Ring the bell: Bryce Harper's message after 3-home run game should scare rest of MLB

Bryce Harper's 0-for-11 slide to begin the 2024 season is a distant memory after his dominant performance in Tuesday night's game against the Cincinnati Reds. Harper hit three home runs, including a grand slam, and had 7 RBIs on the night.

Harper dealt with some injury issues in spring training, which could explain his slow start against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. However, Harper has turned his season around quickly, padding his stats in a bit way on Tuesday.

With the three home runs, Harper became just the seventh active player with at least 1,000 runs scored, per baseball-reference. He is also the first player in the modern era to reach that feat in during a 3-home run game.

Bryce Harper isn't focused on individual accolades this season with Phillies

Despite his individual success on Tuesday, Harper had a message for Phillies fans, and sadly it wasn't as simple as Michael Jordan's infamous "I'm Back" full-page ad.

“Hopefully, this is the start of us winning one,” Harper said. “You know? It’d be cool.”

It's World Series or bust for the Phils, who have appeared in the last two NLCS series and made the World Series in 2022, losing in six games to the Houston Astros. A season-opening series loss to their fiercest divisional competition, the Atlanta Braves, took some of the air out of the room in the Phils season-long quest to win the NL East.

Despite an 0-for-11 slump to start the year, Harper assured fans he's just fine following Tuesday's performance.

“I’ve actually felt really good,” Harper said. “Obviously, it’s not the results you want. I thought I had some pretty good swings in the Atlanta series, and pretty good swings yesterday as well. I’m just trying to build that up and keep this going.”

As for the home runs, Harper claims that's just how he thinks. In the MLB arms race, you can never hit enough bombs.

“You have two, you want three,” he said. “You have three, you want four. Right? That’s the mindset.”

Per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki, Harper is the first Phillies player to hit three home runs in a game since 2021. He's the first player to do so with one of those home runs being a grand slam since Jayson Werth in 2008.

It may be World Series or bust for the Phils, but it's also MVP or bust for Harper.