Bryce Harper looks like he's snapped out of his funk originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Bryce Harper looks like he's finally snapped out of a funk that lasted three weeks — which, in 2020 terms, is nearly 40% of the season.
Harper ended his home run drought at 83 plate appearances with an opposite-field blast off of Marlins right-hander Jose Ureña in his second plate appearance Saturday.
Harper also doubled, singled and walked twice to reach base in each of his first five plate appearances in the Phillies' 12-6 win.
The Phils are 23-20. They trail the Braves by 2½ games in the NL East and lead the Marlins by 1½ games for second place. They are 2-2 so far in their seven-game series against the Marlins.
It looks like the good swings Harper had late Friday carried over. He doubled sharply down the right-field line in his final plate appearance of the doubleheader. In the first game, he drilled a ball 373 feet that died on the warning track.
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It was a good sign Saturday to see Harper lay off pitches just off of the plate starting his first time up. He had a couple of ugly swings at pitches out of the zone earlier in this Marlins series. Earlier in the day, first-year Phillies hitting coach Joe Dillon broke down what he's seen from Harper lately.
The 83 plate appearances without a home run was Harper's longest drought since 2014, his worst big-league season, when he went 102 straight.
With 17 regular-season games to play after Saturday, there is still plenty of time for Harper to end his season on a high note.
Despite the difficulty of his last few weeks, Harper is still hitting .265/.428/.508. He has a higher OPS (.929) than Charlie Blackmon, J.T. Realmuto, Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez and Xander Bogaerts. He's only a few points below Trevor Story and Paul Goldschmidt.
In totality, it has been a very good season for Harper.
