They have faced each other often over the last few years, and Harper is 10 for 19 with six homers against Fedde.
Fedde walked Harper in the first inning and probably should have done it again after falling into a 3-1 count against him in the third. Instead, the right-hander threw a change-up, and Harper teed off, sending a game-tying two-run shot into the left-field seats.
Maton and Marsh also hit opposite-field homers before Schwarber capped the Phillies’ scoring with his first homer since Aug. 29, a span of 44 plate appearances. He still leads the National League with 37 homers.
Harper broke a homerless spell that lasted 102 plate appearances, tied for the longest of his career. It also marked only his fourth extra-base hit since coming back.
With a smashing two-game minor league assignment at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Harper prompted surprise from even many of his teammates over his uncanny timing at the plate after missing two months. But Harper cautioned that he didn’t see many curveballs or sliders in the minors.
The big swing against Fedde also coincided with Harper’s return to the No. 3 spot in the order. Although he enjoys batting third, he had been batting cleanup because interim manager Rob Thomson likes to create lineup separation between him and fellow lefty hitter Schwarber.
But with Alec Bohm getting a rest and the Nationals not having a lefty reliever in the bullpen, Thomson moved Harper up a spot.
“I would think [Sunday] Harp will be hitting third again,” Thomson said before the game. “And moving forward he may, too. It just depends.”
Sending out an S.O.S.(A)
The major difference between these Phillies and the teams that fell short of the playoffs in recent Septembers past: depth.
And no player embodies the improved depth more than Sosa.
Sosa isn’t an everyday player. But in his last five starts, the infielder is 10-for-18 with seven runs, seven extra-base hits, and six RBIs. He didn’t have a hit Saturday night, but the Phillies grabbed the lead on his speed and energy.
With one out in the fourth inning, Sosa slid headfirst into first base to negate a double play and enable the go-ahead run to score. He was ruled out on the field, but the call got overturned. One batter later, he scored from first on Marsh’s double off the right-field wall, the first of three hits for the long-haired center fielder.
The Phillies acquired Sosa from St. Louis in a July 30 trade for lefty reliever JoJo Romero. In 23 games, Sosa is 17 for 49 (.347) and has played his as-advertised solid defense at third base and shortstop.
Ranger goes long
After running out of steam in the fourth inning of his previous two starts, Ranger Suárez came one out from completing the seventh for the first time since Aug. 17.
Suárez yielded a two-run home run to Joey Meneses but little else before the Nationals scored twice in the seventh inning. He also threw 103 pitches, his highest total in a start since June 29.
The Phillies have discussed the possibility of shortening Suárez’s remaining starts. But Suárez looked strong in pushing his innings total to 134 1/3, just shy of his career-high total (139 1/3) from 2018.
The cleanup Stott
Candidly, Thomson said he didn’t figure to write a lineup card with Bryson Stott in the cleanup spot. At least not this season. But Stott also was batting .304/.352/.453 since the All-Star break.
“I’m pretty comfortable with him anywhere in the lineup because I don’t think he’s going to change his swing,” Thomson said. “He’s going to be the same guy, no matter where he’s hitting.”
Stott was the first rookie shortstop to bat cleanup for the Phillies since Leo Norris on May 11, 1936.
