Philadelphia Phillies fulfill Bryce Harper’s prophecy

The Phillies are 9-1 since Bryce Harper said they needed to go 9-1

Twelve days ago, Bryce Harper laid down a challenge for the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies were coming off a walk-off loss to the Atlanta Braves on Aug. 22. It was their fifth loss in a row. The club was 9-14 on the season, in last place in the NL East and with the second-worst record in the National League.

Harper, knowing something had to change for his team, recognized that they had to go on a run to get back in the playoff hunt. “We have minimal games to play this year. We have to be able to get out there and play our game and we have to win,” he said after that game.

“I mean, we have to go on a streak and win nine out of ten. It needs to happen. It’s tough. It’s very tough in baseball to do that. But to get where we need to be, it needs to happen.”

Challenge accepted. Since Harper made those comments, the Phillies are 9-1, just as he prophesied. Their record now stands at 18-15. If the season ended today, the Phillies, in dire straits just more than a week ago, would be in the postseason.

The Phillies are coming off a four-game series sweep against the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals, winning 6-5 on Thursday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park with Alec Bohm’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning.

The rookie third baseman is batting .353 over his last nine games with seven RBI. The team collectively has a .843 OPS and is outscoring opponents 60-37. Harper, incidentally, has been struggling during this stretch, hitting just .143 with two RBI and one extra-base hit. He went 1-5 with three strikeouts against the Nationals on Thursday.

The Phillies starting pitchers have given up 21 earned runs in 57 innings over the last 10 games ( 3.32 ERA). Seven of those runs came in just one game, the only Phillies defeat since Aug. 22. Jake Arrieta got just four outs on Sunday against the Braves as the Phillies gave up 10 runs in the second inning but still nearly came back, eventually losing 12-10.

The Phillies have a good chance to keep the run going. Just four of their next 24 games are against a club currently with a winning record, including a stretch of playing the Marlins in Miami seven times in four days.

A few shorts days ago the Phillies seem poised to simply play out the season and miss the playoffs yet again. Harper challenged them to be better, and they’ve responded.