Bryce Harper shatters NL All-Star voting record

Bryce Harper leads the National League team into the All-Star game on July 14 in Cincinnati. The 22-year-old received an NL-record 13,864,950 votes, nearly four million votes more than the Giants' Buster Posey, the next highest vote-getter. This will be Harper's second start and third overall All-Star appearance in his first four seasons.

After a solid first month of the season, Harper exploded in May. He was recognized as the NL's Player of the Month after hitting .360 with 13 homers and 28 RBIs.

The signature moment of the young slugger's season thus far was a three-game assault from May 6-May 9 that saw Harper have a three-home run game, followed by a two-homer game, culminated with a walk-off blast in last of the trio. He was 8-for-12 (.667) with six homers and 12 RBIs over the binge.

"That's the way I need to play," Harper said in May. "Plain and simple. That's why the Nationals drafted me, that's the way I need to play. That's the way I need to be. I need to stay in the lineup and keep having fun."

Harper isn't far off a Triple Crown pace. His .344 season batting average is only five points behind Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt. Harper's 25 home runs trail Miami's Giancarlo Stanton by two, and his 60 RBIs are just eight back of Colorado's Nolan Arenado.

Stanton and Cardinals' 12-year veteran Matt Holliday were voted as the other outfield starters, though Stanton is currently on the 15-day disabled list.

Harper has already surpassed the best single season mark for home runs and RBIs in his career this year. But his discipline at the plate has almost impressed more than his gaudy power stats. Harper is batting 72 points higher than his career average, and his 60 walks are second most in the NL.

"For me, the differences I see this year as opposed to last year, he's patient, he's calm," said Nationals manager Matt Williams about Harper. "The numbers are really good, of course. We've all seen that. He's taken the steps that he wants to take to become the player that he wants to be eventually.

"I think he's taken big steps. We saw it last year in the postseason. He's continued that through the first half of this year and we're proud of him. He's zoned into the strike zone and done well for us hitting in the middle of our lineup. He's been our leader."

Yesterday, Harper became just the seventh player in major league history, age 22 or younger, to hit 25 home runs in the season's first 81 games. He joined four Hall of Fame players Harmon Killebrew, Eddie Mathews, Joe DiMaggio, and Mel Ott on that esteemed list.

The only two other players in major league history to have hit .340 or better with at least 25 home runs, 60 RBI and 60 walks through July 4th are Hall of Famers Frank Thomas (1994 and 2000) and Babe Ruth (1921, 1926-27, 1930).

Harper is the first three-time All-Star in Nationals history.