After slow start, Harper looks elite in comeback win over Giants

SAN FRANCISCO – The last time Bryce Harper played at Oracle Park, he told everybody that he’s still “one of the best in baseball.”

He looked like that guy again on Monday.

He went 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBIs and a walk in the Phillies’ 6-4 comeback victory over the Giants. He hit a two-out double to left field in the first inning. He scored a run with a double off the right-field wall in the fifth. He hit a game-tying, two-run single to right in the seventh.

He helped the Phillies win their first series-opening game in San Francisco since 2014.

“That’s wild,” Harper said.

The Phillies needed it. They haven’t won a series here since 2013.

Maybe Harper needed it, too, although 10 games is a blip in a 162-game season. He entered the game batting .139 (5-for-36) with two home runs and four RBIs in nine games. It was the worst start to a season in his career (.538 OPS through nine games). He even heard a few boos in the Phillies’ season-opening homestand, following his lowest OPS in a season since 2016 and offseason talk about his ability to be “elite” again.

“I don’t think he really worries about that,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He knows he’s going to hit. We know he’s going to hit.”

Harper homered in Wednesday’s series finale against Washington in Philadelphia before homering in Friday’s series opener in Colorado. But he went 0-for-8 with two strikeouts the rest of the weekend.

“I easily could have been 2-for-4 that second day [in Colorado],” Harper said. “I felt good. I hit some balls hard. It’s always a process. But I didn’t miss the pitches over the plate tonight, so I felt good.”

Monday was Harper’s best game in a while. It was his first three-hit game since Aug. 26. It was his first three-RBI game since Aug. 18, and only his third three-RBI game since 2024.

Harper entered Monday chasing more pitches out of the zone (39.5 percent) than he had hoped entering the season. He saw six pitches out of the zone on Monday. He didn’t swing at any of them.

It was the first time he saw six or more pitches out of the zone and didn’t chase since Sept. 5, 2024.

“I feel like it’s been good,” Harper said about his swing. “I feel good. I’ve just got to keep plugging away and keep having good at-bats.”

Harper last played at Oracle Park on July 9, when he had a huge game following a slow start to his season, in part because of inflammation in his right wrist that kept him sidelined in June. Harper had a career-high four extra-base hits (three doubles and a home run). Afterward, he told reporters, “I mean, I’m really good. I really am. I don’t want to put that out there, and everybody goes, ‘What’s he talking about?’ But I know when I’m going well, I’m one of the best in baseball.”

The Giants carried a 4-0 lead into the fifth inning after getting to Phillies rookie Andrew Painter, who allowed nine hits and four runs in four innings in his second career start. Painter fell behind in the count too much, throwing only 11 of 21 first-pitch strikes.

“I dug myself in a hole,” Painter said.

It could have been worse. The Giants scored three in the third, but Painter induced an inning-ending double play. Painter allowed three of the first four batters to reach base in the fourth, but allowed only a run.

“I wanted to see how he would react to it, and he was great,” Thomson said.

Painter kept the Phillies close enough for Harper to do work.

Harper said he loves to play at Oracle Park, even though he had batted just .182 with a .610 OPS in his first 37 regular-season games here.

He is 7-for-10 with five doubles and one home run in his last two.

“Every time I come here, I feel very confident in my ability to play well,” Harper said.

Giants fans probably do, too. They booed him every time he walked to the plate.

“That’s everywhere, though,” Harper said. “I mean, it even happens at home sometimes.”