Nationals’ Bryce Harper breaks his bat, still hits a home run
Apr 16, 2018, 6:57 PM
Benny "The Jet" busted the guts out of a baseball...
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) April 16, 2018
Roy Hobbs had light-tower power...
Bryce Harper hit a 406-ft BROKEN BAT home run. pic.twitter.com/v1ReLAklGM
Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper did something Monday that you will rarely see in a baseball game.
On his first at-bat in the top of the first inning, Harper swung on the first pitch he saw from New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom.
Harper’s bat broke on contact. Between that time of that and the cameras cutting to the outfield, the expected result would be the right fielder tracking down a fly ball.
Well, the Mets’ outfield was tracking the ball down — all the way to right-center and over the wall for a solo home run that traveled over 400 feet.
Bryce Harper just hit a broken-bat home run off Jake deGrom like he's goddamn Barry Bonds. He hit it 99.2 mph and it went 406 feet. He ran to first holding the splintered handle, just to strike fear into his enemies' hearts. pic.twitter.com/nD13kSiCV8
— David Adler (@_dadler) April 16, 2018
Per For the Win, what you think would be something you’ve never seen before has happened occasionally. Barry Bonds did it in 2002, Mark Texeira joined the club in 2009 and even Justin Upton did it for the Arizona Diamondbacks once in 2011.
On Monday, the barrel of Harper’s bat went to the screen near the Mets’ bat boy.
Harper showed off a little flex for what is one serious display of strength.
It was Harper’s eighth home run of the season and made it an early 1-0 Nationals lead.