When he stepped to the plate against the Phillies for the final time on Sunday, Nationals thunder-bringer Bryce Harper had already homered. However, with two outs in the ninth and his team down 4-3 and two runners on, Harper's Nats had just a 17.2 percent chance of winning the game. That's when Joaquin Benoit presented Harper with a full-count sinker that caught a bit too much of the plate ...
That's a walk-off homer -- the fourth walk-off homer of his career. It's also his fourth homer of the season and the 125th homer of his career. That's also a 6-4 Nationals win.
Speaking of which, Benoit seemed to know the end result pretty much from the moment Harper laid into it ...
He's well on his way to the showers before the ball even reaches the outfield.
Anyhow, Harper's now batting .333/.455/.644 on the young season. It's worth recalling, of course, that he got off to a hot start in 2016 before backsliding. Right now, though, he looks like he's back on course to be the kind of player he was during his 2015 MVP campaign. That's bad news for the rest of the NL.
