Bryce Harper ‘loves' Oracle Park, fuels Phillies' rally past Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
SAN FRANCISCO — The Phillies needed somebody to come through Monday night.
With the boos pouring down on him, Bryce Harper delivered. All night long.
For much of the offseason and through the first week of the season, Harper had taken his share of criticism — for a still-solid 2025 campaign, for his slump in the World Baseball Classic and for a slow start through his first two dozen at-bats.
The message from Harper and his teammates stayed the same: the hits would come. He homered in consecutive games to close the homestand and open the road trip. Then, in the Phillies’ opener of a three-game series against the Giants, Harper carried them to a 6-4 win at Oracle Park.
The Phillies’ first baseman, who entered the night hitting .139, delivered a three-hit, three-RBI performance. It was exactly what Philadelphia needed.
For much of the game, it felt like another night when the offense might go quiet. The Phillies were scoreless through the first four innings.
Their rookie, Andrew Painter, dazzled in his Major League debut. His second outing was not nearly as forgiving.
The 6-foot-7 right-hander allowed four runs over four innings and did not provide the length Rob Thomson would have preferred in the middle of a demanding six-game west coast stay. Still, it ended up being enough.
Painter’s outing, plus strong work from the bullpen, kept the Phillies close. And even Painter knew it. He said after the game that the offense and the relievers bailed him out after he failed to consistently work from ahead in counts.
“I’m super happy that they broke through and picked me up,” Painter said.
In the top of the fifth, down four, J.T. Realmuto and Justin Crawford lined a pair of hits. Both finished with two on the night. That turned the lineup over. Trea Turner drove in the Phillies’ first run on a groundout and brought Harper to the plate.
On the first pitch he saw, Harper scorched a low-and-in slider off the brick wall in right field to bring home another run. The ball, which nearly left the yard, slammed off the Levi’s Landing sign at 112.5 mph, his hardest-hit ball of the year.
For Harper, it was the environment that made him aggressive early in counts.
“When it’s windy and cold, right, it’s a little tough to play,” he said. “Throughout the whole night, it felt really good [swinging the bat].”
The Phillies and Harper kept pushing with the deficit in half.
In the seventh, they built a nearly identical rally. This time, Crawford and Turner opened the inning with singles. Harper took his slow walk to the box and, as his name was announced, was met by a fresh wave of boos from the San Francisco crowd.
Ryan Borucki tried to move him off the plate with a 95.1 mph sinker in on the hands. Then he went back inside.
This time, Harper got the barrel there. He ripped the ball through the right side of the infield, and two runs came around to score, tying the game. Harper pumped his fist, turned toward the dugout and roared.
At that point, the Giants no longer had control of the night. The momentum belonged to the Phillies.
Alec Bohm, who came into the game hitting just .176, followed Harper by shooting a base hit down the first-base line to put the Phillies ahead. It was the kind of inside-out swing that shows why Bohm can still work in the cleanup spot when the hitters in front of him are getting on base.
That’s his game. Put the ball in play. Use the whole field. It ended up being the game-winning knock.
Harper later scored on a sacrifice fly, capping an electric four-run seventh that ultimately changed the game.
The Phillies needed another offensive night where they could string hits together, the way they did in Friday’s 10-1 win in Colorado. Just as importantly, they needed to pick up Painter after he battled through four uneven innings.
Thomson believed the matchup at the top of the order gave them a real chance to do that, even when the Giants went to their best left-on-left option in Borucki.
“Typically those guys hit left-handed pitching,” Thomson said of Schwarber and Harper. “That’s why we sort of stacked those guys together. If they want to take their best shot and do it right there, then that’s okay.”
Harper and the Phillies have long had issues at Oracle Park. Harper came into the night a .215 hitter there, including postseason play. And the club has not won a series in San Francisco since 2013.
That history was part of the backdrop Monday, but Harper made it sound like one he was never particularly bothered by.
“I love playing here,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite parks to play in.”
“I just feel good [here], man,” Harper continued. “My body feels good. My mind feels good. Every time I get in the batter’s box, too. I always have good mornings here too, like going to eat, dinner places. It’s just a good city to come visit.”
The boos, of course, are part of the deal on the road.
“That’s everywhere I go,” Harper said. “I’m used to it.”
