Bryce Harper to Mets: "I hope they win it all and good luck to them"

Moments after Bryce Harper smacked a walk-off double scoring Anthony Rendon for a 2-1 win in the 12th inning, the young slugger found himself swarmed by his teammates with his jersey being ripped off. An icy Gatorade bath along with some chocolate syrup followed.

By the time Harper made his way to the Nationals clubhouse, he stood in front of his locker while veteran Ian Desmond's two young boys played a few feet away. Despite the Mets clinching the National League East and eliminating the Nats from the playoffs, nothing changed about Harper's desire to win with the game on the line late.

"That's what we need to do," Harper said. "We come in every single day and play hard and that's what we did tonight. It's funny. Before the game, Desi said we needed to win this one because it's his kids' last day in the clubhouse and I wanted to make sure that happened. It's a lot of fun to have them come in here. We needed that win tonight."

The NL MVP front-runner claimed he didn't even know that the Mets had clinched until a reporter informed him while asking for his reaction after the win. When Harper expounded on losing the division, he was very complimentary of the Mets, while also pointing out the key pieces New York general manager Sandy Alderson added at the trade deadline.

"They played great all year long," Harper said of the Mets. "Their guys have been throwing great. That's (Jacob) deGrom. That's (Matt) Harvey. That's (Noah) Syndergaard. They're doing it. I mean, (Jonathan) Niese is doing it this year and Bartolo (Colon's) doing it, too.

"I think that's just the way it was this year. The Mets had everything going for them. They did a lot of things. That deadline came around and they got (Yoenis) Cespedes, (Tyler) Clippard and they built their team. They did a great job this year and they're doing it. Coming from the East, I hope they win it all and good luck to them."

For Harper, the potential of winning his first MVP award exists. He has eight games remaining to build on his league-leading 41 homers and attempt to win the NL batting title. After going 3-for-5 yesterday, Harper's average rose to .339, seven points ahead of Miami's Dee Gordon.

"You play to win," Harper said. "You come in every single day to win a ballgame and that doesn't matter if you're down 15 games or up one or up 10 or whatever. You try to come in and win ballgames. That's what I want to do. I want to win games and I think this team, it's the same thing with them and throughout our whole organization. Every single team goes in to win ballgames and that's what we want to do, day in and day out."