Buzzkill on Bryce night as Phillies get slaughtered by Dodgers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
LOS ANGELES -- Bryce Harper's much-anticipated return to the Phillies' lineup did not produce the results he or the team would have hoped for on Day 1, but it's about the long game, not one game at Dodger Stadium when the offense was shut down by a stud lefty and a position player was needed to record the final out because of a late bullpen meltdown.
Harper went 0 for 4 and struck out three times in his first game back since undergoing Tommy John surgery 160 days ago. It was a rapid return that did not include a minor-league rehab assignment and Harper has cautioned that he might not be himself for a little while.
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
He saw 16 pitches in his four plate appearances and swung through seven of them. He went after the first pitch all four times.
"I feel like my timing is pretty good but it's just pitch selection for me right now," Harper said after the Phillies' 13-1 loss. "I had some pretty good pitches to hit in my second at-bat and that last at-bat as well, a slider and a heater that I should have had better swings on. Flush that today and get back tomorrow. My swing feels good. I've just got to get going and understand it's going to take me a minute."
Harper felt good physically after the game and will be back in the lineup Wednesday afternoon. He's going to play every day as the DH and the Phillies' schedule is conducive to that sort of workload because they're off four of the next 15 days.
Facing Julio Urias, one of the best left-handers in all of baseball, is no easy task for a player on a hot streak, much less one who hasn't played in a live game in six months. But Harper wasn't interested in waiting one more day. He was eager to get back, tough matchup or not.
"I don't really have too good of numbers against him and he threw the ball pretty dang well tonight," Harper said of Urias, who struck out 10 over seven innings and allowed just one hit, a solo homer to Trea Turner.
"I thought his fastball was a tick up than it has been in the last couple starts. That's the big leagues, right? Facing guys like that."
This was Harper's first experience with the pitch clock. The Phillies utilized it in his simulated game at-bats against Ranger Suarez, Nick Nelson and pitchers from their farm system, but it's quite different under the lights at Dodger Stadium against a stacked, playoff-bound team.
"I think the biggest thing is that our whole lives, we've been told to slow the game down," he said. "It's going to be an adjustment for me but it is what it is at this point. The game's going to be at a quicker pace."
The Phillies have been outscored 26-5 in the first two games of this series and are 2-3 on a difficult road trip through Houston and Los Angeles. They can make it a .500 trip on Wednesday, a result most teams would take against the Astros and Dodgers.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
While the Dodgers scored their final five runs off of Yunior Marte and infielder Kody Clemens, they also hit around some important pitchers on the Phillies' staff. Matt Strahm and Taijuan Walker had their worst starts of the season Monday and Tuesday. Gregory Soto allowed four runs while recording two outs after allowing a hit to just one of the previous 36 batters he'd faced. Craig Kimbrel also struggled Monday.
"It's not large at all," manager Rob Thomson said of the gap in talent between the two clubs. "I thought we were right in it (trailing 4-1) until the seventh, and Soto had a bad night. He's been pitching really, really good. Marte, that's his first time going back to back and we were trying to get through it without using anybody else. I think he was fatigued, on fumes.
"We've just got to come back tomorrow and split the road trip."
Thomson liked the bat speed he saw from Harper but acknowledged that the recognition of breaking balls won't come immediately.
"You've just got to fight through it and that's what he's doing," he said. "It shouldn't take long before he's up to speed. He had 45 or 50 at-bats in simulations so I don't expect it to take long."
Harper struggled last season when he returned from thumb surgery. He missed two months, came back and hit .227 with a .676 OPS the rest of the way until reverting back into his MVP form in the playoffs.
It's a work in progress, but there's no denying that Harper's presence drastically impacts the Phillies' lineup. His bat essentially replaces that of Clemens or Jake Cave, who were batting at the bottom of the order. The walks will come, the hits will come, the homers will come, and Tuesday night might end up being the Phillies' ugliest game of the season.
"You're never excited for what just happened," Harper said. "You don't want that to happen. I want the results to be better. Granted, I'm excited to be back. Going through six months of grind and hard work and to be able to get back today, I was extremely excited. Now we're just rolling into a season, playing as many games as I can.
"Just gotta keep going, keep plugging along. It'll even out and get better, just gonna take some time."
