PHILADELPHIA -- Citizens Bank Park continues to be one of Bryce Harper's favorite places to hit. He connected with a two-run home run off right-hander Vince Velasquez in the first inning of the Nats' 7-6 win Friday afternoon.
It was Harper's second home run of the season and the ball traveled 350 feet, as projected by Statcast™ª, to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead.
The low-and-in changeup that Harper took deep fell precisely where he does the most damage. In 2016, his .400 batting average and 97.6 average exit velocity on pitches down and on the inside corner were his best of any segment of the strikezone.
Harper added a walk in the fifth -- after which he would score on a Jayson Werth home run -- and a single in the sixth to bring his 2017 batting average to .357 and OPS to a team-leading 1.357.
"I think one through eight were swinging the bat really well," Harper said postgame. "Doing everything we can every single day to get ready for the games and as a team having a plan to take that into the game and really try to apply it to every single at-bat we have. I think we've done a great job."
Harper has now homered 12 times in his career at the Phillies' home ballpark, the most he has hit in any visiting stadium and second to Werth (13) among visiting players since 2012. In 36 career games at Citizen's Bank Park, he's hitting .306 with a .657 slugging percentage.