Blast off: Bryce Harper bashes his first homer since breaking his thumb to spark Phillies’ win over Nationals

A lot can happen in 91 days.

It’s enough time to, say, break your thumb, have surgery, heal up, and hit blazing fastballs again. But when you’re Bryce Harper and you go 91 days without bashing a major-league home run, well, time can feel like it’s standing still.

So, after continuing a years-long torment of high school classmate Erick Fedde by taking him deep in the third inning Saturday night, Harper stomped on home plate to punctuate the first of four Phillies homers in an 8-5 thumping of the Washington Nationals.

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Nick Maton, Brandon Marsh, and Kyle Schwarber also left the yard. Edmundo Sosa provided yet another spark. And Connor Brogdon struck out Nelson Cruz with the bases loaded in the ninth as the Phillies won for the 12th time in 14 games over the worst-in-baseball Nationals.

But it was Harper’s first homer since June 9 that held as the most important swing of the night — and livened a crowd of 37,185 at Citizens Bank Park.

“Yeah, Harp can do that,” interim manager Rob Thomson said. “He can get a crowd going with just one swing.”

It came in Harper’s 13th game back from the broken thumb, after a night off Friday that was preceded by 10 strikeouts in 15 at-bats. It also broke a homerless spell that lasted 102 plate appearances, tied for the longest of Harper’s career, and marked only his fourth extra-base hit since coming back.

But Harper warned this may take time. Even after a smashing two-game triple-A assignment, in which he went 5-for-8 with two homers, he conceded that he didn’t see many breaking pitches in the minors.

“It was more just fastball-changeup,” he said. “I‘ve got to get used to the curveball, get used to the slider again, stay within my zone, and not miss pitches.”

Leave it to Fedde to awaken the monster in Harper. They attended Las Vegas High School and played together before Harper went to junior college. They have faced each other often over the last few years, and Harper is 10-for-19 with six homers against Fedde.

Fedde walked Harper in the first inning and probably should have done it again after falling into a 3-1 count in the third. Instead, the right-hander threw a changeup, and Harper teed off, sending a two-run shot into the left-field seats to tie it at 2.

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Surely it was a good sight to see Harper circle the bases again.

“That’s like the least of my worries, the least of everyone’s worries,” Schwarber said. “When he just steps in the box, there’s a presence there that pitchers feel. It’s an intimidating presence, and rightfully so, that he can do damage. That’s the beauty of him.

”It’s all going to come. It’s a matter of days now. It could have already happened tonight. You never know.”

Maton and Marsh also hit opposite-field homers before Schwarber capped the Phillies’ scoring with his first homer since Aug. 29, a span of 44 plate appearances. He still leads the National League with 37 homers.

But it’s Harper who takes the Phillies’ offense to a different level.

“It took a little while, but I know he’s there for all of us,” lefty Ranger Suárez said. “He always has our back. You know he’s a guy that’s going to do stuff like that.”

The major difference between these Phillies and the teams that fell short of the playoffs in recent Septembers past: depth.

And no player embodies the improved depth more than Sosa.

Sosa isn’t an everyday player. But in his last five starts, the infielder is 10-for-18 with seven runs, seven extra-base hits, and six RBIs. He didn’t have a hit Saturday night, but the Phillies grabbed the lead on his speed and energy.

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With one out in the fourth inning, Sosa slid headfirst into first base to negate a double play and enable the go-ahead run to score. He was ruled out on the field, but the call got overturned. One batter later, he scored from first on Marsh’s double off the right-field wall, the first of three hits for the long-haired center fielder.

The Phillies acquired Sosa from St. Louis in a July 30 trade for lefty reliever JoJo Romero. In 23 games, Sosa is 17-for-49 (.347) and has played his as-advertised solid defense at third base and shortstop.

After running out of steam in the fourth inning of his previous two starts, Suárez came one out from completing the seventh for the first time since Aug. 17.

Suárez yielded a two-run home run to Joey Meneses but little else before the Nationals scored twice in the seventh inning. He also threw 103 pitches, his highest total in a start since June 29.

“The last time I threw 100-plus pitches was when I hurt my back,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “Going into the seventh inning, I felt pretty good, very strong, so I have no complaints.”

The Phillies have discussed the possibility of shortening Suárez’s remaining starts. But Suárez looked strong in pushing his innings total to 134⅓, just shy of his career-high total (139⅓) from 2018.

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Candidly, Thomson said he didn’t figure to write a lineup card with Bryson Stott in the cleanup spot. At least not this season. But Stott also was batting .304/.352/.453 since the All-Star break.

“I’m pretty comfortable with him anywhere in the lineup because I don’t think he’s going to change his swing,” Thomson said. “He’s going to be the same guy, no matter where he’s hitting.”

Stott was the first rookie shortstop to bat cleanup for the Phillies since Leo Norris on May 11, 1936.