Up above, Bryce Harper moments after his slow trot to first on his rally-killing ground out in the eighth inning last night against the Mets. Video here.
And now it seems tha Harper, who earlier in the season was questioned for playing "too hard" after running face-first into that wall in LA (Charlie Hustle himself said Harper played "too recklessly") is having his hustle called into question by his team after loafing to first?
"The thing about Bryce right now that's tough: He gets frustrated. I don't think he does it intentionally, but he's gonna have to start picking it up a little bit, because we've got everybody else doing it. He gets frustrated at times and it just comes out of him. It's something we've got to fix."
(Randy Knorr, via CSNWashington.com, 8/30/2013)"I know that when he got 3-0 and he let it go, I know that takes a lot of guts in that situation, lefty-lefty. Those same guts are going to be what makes us give this final push in this last month. As far as the baserunning goes, it takes guts also to run out the ones that you think are going to be outs. He does it 95, 99, almost 100 percent of the time, and I think this one might've just got pointed out because the guy made a bobble or whatever."
(Ian Desmond, via Nationals.com, 8/30/2013)"I guess I'll learn from it." (Bryce Harper, via MASNSports.com, 8/30/2013)
While it didn't cost them the game, there's a bigger problem with Knorr giving Harper the green light on 3-0 with Werth on deck than Harper not running one out.
Much ado about nothing.
(Screencap via MLB.com/SNY video)