‘I stared right at him’: Harper gets playoff revenge on Braves after Arcia barb
When gossip spread among the Phillies that Bryce Harper – of all the superstars to poke – had been laughed at inside the Braves clubhouse, his teammates dared the slugger to deliver.
“They looked at me,” Harper said, “and they were like, ‘What are you going to do?’”
They done messed around pic.twitter.com/MivRO0RX9A
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 11, 2023
Well, how about two homers, two staredowns, four RBIs, and one more marvelous game to add to his growing October lore.
Harper answered Orlando Arcia’s mockery with a mammoth three-run homer and a solo shot, glaring at the shortstop on each trot around the bases, and Philadelphia beat Atlanta 10-2 in Game 3 of their NL Division Series.
Message sent?
“Yeah, I mean, I stared right at him,” Harper said.
Aaron Nola (2-0) and four relievers combined to push the 104-win Braves to the brink of elimination. The Phillies can advance to the NL Championship Series for the second straight season with a win at home on Thursday.
Nick Castellanos homered twice as Philadelphia rebounded from their disappointing loss at Atlanta on Monday night. With Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh also going deep, the Phillies set a franchise postseason record with six homers in all.
Harper and Castellanos are the fourth pair of teammates in postseason history to each hit multiple home runs in a game, a list topped by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1932 World Series.
“[Harper is] one of the best in the world for a reason,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said. “When we’re in these moments, this is baseball at its best for him. When it’s at his best for him, anything can happen.”
Harper continues to make teams pay for any perceived slight, and his eighth and ninth postseason homers in the last two seasons added to the Phillies’ pursuit of the franchise’s first World Series championship since 2008.
Not that he needs any incentive to go deep, but Harper tried to atone for a Game 2 baserunning blunder that capped an astonishing collapse. Harper had rounded second base on a deep flyout and was doubled up at first to end the game, the final moment in a series of late-inning plays that melted a 4-0 lead into a 5-4 loss.
In the jubilant Atlanta clubhouse after the win, Arcia cracked, “ha-ha, attaboy, Harper.” Faster than Harper rocked his shot off Game 3 starter Bryce Elder (0-1), the barb got back to the two-time NL MVP.
“He can look wherever he wants to look,” Arcia said through a translator. “When you’re in the clubhouse, I was under the impression you could say whatever you wanted. He wasn’t supposed to hear it. That’s when we were talking in the clubhouse.”
Harper and Castellanos seemed to send a message about the wisecrack when they arrived at the ballpark wearing gear inspired by Colorado coach Deion Sanders. Harper wore a “Coach Prime” T-shirt” and Castellanos a “Prime” hoodie.
The brash Sanders retorted at criticism earlier this season from a rival coach by saying, “they done messed around and made it personal.”
Harper took it personally.
First, though, it was Castellanos – who said after Game 2 that the Phillies “thrive after we get punched in the face” – who delivered the first counterpunch with a homer in the third that tied it at 1-1.
Harper’s 10 career homers in the NLDS are now tops in baseball history.
“He’s a Hall of Famer,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s one of those guys that loves that stage. He’s a special player. You put him in the spotlight, and he’s going to shine.”
Castellanos and Harper insisted it was coincidence that they both wore Sanders shirts to the game.
Castellanos said he was simply a fan and “today just felt like the perfect day to wear it.” Harper said he had second thoughts about wearing a shirt of the former Braves star on his drive to the ballpark.
“Oh no, he actually played for Atlanta,” Harper said, laughing. “Maybe I should turn around and go take this shirt off. But then I was just like, man, I’m a big fan of Prime and what he’s doing to Colorado.”
Los Angeles Dodgers 2-4 Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Jace Peterson celebrates with teammate Geraldo Perdomo. Photograph: Ross D Franklin/AP
The D-backs return to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2007, where they’ll face either the Phillies or Braves.
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Arizona – the No 6 seed after squeezing into the NL playoff bracket with an 84-78 record – has won all five of its games during the postseason, sweeping aside both the Brewers in a best-of-three series and the Dodgers in a best-of-five.
The wild-card Diamondbacks won with brawn in this one, slugging a postseason-record four homers in the third off veteran righty Lance Lynn, all solo shots from Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte, Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno.
That gave Arizona a 4-0 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
The NL West champion Dodgers rallied for two runs in the seventh on two-out RBI singles from Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández off side-armer Ryan Thompson, but lefty Andrew Saalfrank entered and retired Austin Barnes on a groundout.
Will Smith had a one-out single in the ninth off closer Paul Sewald, but Chris Taylor hit a flyout to deep center in front of the 413-foot sign Hernandez flied out to left to end it.
Lynn cruised through the first two innings of a scoreless game – giving no indication what was about to come.
Perdomo started the scoring with a leadoff homer, his first long ball since 13 August. One out later, Marte hit a 428ft drive to right on a 1-0 cutter. With two outs, Walker pulled a 3-1 cutter to left for a 3-0 lead, drawing another roar from the Chase Field crowd.
Then came No 4: Moreno sliced a 2-1 fastball down the line to the opposite field that right field umpire Gabe Morales called fair. But the umpires huddled and crew chief Todd Tichenor reversed the call to foul, a decision upheld by a video review.
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Moreno then drove Lynn’s very next pitch – a hanging slider – 420ft over the left-field wall, flipping his bat high in the air as he started his trot.
A few moments later, a dejected Lynn handed the ball to manager Dave Roberts and trudged toward the dugout.
Lynn gave up 44 homers in the regular season, the most in the majors. The previous mark of three homers in a postseason inning had been accomplished 12 times, most recently by the Dodgers against Atlanta in 2020.
D-backs rookie right-hander Brandon Pfaadt threw four and one third scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out two.
While the D-backs thrived, the Dodgers had no answers for a third straight game. A stacked lineup with a pair of former MVPs – Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman – couldn’t make much of an impact throughout the series.
Both All-Stars struck out in the eighth against Kevin Ginkel with a runner on first. Betts finished the series 0 for 11 while Freeman was 1 for 10.
Houston Astros 3-2 Minnesota Twins
The Houston Astros gathered in the clubhouse with their bottles and goggles to toast another postseason victory, when manager Dusty Baker called Justin Verlander forward to lead the celebration.
“I’m doing the World Series!” Baker said. “You do this one!”
Verlander, after a profanity-punctuated speech that had teammates roaring with laughter, started the cork-popping countdown at seven – one for each consecutive AL Championship Series appearance.
José Abreu homered for the third time in two games, a two-run rocket in the fourth inning that launched the Astros to their seventh straight ALCS with a 3-2 win that eliminated the Minnesota Twins in Game 4 of their Division Series.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the bond that we have and the relationships that we have in this locker room, and we hold each other accountable in a good way,” said Verlander, who returned to the Astros in August via trade from the New York Mets. “Obviously, this team is built different. These guys are built different. When it’s time to step up, we play our best baseball.”
José Urquidy gave the defending World Series champion Astros another solid postseason start, withstanding home runs by Royce Lewis in the first and Edouard Julien in the sixth before handing the ball to the bullpen.
Hector Neris and Bryan Abreu combined for five strikeouts over two and one third hitless innings. Ryan Pressly, who pitched five-plus years for the Twins before a trade to Houston in 2018, struck out the side in the ninth for the save. He froze Max Kepler with a full-count fastball to end it, leaving former Astros star Carlos Correa on deck.
Astros first baseman Jose Abreu hits a two-run home run in the fourth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS on Wednesday. Photograph: Jesse Johnson/USA Today Sports
“Oh yeah, we knew, and I was trying not to have nightmares, because I remember when Carlos was with us he hit that ball up in the right-center field seats up there,” Baker said, referring to Correa’s homer at Minnesota in a 2020 Wild Card Series. “But we never got to Carlos, so that was a great, great victory.”
Correa hit .409 with three doubles and four RBIs in the series.
“I wanted that at-bat so bad. I know Pressly very well, and it would’ve been a fun matchup,” Correa said. “It didn’t get there, but it’s the way it was supposed to be.”
Houston will host in-state rival Texas in Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday, when Verlander is scheduled to make his 36th career postseason start.
“They know us, and we know them,” Baker said, “and it’s going to be a heck of a series.”
The Astros, who are 56-34 in the playoffs since 2017, hit 10 homers in the series. Abreu had eight RBIs.
“They never give up, and they understand that this is the time where the greats need to be good,” Abreu said through an interpreter.
Urquidy, much like Game 3 starter Cristian Javier, had an October track record to rely on after a forgettable regular season. The right-hander, who has logged 42 postseason innings and made his seventh start in the playoffs, missed three months with shoulder trouble this year.
Michael Brantley got the Astros started with a solo shot in the second against Twins starter Joe Ryan, who was pulled after that inning in manager Rocco Baldelli’s all-out attempt to extend the series.
Caleb Thielbar, the only left-hander on the roster, gave up a leadoff single in the fourth to Yordan Alvarez, a win for the Twins considering he had two doubles and four homers in the series. With one out, Abreu hit a 1-0 fastball to the opposite field for a 3-1 lead.
The rest of the relievers gave the Twins some energy back from the crowd, particularly when Chris Paddack pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings with four strikeouts. But the home team just didn’t have enough hits to overcome all those swings and misses.
Lewis gave the Twins another big-moment home run, a smash to left field with a similar trajectory to the one he hit in his first postseason at-bat in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series sweep over Toronto.
Bad luck cost them a critical extra run. Julien led off the game with a double, but Jorge Polanco followed with a line drive straight at Jeremy Peña that was sharp enough to give the shortstop time to make a diving tag on Julien for the double play.
“We didn’t get it done in this series,” Baldelli said. “We got beat, but I couldn’t be happier with what I saw from so many of our guys, and I told them that.”