Bryce Harper celebrates birthday with home run in Philadelphia Phillies’ NLCS Game 1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks
By Matias Grez, CNN
(CNN) — Bryce Harper gave himself the perfect birthday present as he hit a home run in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 5-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
The Phillies right fielder celebrated his homer and 31st birthday by holding up three fingers on one hand and one on the other, before pretending to blow them out like candles as he reached the plate.
Several fans in the stands held up homemade signs wishing Harper, who had never previously played on his big day, a happy birthday.
“After the game, I was pumped,” Harper told reporters, per ESPN. “Just being 1-0, that’s all I care about. Good opportunity to hit a home run, that was great, but at the end of the day, if I hit a homer and we don’t win, there’s nothing else.
“It’s crazy. Sometimes, I just do stuff. That felt right, step on home plate and do that,” Harper added of his celebration. “I thought about it as I was running around third base.”
Harper’s home run was his fourth of this postseason and he’s joined on a hot streak by teammate Nick Castellanos, who now has five home runs in his last three postseason games, becoming only the second player in MLB history to achieve that feat after Reggie Jackson in the 1977 World Series.
The Phillies are now the first team in MLB history to hit 12 home runs in three postseason games, according to ESPN.
“It makes our lineup so deep, especially him [Castellanos] in the seven-hole or eight-hole, it just gives him a good opportunity to have success,” Harper said.
“Whenever he’s staying on the baseball and driving the ball to right-center and hitting the curveball or hitting the heater to left, that’s how Nicky is. He’s come through in so many big spots.”
The teams will return to Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park for Game 2 on Thursday.
Elsewhere, in the American League Championship Series, the Texas Rangers took a 2-0 series lead over the defending champion Houston Astros with a 5-4 win.
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