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The Formula for Slump Busting is to Buzz Your Hair and then Play the Pirates and Rockies
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A shorn Bryce Harper is terrorizing the Colorado Rockies after rounding into form against the Pittsburgh Pirates:
It’s good to see Bryce playing well. He’s hit in six-straight games, five of those being multi-hit efforts. Even just going back to the start of the Pittsburgh series he’s pulled his average up from .236 to .276 and OPS from .780 to .852. That’s after going hitless in four of the six games against the Cleveland Guardians and St. Louis Cardinals.
On the other hand, Harp’s slump busting just happened to come against two of Major League Baseball’s worst teams. The Rockies are 8-41, good for a .163 winning percentage, and the Pirates are only slightly less pitiful at 17-33, bringing up the rear of the NL Central. If it wasn’t for the White Sox and Orioles, the Yinzers would be second-worst in MLB.
So this is a classic case of “more than one thing can be true.” Harper is playing good baseball. He’s also hitting guys like Antonio Senzatela, Andrew Heaney, and Carmen Mlodzinski, who are borderline MLB pitchers at this point. He’s got four more this week against the lowly Rockies and A’s, a good opportunity to continue this positive form, and if he brings it home for the series against Atlanta and Milwaukee, then you feel really good going into June.
On the other hand, I don’t think anybody was truly concerned about Bryce Harper to begin with. He’s coming off an All-Star season and was one of the few guys to play well in the NLDS loss. He had a similar April in 2024 and then started cooking from there.
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