Bryce Harper, all 19 years of him, made his debut as an All-Star in the top of the fifth inning, and walked. Buster Posey followed with a fly ball to left field.
Ho-hum.
Except Bryce Harper isn’t a ho-hum sort of baseball player. He hasn’t learned to ho-hum yet. So when Josh Hamilton squeezed Posey’s fly ball for an out, Harper lit out for second base, and he made it too.
The next batter hit a grounder to the the pitcher, and Harper got caught in a rundown. This doesn’t work in the major leagues as well as in high school, and Harper got tagged out.
In the bottom of the inning, Harper trotted out to left field. With David Ortiz on first base, Mike Napoli lifted a routine fly ball to routine left field. Harper trotted in for the catch, stopped still ... and probably heard the ball hit the ground, 10 feet behind him. He’d lost it completely in the lights.
Bryce Harper Does Bryce Harper Things
There was no harm, as the American League left the bases loaded when Ian Kinsler hit a routine fly ball to routine left field which was, this time, routinely caught by Bryce Harper.
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