Trea Turner is fast. Really fast. Just not fast enough for Bryce Harper

July 17th, 2023

Trea Turner is one of the fastest men in baseball. He's in the 99th percentile for sprint speed. He's stolen 21 bases, tied for fourth in the National League. But none of that, evidently, was quite enough for teammate Bryce Harper on this day.

After lacing a one-out double into the right-field corner in the sixth inning on Sunday, Harper watched Turner motoring around the bases, smelling an RBI opportunity. The speedy Turner stopped at third, though, and Harper wasn't going to let him forget it. He jokingly gestured with his palms up at Turner like, hey man, you couldn't score on that?

Then Harper flashed a 3 and a 0 at Turner and feigned a slow limp, reminding Turner of the brand new decade he entered when he celebrated his birthday on June 30. Surely Turner is just as spry as he was only a few weeks ago as a sprightly 29-year-old, but Harper -- who is 257 days his new teammate's senior -- needed to find some justification for losing out on that precious RBI. Just a couple of 30-year-olds -- one newly minted, the other on the brink of 31 -- coming to terms with the methodic drumbeat of time marching on.

Turner promptly proceeded to score on a J.T. Realmuto double in the next at-bat, and he helped preserve a tie game in the top of the 11th with a slick diving catch that set the stage for the Phillies' walk-off win in the 12th. So maybe there's still a little youth left in those legs after all, and hopefully Harper came away convinced.