Bryce Harper spit on two sliders from Boston Red Sox’ right-hander Joe Kelly in their eighth inning matchup on Monday night, taking them both for balls, then he crushed a center-cut, 97 mph fastball, hitting a 439-foot blast into the second deck in right field in Nationals Park for his 21st home run of 2018.
It was the first home run by a left-handed batter off Kelly this season, and, as Harper’s agent Scott Boras described it on Tuesday, an example of the fear he instills in opposing pitchers which led the opposition to decide that not giving his client anything to hit was the way to go.