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Can you name the four pitchers who have given up Bryce Harper’s four career walk-off home runs? We’ll give you a minute to Google the answer and pretend you knew.
No. 1 was one-time Pittsburgh Pirates’ reliever Bryan Morris, who gave up a game-winning two-run walk-off blast by the Nationals’ 2010 No. 1 overall pick back on July 25th of 2013.
No. 2? That would be Carlos Torres, who was pitching for the New York Mets when he was victimized by Harper’s second career walk-off winner on August 7th of 2014. This one was another two-run blast that ended an extra innings affair in the 13th.
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No. 3 on the list? One-time Atlanta Braves’ righty Cody Martin, who gave up another two-run blast by Harper back on May 9th of 2015, Harper’s NL MVP season.
Of course, everyone knows who surrendered No.4. Harper took Philadelphia Phillies’ closer Joaquin Benoit deep yesterday for a three-run blast that lifted the Nationals over their NL East rivals in the ninth inning of Sunday’s series finale in D.C.
Harper does have a flair for the dramatic.
His latest was the first come-from-behind walk-off winner, however.
All three of his walk-off homers before Sunday came in tie games.
He worked back from down 0-2 against Benoit on Sunday and took the right-hander deep on a 3-2 pitch.
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“It was a heater,” Harper said of the 97 mph fastball he hit 419+ feet to center in Nats Park.
“Just left it out, over and got to it. Benoit is tough, he’s got that devastating changeup he throws and I thought he was going to throw it right there, 3-2, but he left the ball up.”
“We made mistakes and it cost us and then Bryce erased them,” Nats’ skipper Dusty Baker told reporters after the Nationals blew a 3-1 lead late in Sunday’s game.
“Just got to keep playing. As bad as things look and as bad as things were, you’ve just got to keep the faith and just keep playing and if you don’t keep the faith and don’t keep playing, we have no choice to have that great comeback.”
Baker wasn’t the only one who was impressed by Harper’s blast. Topps Cards gave Harper the Topps NOW treatment...
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