WASHINGTON — Bryce Harper exploded onto baseball’s postseason scene Saturday with one heroic swing, sending a hanging Carl Edwards Jr. breaking pitch into the night above right field at a speed of 109 mph and a distance of 421 feet.
Still on the mend after missing 42 games with a bone bruise on his left knee and going 5-for-29 with two walks since returning, Harper lifted the Nationals — five outs away from a 2-0 deficit to the Cubs in their National League Division Series — into a tie with a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
Moments later, Nationals Park, still in a spin from the jolt sent through it by Harper’s majestic blast, went into a second frenzy when Ryan Zimmerman homered against Mike Montgomery to break the tie and give the Nats a 6-3 victory.
“I saw the loop in it,’’ Harper said of Edwards’ belt-high spinning — but not breaking — pitch, “and I tried to hit it as far as I could.’’
Harper was a .213 hitter in four postseasons going into the game, although not without his moments. He belted three homers against the Giants in the 2014 NLDS, and this was his fifth. But this at-bat began ominously, with a flailing swing at a curveball that bounced in the dirt. After taking three fastballs for balls, “I thought he was going to throw a curve back down in the dirt. I thought about taking the whole way. Then I saw the loop in the curveball.’’
The rest will be Nationals history should they advance past the NLDS for the first time in five attempts. It didn’t look good for the home team, trailing 3-1 and mustering little against Jon Lester in six innings and Pedro Strop in the seventh until Harper came up.
“The tension and frustration builds,’’ Zimmerman said, “and sometimes it takes kind of just one hit for everyone to exhale. Baseball is contagious when you’re going well and also when you’re going bad. A huge hit by Bryce to lift that pressure a little bit.’’
Nats manager Dusty Baker, no doubt feeling some of that pressure himself with a personal run of frustrating postseasons, exhaled, too.
“Yeah, we needed it a lot,’’ Baker said. “We knew Harp was due. He’s known for the big moment. Man, he blasted that ball a ton.’’
Baker had said before the game that the longer the playoffs go on, the better Harper will get. Timing is everything with hitters, and it usually takes time to get it back.
Who knew Harper would seemingly find some of it by nightfall.
“He’s on the way,’’ Baker said. “You know, he’s not quite back. He hung a slider to him, and he deposited it in the upper deck. Hopefully, that’s the beginning.’’
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him,’’ said Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, an off-the-field pal. “I think he’s totally fine. Obviously in the playoffs, you have a little adrenaline and stuff like that.’’
And it didn’t hurt that he got what looked like a batting-practice pitch. But those have been popped up by good hitters before.
“You just can’t make a mistake to him,’’ Bryant said. “He’s a really good hitter. And so young [24], and he’s super-smart. You’ve got to tip your cap to him. Good swing, and he took advantage.’’
Follow me on Twitter @CST_soxvan.
Email: dvanschouwen@suntimes.com
RELATED STORIES
TELANDER: Once-sleepy Harper, Zimmerman turn tide in decisive 8th
Sudden impact: Nats strike with big eighth to even series with Cubs
