Phillies star Bryce Harper hits an inside-the-park home run after a Giants fumble to help Philadelphia to a 10-4 win in wild-card playoffs race
Phillies star Bryce Harper hits a home run into the park on a Giants fumble to help Philadelphia to a 10-4 victory in the wild card playoffs race
- The Phillies advanced three games ahead of the Giants in the wild card standings
- The rare home run goes down as Harper’s 10th long ball of the season
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Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper hit a home run in the park during the team’s 10-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday night in a game of teams leading the National League wild card race.
Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm and Edmundo Sosa also homered for the Phillies, while starting pitcher Aaron Nola threw a strong seven innings as they led the Giants in the wild card standings by three games.
La Monte Wade Jr. and Joc Pederson homered for San Francisco, which lost four of five and 11 of 15.
The Giants started the day 1½ game with a three team lead in fourth place in the race for wild card spots. Arizona, Cincinnati and Miami went in the hunt for a playoff spot by 64-61 points on Monday.
Nola (11-8) was hit hard early on before settling down. He eventually gave up two runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and a walk.
Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper hit a home run into the park against the Giants
Game will go down, has his 10th home run of the season and helped secure a 10-4 win
Starting pitcher Aaron Nola also threw a strong seven innings during the Phillies win
Harper’s peak on the reels thrilled the crowd of 36,274 in the fifth inning as his drive off Sean Hjelle came hard off the wall at center left.
When midfielder Wade Meckler finally chased the ball down center right, he failed to pick it up twice before throwing it home. It probably would have taken a perfect throw and relay to catch the speedy Harper.
It was Harper’s 10th homer of the season and 295th career shot for the two-time NL MVP, whose power hit returned the past two months following Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in the off-season.
The homer gave the Phillies a 6-2 lead and they broke open the game with four runs in the seventh on Johan Rojas’ two-run triple and Schwarber’s two-run shot, a 144-yard drive to the second deck in right field. It was the 33rd homer of the season for Schwarber, who led the NL in home runs last season with 46.
The Phillies went ahead in the second with a pair of runs off Sean Manaea (4-4), when Sosa hit the Philadelphia bullpen in the middle with a 90 mph fastball. Bohm also hit a solo shot on Manaea an inning later.
The San Francisco southpaw had gone 20 consecutive games without allowing a home run before surrendering two against the Phillies. He gave up those three runs in 2 2/3 innings in relief of opener Scott Alexander.