Phillies’ Bryce Harper dominates and is serenaded with MVP chants (in Detroit) in win against Tigers

DETROIT — Never mind that the Phillies were 600 miles from home. Or that they were playing in an American League ballpark. The campaign was in full swing in the sixth inning Monday night, and the slogan was clear.

“M-V-P! M-V-P!”

It seemed to rise out of the right-field seats at Comerica Park. Maybe it came from the bleachers. No matter the origin, it serenaded Bryce Harper as he circled the bases after banging a three-run home run, the exclamation point on a five-RBI performance in the Phillies’ series-opening 8-1 rout of the Detroit Tigers.

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“When he gets hot, he gets rolling for a while,” said Aaron Nola, the beneficiary of the Harper Show en route to seven solid innings and his ninth victory. “We’re definitely grateful to play on the same team as him and get to watch what he does every single day.”

So, the chant was loud and in sync and entirely fitting. Because Harper has been the best player on the National League’s best team through nearly half the season.

And he did it all against the Tigers.

Harper doubled to center field to push the Phillies to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Tigers starter Casey Mize. He led off the fifth with a double to left. He broke open the game with the three-run homer on a hanging changeup from lefty reliever Tyler Holton.

Oh, and he even helped the Phillies turn a triple play, the 34th in team history.

The Phillies won their third game in a row and for the fifth time in seven games. At 52-26, they are back to 26 games over .500, matching their high-water mark. They face the 36-42 Tigers twice more before coming home for a four-game series against the league-worst Miami Marlins (27-50).

And Harper is at the center of it all, a modern version of Reggie Jackson’s straw that stirred the drink. He’s batting .303/.401/.577 for a .978 OPS that’s third-best in the NL behind Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna. He ranks third with 19 homers and fourth with 56 RBIs among NL hitters.

“I feel good,” Harper said. “Just trying to be normal. Just trying to stay normal and stay as good as possible.”

This is Harper’s normal. It’s no wonder he leads all NL players in All-Star votes.

Right behind Harper, both in the All-Star balloting results released by MLB and in the Phillies’ batting order: Alec Bohm, who finished with four hits, including a two-run homer to punctuate a four-run first inning and only 12 pitches from Mize.

Kyle Schwarber reached on an error by shortstop Zach McKinstry (far from his biggest blunder) and Trea Turner dunked a double into shallow right field before Harper’s double and Bohm’s blast.

Talk about setting a tone.

When they’re healthy and intact, Schwarber, Turner, Harper, and Bohm form arguably the top foursome atop a batting order in baseball.

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“They just put other teams on their heels,” manager Rob Thomson said. “If you get four or five hitters in the first inning get to the plate, our four or five hitters are going to see a lot of pitches. And that really helps. Because if you get 25-30 pitches on a pitcher in the first inning, you know you’ve got him on his heels.”

Nola scattered only six hits (five singles) and completed seven innings, the signature of Phillies starters. (Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez went seven innings apiece over the weekend at home against the Diamondbacks.)

But Nola’s best trick came in the fourth inning. After giving up back-to-back singles, he broke former teammate Matt Vierling’s bat on a soft liner back to the mound. Nola gloved it and flipped to Harper at first, where Carson Kelly ranged too far off the base.

At third base, McKinstry misread the play and took off for home plate. Harper threw across the diamond to Bohm, who stepped on the bag to complete the trifecta.

“That was cool,” Harper said. “It kind of took us back to when we were younger, right? We were all super-excited to be part of that. The whole dugout, everybody was beaming. Just a really cool moment for all of us.”

It marked the first triple play turned by the Phillies since Aug. 27, 2017. It was also only the second 1-3-5 (pitcher-to-first-to-third) triple play in baseball history. The last was … wait for it … 95 years ago, on July 11, 1929, when the Tigers tripled up the Red Sox, according to the SABR Triple Play Database.

Harper said he noticed that McKinstry never stopped running. He alerted Bohm, then made an easy throw across the field.

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“I don’t think Bohmer even knew where the ball was, so I was making sure I just didn’t throw it as hard as I could over there,” Harper said. “He finally picked it up that I had it, and he got to third base. Pretty cool.”

It hardly mattered that the Phillies struck out 17 — count ‘em, 17! — times, including four whiffs for Brandon Marsh and three apiece for Nick Castellanos and Garrett Stubbs.

A seven-run lead also enabled the Phillies to give Michael Mercado a low-stress inning for his major-league debut. Mercado came on in the eighth inning and retired the side, striking out the first batter before getting a pair of groundouts.

“There’s no way to describe the feeling,” said Mercado, whose parents arrived from California in time to attend the game. “Getting out on the mound is a feeling of accomplishment. It’s fantastic. Not many people get to experience that.”

» READ MORE: Phillies call-up still sinking in for Michael Mercado: ‘It’s a real privilege’

And when it was all over and Harper gave a postgame interview on the field, the chants returned.

“M-V-P! M-V-P!”

Halfway through the season, it’s hard not to like Harper’s chances.