PHILADELPHIA – In Game 3 of the 2022 World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies set a series record with five home runs. In Game 3 of the 2023 NLDS, they set an MLB postseason record with six home runs.
This is a metaphor for how the current Phillies team is just like last year’s Phillies team – same theme song, same himbo energy, same fighting mentality, even if it’s a little less justified the second time around – except maybe better ?
They say Phillies fans never sit down, but that’s not entirely true. Look closely at the clip, pause at just the right millisecond, and you can see: Before Bryce Harper has even recovered from the force of his gigantic swing, the Philly fans visible behind him rise from their seats and punch the air with their fists.
Harper is still standing in the batter’s box when the broadcast cuts to the right field stands, and you can’t even see the field to catch the flying ball. Instead, it is a sea of billowing red, starkly contrasted against the twilight sky, in which a baseball traveling 105 mph at bat completes its 400-foot journey.
That was one of two home runs Harper hit on Wednesday as the Phillies beat the Braves 10-2 to take a two-games-to-one lead, just a fraction of the total 2,023 feet of record-breaking, pandemonium-inducing longballs fired from the Philly cast. It was also the moment Harper did exactly what you would expect him to do when postseason history is about him.
“Oh yeah. He’s a Hall of Famer. I mean, he’s one of those guys that loves that stage,” said Brian Snitker, the Braves manager and a man who definitely doesn’t want it to be this postseason Harper leaves.
Even he had to admit, “You put him in the spotlight, and he’s going to shine.”
The Bryce Harper game actually began on the final play of Game 2, when the cornerstone of the Philly franchise was first doubled to cap a stunning Braves comeback. This division series is a highly anticipated continuation of what happened last season, when the wild-card Phillies eliminated a Braves team that had sat comfortably atop the NL East playoff series for six years as part of their storybook run through the National League. In last season’s rematch, Atlanta ended with a series tie, and after Harper ended up on the wrong side of the most memorable game of the postseason so far, that was the case in this one as well.
Against the Marlins in the Wild Card Round, the Phillies appeared to be on cruise control to pick up where they left off last year. But the Braves are a far more dangerous opponent. Maybe 2022 was lightning in a bottle, beginner’s luck for a team that hadn’t been to the postseason in more than a decade, a good story about an underdog club that blithely danced its way to the pennant because it didn’t know any better.
Because on Monday, the Braves’ best baseball players experienced the decisive moment of their season – if it ends in November. As for the Phillies, their unbridled aggression and energy that goes beyond just thoughts saw them suffer their first loss of these playoffs. Mostly it was the Braves’ fault, but a little bit it was also Harper’s fault.
“I think the end of the game in Atlanta was perfect,” Nick Castellanos, who also hit two home runs in Game 3, said a few days later, when it was clear that the last play of Game 2 was not the turning point the Braves hoped that it would be like this. “Because I think that outpouring of emotion and the way of really seeing them celebrate kind of sets the tone for this game.”
As part of the celebration, Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia laughed to his teammates about Harper’s misfortune. “Ha ha, atta-boy, Harper!” he said, according to Fox Sports. It was the petty diss heard around the Mid-Atlantic.
Notably, Harper didn’t shy away from questioning whether Arcia’s comments had heightened tensions between the two teams, division rivals who now play high-stakes fixtures in October as an addition to their many meetings during the season.
He first found out about them through his teammates. “They just told me,” Harper said Wednesday. “They looked at me and said, ‘What are you going to do?'”
Well, first he hit home runs. But then, as he rounded the bases — both times — he appeared to look directly at Arcia. Or more precisely: in Harper’s own words: “I stared right at him.”
If it seems cliche or contrived to craft a narrative in which Harper had something to prove and did so in dramatic fashion, consider that it’s pretty difficult to hit a home run. It makes perfect sense that the aggrieved superstar would lead a historic charge in front of an adoring crowd to bring the attacking team to the brink of elimination. But just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it’s easy or any less impressive.
“Just the way he does things, when it happens, the timing and who’s not there,” said Trea Turner, who hit a home run of his own in Game 3, “it just always seems like it’s something that only he can do.”
“He is a great player. He really is,” said Harper’s manager Rob Thomson. “When the lights are brightest, he shows up.”
This type of characterization is often used in sports because someone always succeeds at the crucial moment. Harper backs it up with the stats – he has an OPS over 1.000 in 41 playoff games – but also with the backstory: Famous from when he was a kid, on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16, when he got the Leaving high school early to study on a faster path to the pros, he took first overall in the 2010 MLB Draft and signed a $330 million contract.
After Wednesday’s game, Harper seemed to reflect on how those experiences prepared him to enjoy moments like this.
“When I was 10 years old, 11 years old, I competed in so many big tournaments and big lights. And I mean, you can’t imagine the pressure of the situation or the situation that’s about to happen [junior college] early and everyone in the world is counting on you to be the first choice. That was hard,” he said. “Seventeen years old, 16 years old, trying to be number 1, knowing that if you’re not you’re a failure. So that’s pressure. Trying to make as much money as possible to get your family out of an area or to make their life possible is pressure.
“It’s all cake, man. This is so much fun.”
That attitude gave the Phillies something memorable a year ago, and now, one win away from the NLCS, they seem to be having too much fun to fail.
Brandon Marsh hit the last of the Phillies’ six home runs that night. He found out it tied the postseason record when the media asked him about it after the game.
“I think that’s unbelievable,” he responded immediately. “I think tomorrow we have to try to get one more than today.”