For one night at Nationals Park, everything felt right.
For one night, Bryce Harper was the Bryce Harper he was always supposed to be: the fire-starting, high intensity phenom that could make stadiums roar with the snap of his fingers.
The event itself had little meaning, and Harper had an advantage from the start thanks to his low (high?) seed. It’s unlikely that any momentum Harper created will carry into the second half of the season.
It doesn’t really matter.
Harper, when he knocked off six homers in 27 seconds to tie Kyle Schwarber up at 18, and then another in his bonus seconds — a homer that everyone knew was coming, punctuated by a bat flip that rocketed into the air with an unconventional two-hand throw — gave Nationals fans something.