"I’m excited. Everybody knows it could’ve been a lot worse with how the impact of the injury was." - Bryce Harper
After 41 games on the DL, Harper returned yesterday to the Nationals’ line-up. Back in an August 12th home-game he suffered a bone-bruise and calf strain to his south-paw side. This via slipping on the first base bag, attempting to leg out a hit. That now hopefully in the rear-view mirror, Baker penciled him into the two-slot at Citizens Bank Park, a venue he's shown great and powerful comfort in. All intent was to have him in at the head of the three-game series, but a 'flu-like symptoms' postponement saw to a second game return instead. It was actually somewhat more than a single-game delay, humsoever...
"We would have liked to have done it last week,” Baker said, “but sometimes your body doesn’t respond to your plan. Your body responds to its own plan. We had to listen to his body and the trainers and everybody."
As to the ballgame back, Harper’s first plate appearance in 45 days saw him seeing a four-pitch walk. His second AB featured him fouling off the first offering, a 2-2 count foul-ball out to right-field, then whiffing at a change-up. In his third and last appearance, he popped up to second on the second pitch. Then the 20 year-old rookie Victor Robles finished the game for him. Harper's best action came in right field off an Aaron Altherr liner into the corner. He here sprinted, spun, and threw a strike back into the in-field.
In all, Harper saw a dozen pitches, swung six times, jogged a tick, shagged a fly, sprinted some, spun once, and all in under five-innings a' work. A bit anticlimactic and far from whoa. He and the Nationals now have a handful of regular season games and an awkward four days off in which to assemble their grit for a post-season campaign. An opportunity that was almost lost when injury shelved the young all-star.
Or was it? The Nats went 25-16 for a .610 winning percentage in his absence. An actual bit-better than the .605 mark during his previous active span a' time. in fairness, this was due more to an improved pitching staff, than to a line-up which saw nigh a full point drop in average runs scored per game. If Harper adds back to the line-up, and them hurlers keep shining, the squad can and shall go deep. But how fair is it to expect that after a long layoff and rushed rehab process, he perform up to nigh immediate snuff?
In short, fair 'nuff. At least in the particular case of Bryce Harper whom averaged 'bout 131 games a year from 2012 to'16. He's gonna miss games, ya see, and in accepting that it's reasonable to expect him back quickly if not suddenly. Lest each season become even more, and as the years pile on, more --shortened -- which is something I err towards predicting. The grammatically problematic last sentence aside.
IN ADDITION:
"Dion Giolito" Kaplowitz Radio: September 27, 2017