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From the Department of “More than One Thing Can Be True” – Bryce Harper Hit a Clutch Home Run While Having a Lackluster WBC Overall
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Team USA lost the World Baseball Classic final, 3-2 to Venezuela. Bryce Harper went and congratulated all of their players on the win:
This is really the perfect Posidelphia/Negadelphia scenario. A good barometer for binary Phillies fan attitudes toward Bryce and the tournament he played.
On one hand, he hit the clutch home run that saved Team USA’s bacon and gave them a chance to pull off the comeback. He stepped up with a huge swing in the game’s biggest moment.
On the other hand, he had a poor overall WBC at the plate, finishing 6 for 28 with three RBI, a double, and the homer, while walking once and striking out eight times. Harper was tied with four other players for most strikeouts in the tournament and slashed .214/.267/.357 for a .624 OPS, which was 9th out of the 13 USA players who went to the plate. That OPS number was 127th out of 231 listed players who got an at-bat, and his on-base percentage was worse than every other American not named Byron Buxton.
So one could make the argument that part of the reason the U.S. needed clutch heroics is because players like Harper weren’t getting on base early in the game. Essentially, it’s the take that he dug himself out of a hole that he helped dig. Key word, “helped,” because hefty blame also goes to Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber, who went 0-7 in the final with three strikeouts. The entire disappointing team had three hits in the game, worked just three walks, and they snuck past the Dominican Republic with defense and two solo shots. They were not good at the plate for the better part of 18 full innings and made guys like Eduardo Rodriguez look like prime Sandy Koufax.
Unfortunately, it was a very Phillies-like final. The bats went cold. Too little, too late. Team USA threw out a New York Met to start the game and he allowed two earned runs in 4.2 innings, so we can’t kill Nolan McLean, as much as a New York Met would be an appropriate target. The pitching staff certainly did their part in allowing just five runs total in the semifinal and final.
At the risk of sounding like a fence sitter, Harper was clutch when it mattered but had a poor tournament overall. That’s because more than one thing can be true, now and forever, amen.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com