An old feud boiled over when Bryce Harper incited a brawl with reliever Hunter Strickland, resulting in bodies all over the field in the Nationals-Giants game.
SAN FRANCISCO — Bryce Harper and Hunter Strickland, antagonists in the 2014 playoffs, were at the center of an ugly brawl in the eighth inning of the Washington Nationals-San Francisco Giants game Monday.
After getting the first two outs of the eighth with the Giants trailing 2-0, Strickland hit Harper with a first-pitch 98-mph fastball in the thigh and the 2015 NL MVP immediately barked at the 6-4,220-pound reliever, pointing at him with his bat. When Strickland didn’ t back down, Harper flung his helmet at him – missing badly – and charged at him.
Both players exchanged blows near the mound for a few seconds before Strickland was knocked to the ground by an onrushing wave of players and coaches from both sides, amid much pushing and shoving.
It took teammates Mac Williamson, Hunter Pence and George Kontos to drag the agitated Strickland off the field. Harper remained standing and was ushered to the dugout by teammate Ryan Zimmerman.
The history between them traces back to the NL Division Series in 2014, in which then-rookie Strickland served up home runs to Harper and Asdrubal Cabrera in the seventh inning of Game 1, then later said he would throw them fastballs again.
In Game 4, Harper again took Strickland deep and took his time rounding the bases while yelling at Strickland. Those were the lone plate appearances for Harper against Strickland until Monday’s melee.
A couple weeks after the Harper-Strickland staredown in the 2014 playoffs, Strickland incited a World Series incident after giving up a Game 2 home run against the Kansas City Royals. He seemed to gesture to Salvador Perez after Perez crossed the plate on Omar Infante’s home run, drawing the perplexed Royals out of their dugout.
Harper seems to be on an MVP mission again this year, coming into the game with a .337 batting average, 15 home runs and 41 RBI for the NL East-leading Nationals. His season may get briefly interrupted, though, since suspensions are likely to follow his latest encounter with Strickland.
The onrush of humanity included a rather nasty — and apparently inadvertent collision between Giants teammates Jeff Samardzija and Michael Morse — the former a 6-5,225-pound former football player and the latter a 6-5,245-pound slugger. Morse is also a former Nationals teammate of Harper’s.
