Bryce Harper's Attempt At Hurdling Willians Astudillo Could Have Gone Better

A frequent, but debatable, criticism of Bryce Harper’s game over the years has been his occasional lack of effort. So naturally, when the opportunity arose for the new Phillies signing to show some gusto with his base running, things went pretty awry.

Philadelphia’s Cesar Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly to center field that Twins outfielder Byron Buxton caught pretty easily. Just as Harper was tagging up to score from third, Buxton threw a laser to home plate which seemed to beat the runner by a decent margin. In an attempt to impress the Philly faithful, Harper tried to hurdle the girthy Willians Astudillo at home. But Harper’s hops weren’t quite up to snuff with Astudillo’s reach and the catcher was able to tag him out before he reached home plate.

It’s not likely that any of Harper’s Philadelphia teammates want to choke him out at this point in the season, but if they had chosen to do so at the time, Harper can at least take solace in the fact that it wasn’t because he didn’t try hard enough.