Bryce Harper, in case you forgot, is still coming off a pretty scary injury to his knee. When he hit a monster home run in Game 2 of the NLDS (they won the game, lost the series, not that it needed specification), it was a sign that everything was clicking and that Bryce was still Bryce.
However, since Spring Training games began, Harper hadn’t yet quite looked like the Bryce Harper of pre-injury days. Which wasn’t really a problem, because it was Spring Training, and it legitimately does not matter nor does it have any correlation to regular season success:
2017 Spring Training HR leaders (Reg Season Total)
Bird - 8 (9)
Harper - 8 (29)
Aguilar - 7 (16)
Blash - 7 (5)
Marrero - 7 (1)
O'Brien - 7 (0)
Contreras - 6 (21)
Duvall - 6 (31)
Franco - 6 (24)
Park - 6 (0)
Pederson - 6 (11)
Russell - 6 (12)
Stassi - 6 (2)— Devan Fink (@DevanFink) March 4, 2018All of which is to say, Bryce Harper connected for a two-run home run in yesterday’s game against the Tigers, and it was glorious.