Written by Jorge Castillo at Washington Post.com
It was Opening Day for the Nationals on Monday, which means Bryce Harper hit a home run. It’s become sort of a D.C. baseball tradition, up there with presidents declining to throw out the first pitch. The 24-year-old right fielder has played in five Opening Day games at the major league level and has hit five home runs across four of them. He hit two in 2013, one in 2015 and another a year ago. The Nationals won two of those five, including Monday’s 4-2 decision.
The sequence is unprecedented: Harper has the most Opening Day home runs before turning 25 in history. Gary Carter is second with four, followed by Mickey Mantle, Dean Palmer and Corey Patterson with three apiece.
“It’s fun being able to come into Nats Park and try to win ballgames for us and do the things we can as a team to make those fans happy out there,” said Harper, who has at least one more Opening Day with the Nationals left. “Playing in front of my family and my wife and everybody that comes out and supports me, it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it.”
Death, taxes and @Bharper3407 #OpeningDay homers. pic.twitter.com/ej01VhEUBI
— MLB (@MLB) April 3, 2017
Harper, who went 1 for 3 with a walk, hit the solo home run off right-hander David Phelps in the sixth with the Marlins leading 2-0. Harper had been 0 for 6 with four walks in 10 previous plate appearances against Phelps, who later surrendered a pinch-hit, two-run home run to Adam Lind in the seventh inning.
An Opening Day home run doesn’t indicate what’s in store for Harper for the remainder of the year given his history. For example, he was the 2015 National League MVP before falling short of expectations last season. But after slugging a league-leading eight home runs in spring training, Harper appears to be comfortable at the plate to start the real games.
“He was a guy that was locked in first in spring training,” Nationals Manager Dusty Baker said. “I had to slow him down a little bit so he wouldn’t get stale. People were wondering, ‘Should he save some?’ And I said, ‘No man, you have to perfect that.’ Just let him keep on coming.”
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