After discussing the two home runs he hit last night with MASN’s Dan Kolko (and using the word “heater” repeatedly), Bryce Harper was asked about Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth returning to the Nats’ lineup. Maybe it’s the Mets series coming up, maybe it’s the new-found confidence with Jonathan Papelbon in town, but for whatever reason, Harper didn’t hold back.
“Ah, it makes us the best team in baseball,” he said, as if stating the obvious. “I mean, it makes us the team that we’ve been wanting to be all year long, you know, we haven’t played with our whole team all year. And we’re still not.”
He then went on to extol all the virtues of his teammates. “We got Denard [Span] out now, hopefully he’s coming back soon, but, having Jay, having Zim, having Rendon, three of our best hitters back in that lineup, just the leadership of those two guys definitely, and you know, just Tony, he comes with it every single day,” he said. “You know he’s going to get on base any way he can. He’s doing a great job in the leadoff spot for us right now and we’re just going to get better the more we play together. It’s going to be a lot of fun down the stretch.”
[Bryce Harper echoes Jayson Werth: ‘We’re the team to beat. Everybody knows that.’]
Okay, sure. This felt a little less braggadocious than his comments back in May, when he acted like it was some sort of insult to not acknowledge the Nationals as the best team in baseball. But it does harken back to that in a softer way, and makes one wonder why this is such an important moniker for the squad to hold in his mind in late July.
Heading to Queens for a three-game set that concludes on “Sunday Night Baseball,” the Nationals have a chance to put their stamp on the NL East, and with a sweep, extend their division lead to six games. But regarding the “best team in baseball” notion, their winning percentage currently stands at .540, which ranks fifth in the National League. Meaning, if they are as good as Bryce believes, they’ve got exactly 62 games to prove it.
Either way, at the plate, in the field and in interviews, Harper appears to be as focused as he’s ever been in his career.
