Phillies: Bryce Harper coming off one of the best months of his career

Bryce Harper caught fire in the month of August for the Phillies.

Bryce Harper carried a lot of pressure entering his first season with the Phillies, about $330 million worth. Coming out of a tough summer stretch with only three home runs in a scorching July, it appeared Harper wasn’t living up to expectations in year one with Philadelphia.

Something switched in August for Harper, leading to one of the best months of a career trending towards Cooperstown.

Harper hit 11 home runs with 25 RBI and a .277 batting average in 24 games, all highs in a month for him since joining the Phillies.

The 11 home runs in a month since he hit 13 for Washington in May 2015.

While the batting average isn’t super impressive, it’s Harper’s best since August of last year. In fact, Harper’s best batting months have historically come in August, hitting at least .297 in August 2015-18.

Last month was also the first time Harper’s OPS went over 1.000 for the first time since July 2017 when it was a ridiculous 1.234.

Since coming off paternity leave, Harper is hitting .318 with seven hits in five games. We’ll give Kre Aron Harper some credit for that boost.

https://twitter.com/NBCSPhilly/status/1166166802071719937

Harper enters September with 29 home runs, 97 RBI, and the second-most walks in the National League behind Rhys Hoskins. Would fans be satisfied going into the season knowing Harper would hit 30-35 home runs and drive in over 100 runs? Probably, though it hasn’t come as consistently has many would have liked.

Harper is known to be a streaky hitter, as seen this month with his power surge and in past years when he’s hit over .330 in a given month. This likely won’t be the best we see out of Harper over the course of 13 seasons. Hopefully, there are some MVP and home run champion seasons in his bat that can carry the Phillies deeper into October than they project this year.