3 Phillies players to celebrate for important NLCS Game 1 win

Bryce Harper

The birthday boy gave himself even more reasons to celebrate Monday night.

Four pitches after Schwarber's leadoff homer, Harper decided to unleash on the first pitch he saw and send a fan home with a souvenir.

As he approached home, he had a birthday celebration ready to go, blowing out 31 candles in honor of the big day.

In his next at-bat in the bottom of the third, he came to the plate with Trea Turner in scoring position. Again, he turned on the first pitch, sending the ball to right field and driving in another run to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Diamondbacks pitched around Harper, walking him on five pitches. After getting to second on a wild pitch, he scored on a single by J.T. Realmuto, pushing the lead to 5-0.

Overall on the night, Harper went 2-for-3 with one walk and two RBI, lifting his 2023 postseason batting average to .409.

Speaking on Harper's performance after the game, Schwarber said the following, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today: "This guy, he is looking for the moment, and he wants it. He's doing such an unbelievable job for us. When he is going up to the plate, you are just thinking that he is going to do something special every time. Can that be unfair to have an expectation on a player? Sure. But that's what everyone is thinking when you're in the dugout, 'Man, what's this guy going to do next?'"

It's probably fair to say he'll continue to try to smash it out of the park as he chases Phillies history.

With his home run in the first inning, Harper is now only one home run shy of tying the record set by Jayson Werth for most home runs in Phillies postseason history. While it took Werth 40 games to get to 11, Harper is sitting at 10 through 24 games.

NEXT: The hammer out of the Phillies' bullpen.