The Phillies hope Mickey Moniak’s first big-league home run is a sign of good things to come | Extra Innings

Bryce Harper pulled the Phillies from the brink of a 2-4 homestand Wednesday by slamming a seventh-inning home run that tied the game against the San Francisco Giants after the bullpen, with the help of some shoddy defense, had turned a 4-1 lead into a 5-4 deficit in the top of the inning.

Two innings later, Harper drew a leadoff walk and later scored the game-winning in unique fashion by simply touching his fingers on home plate. Andrew Knapp provided the line-drive single that scored Harper, marking the second time in his career that he has come through with a walk-off hit.

Harper, despite sitting out Saturday’s game against St. Louis with a sore back, still had one of the great homestands in franchise history, batting .647 (11 for 17) with two doubles, two home runs, four RBIs, and six runs scored in five games. He also had five walks, which gave him a .727 on-base percentage (16 for 22) and a 1.845 OPS. He raised his overall average from .231 to .357 in the last five games and is now 10th in baseball and fourth in the National League in hitting.

After a day off, the Phillies begin a seven-game road trip with Vince Velasquez making his first start of the season Friday night against the 6-12 Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

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— Bob Brookover (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

Mickey Moniak’s second stint in the big leagues was not going well. He was hitless in his first 12 at-bats and had struck out eight times. Finally, in his fifth game Tuesday night, against the Giants, he singled to left field in the second inning off Logan Webb.

That sense of relief was followed by a sense of elation Wednesday when Moniak stepped to the plate again in the bottom of the second to face the Giants’ Anthony DiSclafani with runners at first and second and one out. The left-handed hitting Moniak worked the count to 3-2 before hitting a sinker the opposite way for a three-run home run. He clapped his hands together as he rounded first base.

Meanwhile, out in left field, a man in a powder-blue Phillies jersey held up his toddler son who was holding up the baseball in his hand. It was one of those feel-good ballpark moments.

Moniak, for the record, did get the ball back.

“I did,” he said. “I noticed that they had two little kids and one of them was trying to eat it. So I’m just glad it’s intact. And I’m very grateful that they gave it back.”

Did it have bite marks?

“I haven’t checked it yet,” Moniak said. “So there definitely could be. And, honestly, I really hope so.”

It was a fun and funny moment for a young big-league player trying to find his way and win a center-field job that remains up for grabs 18 games into the season.

“It was awesome,” Moniak said. “Obviously it’s something you dream of. The fact that I’ve been grinding out at-bats the way I have and to do something to contribute to the team and put us in a place to win a big game on getaway day, it’s something I’ll never forget, especially being my first homer.”

It’s easy to forget just how young Moniak still is, but a postgame note drove home the point. Moniak, at 22 years and 343 days, became the youngest Phillies center fielder to hit his first career homer since Mike Anderson, who was 21 years old and 314 days, when he hit his first on May 2, 1973.

Like Moniak, the first overall pick in the 2016 draft, Anderson was considered a top prospect in the Phillies’ farm system after being the sixth overall pick in the 1969 draft. Anderson played nine years in the majors, but mostly in a bench role, and finished his career hitting .246 with 28 home runs, 134 RBIs, and a .681 OPS.

The late Paul Owens did use Anderson, however, to get veteran reliever Ron Reed in a 1975 trade with the St. Louis Cardinals. It turned out to be one of the great trades in franchise history. Reed pitched from 1976 through 1983 with the Phillies and went 57-38 with 90 saves and a 3.06 ERA while helping the team win five division titles, two NL pennants, and the 1980 World Series.

Moniak’s big-league story is still in its infancy, but he’s hoping his first home run is a trigger point for things to come.

“I think for a while I was kind of pressing to try to do too much,” Moniak said. “And I think I just got outside of myself. Just having the support of guys in this clubhouse and [manager] Joe [Girardi] and our staff has been huge. Just kind of telling me to relax and have fun. I know they know, and I know, what kind of baseball player I can be.”

Scott Lauber’s game story describes the good, the bad, and the ugly during the Phillies’ getaway-day win over Gabe Kapler’s San Francisco Giants. And, yes, there’s a lot about Bryce Harper in this story, too.

Mickey Moniak wasn’t the only rookie to have a good day Wednesday. Nick Maton contributed three hits in his third straight start at shortstop, and Spencer Howard, after being called up from the alternate-training site before the game, contributed four huge outs in a late-inning relief role.

A hamstring injury sent second baseman Jean Segura to the injured list and got Scott Kingery back in the big leagues before Wednesday’s game.

As usual, photographer Jose Moreno did a fantastic job of capturing Wednesday afternoon at the ballpark with his camera work, including the game-winning hit by Andrew Knapp.

Today: The Phillies are off.

Tomorrow: Vince Velasquez starts series opener at Colorado’s Coors Field, 8:40 p.m.

Saturday: Aaron Nola faces the Rockies, 8:10 p.m.

Sunday: Chase Anderson pitches series finale at Colorado, 3:10 p.m.

Monday: Zack Wheeler opens series in St. Louis, 7:45 p.m.

On this date in 1957, John Kennedy became the first Black player in Phillies history to enter a game. He went in as a pinch-runner for second baseman Solly Hemus in the top of the eighth inning of a 5-1 Phillies loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Kennedy’s first game with the Phillies came 10 years and seven days after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier with the Dodgers on April 15, 1947. It also came on the 10-year anniversary of the infamous racial taunts Phillies manager Ben Chapman hurled at Robinson during the Hall of Fame infielder’s fifth big-league game at Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn.

Kennedy, who was 30 when he joined the Phillies, appeared in just five games in his career. He never started a game and grounded out and struck out in his only two career at-bats. He played his final big-league game on May 3, 1957, before being sent to the Phillies’ High Point-Thomasville, N.C., affiliate, where he batted .270 with 26 doubles and 19 home runs for the remainder of the season. He spent the rest of his professional career in the minor leagues, including three more years with Phillies’ affiliates.

Frank Fitzpatrick did a wonderful job of telling Kennedy’s story in 2014. The Phillies should figure out a way to pay tribute to Kennedy’s pioneering moment in franchise history.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @brookob.

Question: My question has been developing for years, so it’s not a swipe at the current lineup and coaching staff. Quotes from Connor Brogdon (after Tuesday’s game) finally got me moving. When a pitcher — any pitcher — is warming up to enter a game in relief and knows he’s missing what he needs to succeed, why do they continue? Maybe they think somehow the adrenaline will create the touch/grip/whatever they need to get people out?

— Don W., via email

Answer: Thanks for reading Extra Innings Don and for your question. The baseball terminology for a warming reliever is that he “gets hot” and managers typically do not like to get bullpen guys up unless they are going to use them. Also there is usually not a lot of time between the moment when a pitcher starts warming and when he is asked to enter a game. In a perfect world, a manager would only use pitchers that have their best stuff that day, but there are a lot of days during a 162-game season when things are less than perfect.

Brogdon, if you recall, said his changeup felt great in the bullpen, but was “floating up” to the plate once he got in the game. The Fresno, Calif., native said he thought the adrenaline burst he got from facing the team he watched growing up might have got the best of him.

I’ve heard plenty of pitchers say that they felt like they had nothing in the bullpen and then get into the game and pitch lights out. Funny game, this baseball.