PHOENIX — After a blazing August, Bryce Harper stayed red-hot on the first day of September.
The Phillies right fielder posted a .333 batting average and 1.069 OPS last month, and kept things rolling on Tuesday with a 4-for-4 game against the Diamondbacks. Harper delivered four singles and drew a walk in the 7-1 win over Arizona, the Phillies’ sixth in a row.
With the victory, and thanks to the Cubs’ loss to Milwaukee a few hours earlier, the Phillies moved into sole possession of the top wild-card spot in the National League.
They are also within three games of the Atlanta Braves for first place in the NL East. They open a four-game series against the Braves on Friday at Citizens Bank Park.
Harper was one of six Phillies to record an RBI in the game, as the offense supported another dazzling road performance from starter Jesús Luzardo. The lefty improved his road record to 9-0 with 6⅔ innings of one-run ball against Arizona.
“When you’re riding the hot hand,” Luzardo said, “you just got to keep going.”
Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez had also been on a roll entering Tuesday, but the Phillies found a way to cool the left-hander off. Looking at Rodriguez’s 1.40 ERA in his last four starts, Harper mulled putting down a bunt against him if the situation called for it.
In his first at-bat, he saw his chance. With Trea Turner on second base, Harper hit a first-pitch cutter a long way, but foul. Guessing he was about to see a sinker or four-seam next, he squared up and laid one down.
The bunt got past the mound for a single, extending Harper’s on-base streak to 34 games and advancing Turner to third base. Though Luis Arraez grounded into a double play in the next at-bat, Turner was still able to score to make it 2-0 before Luzardo even stepped on the mound.
“Obviously, I’m on a pretty good streak,” Harper said. “I got to keep going and keep rolling. It’s a long ways to go. We’re going to play a lot of really good teams the next couple weeks, and I got to play my brand of baseball.”
By the time Harper left Chase Field on Tuesday night after three more singles, he had raised his season OPS to .901.
“It’s a different animal, Harp’s been, day in and day out,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “I’ve watched him all year long. He does not give away at-bats.”
Harper’s fifth-inning walk — which resulted in a run after consecutive singles from Arraez and Alec Bohm — marked his 98th of the season. On his first day at spring training this year, Harper said he wanted to improve his plate discipline. He even set an ambitious goal for himself of between 140 and 150 walks in 2026.
With only 23 games remaining, he’ll likely fall short of that. But with 98, he’s still leading baseball in the category.
“The fact that he’s walking is just huge for him,” Mattingly said. “In spring training, he talked a lot about the guy behind him, but I always feel like that guy has to protect himself by swinging at strikes.”
The Diamondbacks have the highest batting average (.267) and second-highest OPS (.782) in the majors against left-handed pitching. But Luzardo handled them with his sweeper, recording five of his six strikeouts with it. Corbin Carroll fell victim to it twice, unable to do anything with the pitch as it dove low and away.
“That sweeper is disgusting,” Harper said. “It’s very unhittable, and he does a great job locating it, and not locating it at times, as well, in a good way.”
NL wild-card standings
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Arizona scattered six hits against Luzardo, and their only run came in the fifth inning after he left a fastball over the plate for Jordan Lawlar. The Diamondbacks center fielder powered it over the left field wall, out of reach for a leaping Edmundo Sosa.
Luzardo made two key defensive plays to help his own cause, turning a comebacker from Ildemaro Vargas into a double play in the second inning and catching the lead runner after fielding Tim Tawa’s bunt in the seventh.
“Any way we can get outs. Any way I can help myself out there,” Luzardo said. “I’m always trying to get after the ball, and I kicked myself a couple of times earlier in the year, not turning a double play.”
Of the Phillies’ 13 total hits, only two were for extra bases: Turner’s RBI double in the first inning and Bohm’s double in the ninth. But situational and timely hitting more than made up for the lack of long balls.
Kyle Schwarber, Justin Crawford, and Bryson Stott also drove in runs. The Phillies offense had yet another late surge, putting up three runs in the eighth. Crawford entered the game as a pinch-hitter against righty Gerardo Carrillo and singled on the first pitch he saw to score Stott.
“Kept the line moving all night. Had a lot of chances, put a lot of pressure on,” Mattingly said.
Jonathan Bowlan and Chase Shugart split the job in relief. Bowlan took over with one out in the seventh inning after Luzardo put two runners on. The tall right-hander struck out Geraldo Perdomo looking. Bowlan then came back out for a 1-2-3 eighth.
Jhoan Duran was available after pitching on Monday night, but the Phillies’ late runs gave them enough separation to keep their closer on the shelf. Mattingly brought in Shugart instead for a clean ninth.
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