The least surprising thing about Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants on Friday night was that Bryce Harper did something noteworthy.
Harper appears to enjoy bathing himself in moments filled with big spotlights. He was the first to run out to shallow center field during warmups, receiving a big ovation from the crowd. He became the first to run onto the field in the top of the first when he sprinted out to left field.
It was his lull-cracking home run in the bottom of the seventh inning that made the loudest impact for the Nationals on an otherwise in-between evening. The home run was estimated to have traveled 445 feet. It left his bat at 114 mph, according to ESPN stats and info. It landed a handful of rows back in the upper deck. Fans gasped, then cheered wildly.
“The roof blew off this place,” reliever Tyler Clippard said. “It was kind of a momentum shift right there and we felt it as the players (but) came up a little short.”
Harper had not faced hard-throwing Giants reliever Hunter Strickland before. To close the prior inning, Strickland threw a 100-mph fastball by Ian Desmond with the bases loaded.
“All I knew was he was throwing hard,” Harper said. “Came in throwing fuzz, 99, 100, that’s pretty impressive. I was trying to get a pitch I could handle, got in a good count and did what I did.”
Harper struggled in his first postseason. In 2012, when he was just 19, Harper hit .130 with one home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS. He was 2-for-4 Friday night, adding an infield single, the Nationals’ first hit of the night, to the prodigious home run.
To keep it going, and help the Nationals stay off the ropes in the series, Harper will try to attack veteran Tim Hudson on Saturday. He’s 4-for-16 against Hudson in his career.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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