Bryce Harper celebrates birthday with HR, Phillies win in Game 1 of NLCS

PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper always wanted to play a baseball game on his birthday. So he made sure his 31st birthday would be one to celebrate.

Harper crushed a 420-foot home run in the first inning, blew out his “candles” as he crossed home plate, lined an RBI single in the third inning, walked and scored in the fifth inning, received chants of ” MVP! and was serenaded with a few “Happy Birthday!” shouts from local supporters. With Harper leading the way and with the Philadelphia Phillies delivering an early series of home runs, they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 to win Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Monday night.

“After the game I was excited, I was just 1-0. That’s all that matters to me. A good opportunity to hit a home run, it was great, but at the end of the day, If I hit a home run and we do it, “I’m not winning, there’s nothing else,” Harper said, much more subdued after the game than during his home run celebration, when he blew into his fingers at the plate after giving the Phillies a 2-0 lead on Zac Gallen just five pitches from the bottom of the first.

“It’s crazy. Sometimes I just do things. It felt right, going up to the plate and doing that,” Harper said. “I thought about it while I was running around third base.”

Harper spoke before the game about how excited he was to finally play on his birthday. He made the playoffs four times with the Washington Nationals, but they were eliminated each time in the Division Series and never played this late in the schedule. The Phillies were still playing in their World Series last year, but had a day off.

Harper’s big day was just the latest in his hot postseason. The home run, on a four-seam fastball from Gallen’s first pitch that was left in the middle of the zone, was his fourth, and he is hitting .409/.567/.955 with nine runs scored in seven games. His career postseason OPS now ranks third all-time behind Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig among players with at least 150 plate appearances.

The scary thing for the Diamondbacks: Harper might not even be the Phillies’ best hitter. Nick Castellanos gave them a 3-0 lead with a second-inning homer off Gallen, after first-inning blasts from Kyle Schwarber and Harper. It was Castellanos’ fifth home run in three postseason games – tying Reggie Jackson’s mark in the 1977 World Series, when he homered in Game 4, once in Game 5 and three times in deciding game six for the New York Yankees.

“It makes our lineup so deep, especially him in the seven or eight holes, that it just gives him a good opportunity to be successful,” Harper said. “Whenever he stays on the baseball and he throws the ball to right center and he hits the curveball or he hits the heater to left, that’s how Nicky is. He succeeded in so many big moments.”

The Phillies also set a postseason record with 12 homers in three games and are now hitting an impressive .275/.355/.550 with 16 homers in those seven games while averaging 5.1 runs per game.

“I’m surprised. Not surprised,” Castellanos said.

The difference?

“When you look at something incredible like all these home runs we hit, you can appreciate it,” he said. “But I’m not surprised because I know we can do it.”

Castellanos said he was not interested in matching Jackson’s mark.

“I’m interested in winning seven more games,” he said.

After the Phillies jumped all over Gallen, starting pitcher Zack Wheeler took over to lead Philadelphia’s efforts, giving up 15 in a row until Geraldo Perdomo hit him for a two-run homer in the sixth. Wheeler improved to 2-0 in three postseason starts with a 2.37 ERA, 37.7% strikeout rate and just one walk. His mastery of the fastball continues to impress: he threw 17 first-pitch strikes to 21 batters faced and induced 17 swings and misses while recording eight strikeouts.

“It had a good life,” Wheeler said of his fastball. “I threw it wherever I wanted.”

That early lead certainly helped.

“In the playoffs, everything is magnified. That initial momentum was big for us,” he said.

Game 2 is Tuesday night with Merrill Kelly of the Diamondbacks facing Aaron Nola of the Phillies.