The Phillies’ Bryce Harper not sweating his homer drought: ‘The power will come’

Bryce Harper tried not to seem immodest, but well, the truth is the truth.

“I’ve never really struggled with power in my career,” he said. “I can say that. It’s not me talking great about myself. I just feel like the power will come.”

Harper was speaking Tuesday night, after getting two hits (both singles) and striking out twice with runners on base in the Phillies’ 4-2 loss to the division-leading Braves. It marked his 21st consecutive game without a homer — a span of 97 plate appearances — the third-longest power outage of his career.

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But it isn’t merely that Harper hasn’t reached the bleachers since May 25 in Atlanta — and May 6 at Citizens Bank Park. He has one extra-base hit in his last 10 games, two in his last 13, and four in his last 21 entering Wednesday night.

And here’s the really weird part: Harper is batting .301 with a .393 on-base percentage. So, he’s getting hits and drawing walks. He just isn’t driving the ball like one of the foremost sluggers in baseball over the last decade.

Harper, 14th on the active list with 288 career homers, insists he feels fine, that nothing is wrong with his surgically reconstructed right elbow. But in a conversation Sunday in Oakland, he conceded that he’s still building stamina after much of his offseason training routine was disrupted.

Although Harper has been a DH while his elbow continues to heal, he goes through a near-daily workout to learn first base. The Phillies believe he’ll be cleared to play defense this season, but not until after the All-Star break, according to manager Rob Thomson.

“It’s been tough, body-wise, to kind of get rolling,” said Harper, who got a day off Sunday before an off-day Monday for a rare two-day breather. “Not having an offseason and a spring training, things like that, just body-wise — not swinging or anything else, just trying to maintain my body — it’s been tough. But I feel great [at the plate].”

There may be other explanations. Pitchers — lefties, in particular — are attacking Harper with more breaking balls than ever, often in fastball counts. Through Tuesday, 55.1% of the pitches thrown to Harper by lefties, and 35.8% of the pitches overall, were some combination of sliders, curveballs, and sweepers, according to Statcast data. By comparison, he saw 26.9% breaking pitches last season, 33.6% from lefties.

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Harper pointed out an eighth-inning at-bat Tuesday against Braves righty reliever Nick Anderson. With one on, one out, and the Phillies trailing by three runs, Anderson got Harper to swing through back-to-back curveballs.

“I get down 0-2, I’m thinking he’s going to throw me a heater in that position,” Harper said. “I sold out for the heater and swung at a [curveball] 54 feet [in the dirt].”

Harper surely will make adjustments. But he said he won’t lay off breaking pitches or expand his strike zone, either, in an attempt to chase power.

“Because if I try to do it, then I’m going to punch out and not get on base,” Harper said. “I’ve got to take my walks. I’ve got to keep getting on base, having good days.”

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Eventually, Harper believes the power will come. It always has before.

“He’s hit the ball hard,” Thomson said. “He’s just not getting the ball up in the air. But he will. He will. History tells us that.”

A few other observations as the Phillies and Braves continue their three-game showdown:

Max Fried and Kyle Wright finished second and 10th, respectively, in the Cy Young Award voting last season.

This year, neither has pitched since the first week of May.

But even without two of their top starters, the Braves have the lowest team ERA in the National League, a testament to their seemingly bottomless depth and their aggressiveness in tapping into it.

» READ MORE: The Phillies miscalculated their fifth-starter plan. Where do they go from here?

Bryce Elder, left off the opening-day roster, has a 2.60 ERA in 14 starts. Rookie lefty Jared Shuster has a 3.58 mark in his last six starts. When Dylan Dodd and Michael Soroka struggled in brief looks, the Braves found a replacement for their replacements.

Get ready to meet AJ Smith-Shawver, the 20-year-old righty who began the season in A-ball and will make his third major league start Wednesday night against the Phillies.

“We talked about it early on, even leaving spring training, the depth that you need,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Because you just can’t go out and get starting pitching. That’s probably one of the most impossible things, really, so you better have a lot of guys. And we’ve been fortunate that we’ve had a lot of young guys that we’ve shuffled in and out.

“They’re getting some really valuable on-the-job training. AJ made the quick leap up here. We’ve got two or three options down there right now and guys that have already been up here. Guys are getting pushed more than they used to in the industry.”

The Phillies have taken a more measured approach. Their needs haven’t been as drastic, especially since Ranger Suárez returned from the injured list. And 20-year-old phenom Andrew Painter, the one prospect that they were ready to fast-track, has been out since early March with a sprained elbow ligament.

But they haven’t had a fifth starter since early May and resisted pushing Griff McGarry or 21-year-old Mick Abel from double A.

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Andrew Vasquez is 6-foot-6, left-handed, and throws almost exclusively sliders out of a three-quarter arm slot.

“I’m definitely a different animal,” he said.

Vasquez is also an unsung member of the Phillies’ bullpen. Even after allowing a homer to Matt Olson in the eighth inning Tuesday night, he has a 1.85 ERA in 34 innings over 24 appearances. It has been a rewarding season for the 29-year-old, who bounced between six organizations since 2021. The Phillies claimed him off waivers last August only to designate him for assignment two weeks later and claim him again in November.

But Vasquez, who was out of minor-league options, made the opening-day roster and has stuck around by throwing 80% sliders.

“I think it works to my advantage,” he said. “That is what makes me, me, just being so different. It is a different look. I don’t know how much the hitters are getting to see stuff like that. I’ve tried to play to my strengths.”