Perspective: With the Phillies off to the NLCS, Harper is eight wins away from becoming a Philadelphia legend, Barry Svrluga writes.
That is Harper’s status in this ravenous sports town — the most valuable player and most prominent character on a Phillies team that, in the span of a little more than a week, has morphed into a postseason problem for anyone it comes up against. That’s partly because of Harper’s talent, which remains enormous and will now be on display deeper than it ever has been in October — in the National League Championship Series.
But Harper’s contributions thus far in the postseason — a two-game, first-round sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and the four games of this division series — are unmatched: a .435 batting average, a .480 on-base percentage and a .957 slugging percentage with three doubles, three homers and six RBI.All of this came after he was limited to 99 games in the regular season because of a broken thumb. In 35 games after he returned from a two-month absence, he hit .227 with a .
But in those four series, Harper not only never took over — he didn’t present a reasonable version of himself. In seven seasons with Washington, he hit .279 with a .388 on-base percentage and a .512 slugging percentage, good for a .900 OPS. In those 19 postseason games, Harper was reduced to a slash line of .211/.315/.487 — an .801 OPS.So he needed this scene Saturday — the electricity in the stands and his responsibility for creating it being something of a chicken-and-the-egg question.
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