Bryce Harper: Top 10 Moments with the Washington Nationals
By Blake Finney
2 – Harper hits a splash bomb off Strickland
Everything in the postseason gets magnified, and nothing emphasizes that more than the battle we saw between Bryce Harper and Hunter Strickland. We’ll also come onto his other game-tying postseason home run for the Washington Nationals later on.
After a dramatic moonshot of a homer back in Game One at Nationals Park, there was already tension around a rematch. With the San Francisco Giants holding a slender 1-0 lead in the seventh inning, Harper dug into the batter’s box.
Strickland delivered a fastball right down the heart of the plate and Harper took aim, depositing it into McCovey Cove to tie the game. He waited to see if it was going to be fair, tossed the bat down and milked the huge homer for all it was worth, and rightly so.
Unfortunately, Matt Thornton and Aaron Barrett combined to cough up the lead in the bottom of the frame as the Nats suffered yet more NLDS heartbreak, this time before game five like several others.
It’s hard to forget, but Strickland obviously took issue with both of Harper’s home runs in the postseason. In their first meeting since the postseason back in 2017, Strickland decided to throw at Harper, causing a mass brawl and suspensions for both players. All because the right-hander gave up home runs.
As we all know, Harper finished 2014 strong with a good August and September before taking off in October. This extended run of form likely catapulted him to the best offensive season in team history in 2015 in the MVP award he won and we’ve already mentioned numerous times.