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Wednesday night during the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies game, reliever Hoby Milner got one of the easiest outs of his career.
Surprisingly, it came against one of the best players of his generation, 7-time All-Star and 2022 National League Championship Series MVP Bryce Harper.
Usually, when Harper steps into the batter’s box it strikes fear in his opponent. Wednesday night, in the bottom of the sixth inning, it just produced confusion.
For five straight pitches during is at-bat, Harper appeared to have absolutely no intention of swinging. As soon as Milner threw each pitch, Harper dropped his shoulders and made no effort whatsoever.
It was only on the sixth pitch that Bryce Harper actually appeared like he might swing, but he still didn’t and was called out on strikes.
ok bryce wtf pic.twitter.com/ZMIVjsWVGx
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 20, 2023
After the game, many fans, the media, and even his opponents were wondering what exactly was going on with Harper during that at-bat.
i have so many questions
— Cesar (@0HTANISZN) July 20, 2023
Multiple fans tweeted the obvious joke, “Controller died.”
It actually looks like he's taking until 2 strikes as he actually is preparing to swing on the last pitch... the only problem is he also took that one too because he either got fooled or whatever else.
— CodeyWanKenobi (@CodeyWanKenobi) July 20, 2023
Earlier in the day it was reported that Harper ran a fever of 101 degrees Tuesday night and lost his voice on Wednesday, leading some to wonder if that was why he was so lethargic during his at-bat.
That theory, however, went by the wayside when, in the 9th inning, Harper stroked a single off Brewers reliever Devin Williams and swung at all three pitches he saw.
After the game, Hoby Milner was asked if he had ever seen an at-bat like that before in the big leagues.
“Not for that many pitches, no,” Milner told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “For a couple pitches, yeah. I was like, ‘Oh, okay, maybe this is going to be the pitch that he decides to ambush.’ It just never came.”
Milner added, “After the first couple of pitches, it was apparent he was taking. I guess the scouting report he was going with was I was going to throw four balls before three strikes approach. That’s really all I can say. That’s what it looked like. So I just filled it up after that. I just tried to throw fastballs down the middle after that.”
Brewers catcher William Contreras was also stumped by the at-bat.
“I was definitely a little confused,” Contreras said. “I think there might have been something with his elbow. Coming off Tommy John, he knows he’s going to have some hard swings against someone like Milner but whatever it was, we know he’s a good hitter, so being able to get a free out like that, we’ll take it.”
“I guess the scouting report he was going with was that I was going to throw four balls before three strikes,” Milner said. “That’s really all I can say. That’s what it looked like.”