Bryce Harper is in a slump.

He has three hits in his last seven games and is lumbering through May with a .626 OPS, down from .802 in in April. He’s making defensive plays and drawing walks, but he’s not hitting the baseball, which reminds me of bad experiences I’ve had in the cages at the Burholme Family Fun Center.

Harper has been hitting third this season but today Gabe Kapler is bumping him up in the order, moving Jean Segura down to the third in the series finale against Milwaukee:

As if struggling at the plate isn’t bad enough, Harper had to talk to Angelo Cataldi today, and he said this on Sports Radio 94 WIP, after the jump:

“There’s time’s where you’re gonna go through it. I went through this last year at the beginning of the year. Did I think I was going to go through it again right now? No I didn’t. But in sports, thing happen, it’s part of the journey, it’s part of the life. And of course I don’t want to struggle. I don’t want to go out there and go 0-4 and punch out two or three times. I mean, that’s not who I am and that’s not how I want to be. I gotta get better, I gotta be better, and everybody knows that. I know that myself and when I walk off the field at night, the game’s over. I gotta turn the page and get back to the next day and I think that’s the beautiful thing of baseball, we play every single night. I love going out there and being out there for my guys and my team. I’ve got to do it on both sides of the ball.”

Full audio here: