Back in San Diego, Middleton grateful Harper's bad break didn't derail Phillies' season

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SAN DIEGO -- John Middleton doesn't remember the exact expletive that came flying off his tongue back on June 25, but he's certain it was polysyllabic and there might have been more than one.

Thank goodness his dinner guests had already left for the night.

The Phillies managing partner and his wife, Leigh, were hosting a group of sponsors at their home outside of Philadelphia that night. After everyone went home, Middleton retired to his study and turned on the TV to watch his club play a little late-night ball against the Padres in San Diego.

In the top of the fourth inning, Bryce Harper was hit on the left hand by an up-and-in fastball from Padres lefty Blake Snell.

Middleton can still hear the thwack of Snell's 97-mph fastball hitting Harper.

His neighbors can probably still hear that polysyllabic word flying off his tongue.

All these months later, Middleton is in a better mood than he was back on June 25, when Harper walked off the field grimacing in pain, his left thumb shattered.

Harper ended up missing two months. He returned in late August, struggled over the final weeks of the season, but really found his swing last week as the rampaging Phillies sent the 101-win Atlanta Braves home and advanced to the National League Championship Series.

Game 1 will be played Tuesday night against the Padres in San Diego. For Harper, it's the same team and the same place that threw a bad break into his season.

And he's happy as hell to be here.

"I think any time you get hit or break a bone like that, those doubts creep into your mind that you might not come back this year," he said before a workout at Petco Park on Monday.

Watching Harper get hit by Snell on June 25 brought Middleton back 14 months, to when Harper was hit in the face by a 96 mph fastball from lefty Genesis Cabrera in St. Louis. Middleton immediately feared that Snell's pitch had broken something in Harper's hand -- "Just Bryce's reaction and the speed of the pitch made you think that," he said -- but he was relieved that Harper wasn't hit in the face like he had been a year earlier in St. Louis.

"That night," Middleton said. "I thought his career could have been over."

During the June 25 game in San Diego, Dave Dombrowski, the team's president of baseball operations, called Middleton and confirmed the news that Harper's left thumb had been broken. 

The next morning, Middleton and Harper spoke on the phone.

"Bryce actually believed he could play through it," Middleton said. "He believed because it was his left thumb, he could brace it and still swing the bat as the DH. I told him I loved the attitude, but let's see what the doctor says. It ended up being so badly shattered that they had to put pins in there."

As big of a blow as it was to lose Harper, the Phillies survived without him. They went 32-20 during his absence and solidified themselves as wild-card contenders.

"The team reacted great," Harper said. "The way they picked up the slack from me being hurt was incredible. They had a great run when I was gone, and they played great, and that's why we're here with this opportunity right now."

Zack Wheeler, who will start Game 1 against San Diego's Yu Darvish on Tuesday night, agreed.

"It was a big challenge," he said of losing Harper. "He's our guy. He's our big bat in the lineup. But other guys were able to step up, not just one particular guy, but a group of guys. They stepped up, and they did it for a long time. That's kind of what got us here."

Harper helped the Phillies cover the last few miles of their journey to the NLCS.

He had eight hits in his first six games after coming off the injured list August 26, but slumped over the final month, hitting just .196 with a .615 OPS. Harper said his struggles were simple: He was chasing too many pitches out of the strike zone and missing too many in it.

"There's a difference between physically being ready to play and being in competitive shape," Middleton said. "It takes time to get into competitive shape."

The Phillies opened the postseason in St. Louis. Middleton was talking with hitting coach Kevin Long before the series.

"Bryce is not quite there yet," Long told Middleton. "He's almost there. He'll be good in this series. And he'll be really good in the next one if we get there."

Long pretty much nailed it. Harper hit a big home run in the second inning of Game 2 and Aaron Nola pitched a gem as the Phillies beat the Cardinals, 2-0, to advance to the NL Division Series against the Braves. Harper was really good in that series, just as Long predicted he'd be. He hit .500 (8 for 16) with three doubles, two homers and five RBIs.

"Hitting the ball over the plate and doing damage with it and not swinging at the ones out of the zone," Harper said of his success. "Just try and make it as simple as possible and understand that the most important thing is winning."

Harper turned 30 on Sunday. 

"My trainer asked me today if I felt any different, and I told him I don't know if it's from the flight or just from turning 30, but I feel like crap today," he said Monday, half-kidding, the day before he will play for the first time in an NLCS game.

Harper will come face-to-face again with Snell in Game 2. There is no animosity. The two communicated after Harper was hit on June 25.

"It is what it is," he said. "Just two players going at it."

The series also pits Harper against Manny Machado. They were the two stars of the free-agent market heading into 2019. The Phillies were hellbent on getting one of them. They're happy they got Harper, happy he came back from the broken thumb, happy he's helped them get to this point -- they're four (insert polysyllabic expletive here) wins away from the World Series.

As he watched batting practice Monday, Middleton recalled that free-agent winter of 2019.

"I think both players ended up with the right team in the right market," he said. "Both teams wound up with the right player."

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