Bryce Harper: "Everybody's gonna expect 40 a year every time I play now"

Throughout the Nationals' 145 games this season, Bryce Harper's lofty batting average has remained a constant. But over the summer months, Harper's homers decreased from six in June to five in July and then only two in August.

Now in September, the 22-year-old slugger is on pace to blow out the artillery show from May, when he bombed 13 homers and drove in 28 runs, winning the National League's Player of the Month.

Through 15 games this month, Harper is slashing .417/.540/1.063 with nine home runs and 15 RBIs. Before tonight's game, Harper was asked what's behind his recent power surge.

"I just think I'm trying to still have good at-bats and still look for the pitch I want to hit," Harper said. "I'm still walking when I can. I'm swinging at that 2-0 pitch now, which I haven't been in a couple weeks. I'm swinging at that 3-1 again now. That's been tough because 2-0, I haven't really got a pitch over the plate to swing at, so I've just been taking it. So this past series, I was getting pitches over the plate to hit."

Harper launched four homers in the Nationals' three-game sweep in Philadelphia. Harper's seventh-inning moonshot in last night's 12-2 win made him the sixth-youngest to player in Major League Baseball history to reach 40 home runs in a season. The other players younger than Harper to accomplish the feat are Mel Ott (1929), Eddie Matthews (1953), Johnny Bench (1970), Joe DiMaggio (1937) and Juan Gonzalez (1992).

"It's just unbelievable," left-hander Gio Gonzalez said after matching his career-high with 12 strikeouts in the win. "It's just fun to watch. I don't think in my career I've ever played with someone that hit 40 home runs. I think that says a lot for a guy that's only 22 years old. He has the world in the palm of his hand. It's fun to see him play. I think the sky's the limit is an understatement. I think he's got more than that."

Harper became just the third player in MLB history with at least 40 homers and 100 walks in a season at age 22 or younger, joining Hall of Famers Matthews (1954) and Ott (1929).

"Everybody's gonna expect 40 a year every time I play now," Harper joked. "Forty homers without a whole lineup I guess all year, that's all the only thing I can say that's something where I'm pretty proud of myself to be able to have the games, have the walks, have the ability to stay in games and really just do the things I can to help this team win.

"For the whole season, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to stay in games and I wanted to do everything I could to really help this team and help this organization win ballgames. And if that was 40 homers, if that was 100 walks, if that's anything I can do in the outfield or any position I can play - that's all I wanted to do. I just wanted to win."

Harper's 40th homer just carried into the right field seats at Citizens Bank Park. When Harper jogged back out for the bottom of the seventh, the Phillies fan who caught the milestone homer had a surprise for him.

"He just threw it to me," Harper said. "The fan threw it down. He had a pen, so I signed one of the balls for him and threw it back up to him, and he threw it to me and I got the ball. So I'm thankful for that, and it's pretty cool to have that kind of ball."

Asked if he was surprised to receive that kind of treatment from the fans in Philadelphia, Harper tipped his cap to the City of Brotherly Love.

"They're great fans here," Harper said. "They know baseball. I think when somebody does something special like that, I think these fans appreciate that. So being able to get that back from him, I was very thankful. They're great fans here. They understand the game. They get the game."