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Bryce Harper took Miami Marlins’ righty Odrisamer Despaigne deep to right field in Nationals Park, over the out-of-town scoreboard on the first pitch of the Nationals’ fourth for a solo home run, and one of three runs Washington scored in a 3-2 win on Monday night.
It was Harper’s 29th of 2017, and the 150th of the 24-year-old’s major league career.
ESPN’s Stats & Info Twitter feed noted that the 2010 No. 1 overall pick became just the 14th player in MLB history to have 150 HR before his 25th birthday.
And not to get into the well-worn “Harper vs Mike Trout: Who’s better?” debate, but in what seems like an unpossible coincidence, the two players, considered by many the top players in the majors at the moment, apparently reached their respective 150th home runs at exactly the same age:
Age on date of 150th career HR:
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 8, 2017
Bryce Harper: 24 years, 295 days (tonight)
Mike Trout: 24 years, 295 days (May 28, 2016) pic.twitter.com/agngN5W0ig
Now I think they’re just making this stuff up. I mean, c’mon, seriously? How’s does that happen?
Harper hit his latest home run 412 feet to right field:
Bryce Harper (37) off RHP Odrisamer Despaigne (2) - 105.3 mph, 33 degrees (412 ft Home Run)
— MLBBarrelAlert (@MLBBarrelAlert) August 8, 2017
76.2 mph Curveball#Marlins @ #Nationals (B4) pic.twitter.com/D9E1A4pxwS
“First-pitch curveball,” Harper told MASN’s Ray Knight and Johnny Holiday when asked what he hit in a postgame interview.
“Just went up there trying to get a pitch over the plate, got a hanging curveball and hit it over the fence.”
Dusty Baker said he was impressed when informed it was No. 150 Harper.
“That was 150? Yeah, I just hope that he stays healthy,” Baker said. “If he stays healthy, then sky is the limit on what he can do, and he loves to play and so that’s not going to be a question, and the money or whatever it is doesn’t really affect him, because he comes to play, and yeah, I think that’s a great milestone. I didn’t know that was 150.”
Don’t tell Harper the sky is the limit.
As he told reporters in the Spring before the 2016 campaign, “Everybody says everything like, 'The sky is the limit,' but we've been on the moon. So, you can't really tell me that.”
Harper’s 2 for 4 night against the Marlins left him with a .327/.422/.621 line on the season after 102 games and 457 plate appearances.
Starting to think this Bryce Harper guy is really, really good at baseball. pic.twitter.com/HMTfCpP3Xa
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 8, 2017