Next up for Harper: homer No. 100

There surely will be far greater milestones for Bryce Harper to achieve before his career is complete, but the reigning National League MVP has a chance tonight to reach a significant number along the way faster than almost anyone else in baseball history.

Harper's next home run will be the 100th of his career, no small achievement for a player with his limited experience.

In fact, if Harper manages to homer at any point in the next eight days, he'll become the eighth youngest player in history to reach the century mark. He'll take the field today 23 years and 176 days old. Here are the seven players who got to 100 homers at an earlier age:

Mel Ott: 22 years, 132 days
Tony Conigliaro: 22 years, 197 days
Eddie Mathews: 22 years, 292 days
Alex Rodriguez: 23 years, 16 days
Andruw Jones: 23 years, 62 days
Miguel Cabrera: 23 years, 127 days
Johnny Bench: 23 years, 161 days

Consider this, though: Harper missed considerable time due to injuries in both 2013 and 2014. So today he's playing in only his 514th career game. Basically, he has homered once in every five games in his major league career.

Of the seven players ahead of him on the above list, only Mathews (397), Conigliaro (469) and Rodriguez (470) reached the 100-homer mark before career game No. 514.

Yeah, that's pretty exclusive company.

Harper, of course, hasn't hit No. 100 just yet. He launched No. 98 on opening day in Atlanta, then got No. 99 during the Nationals' home opener on Thursday. He briefly thought he did it in the ninth inning off Marlins closer A.J. Ramos, but the ball died in the cold air and was caught at the warning track in center field.

So what are the odds Harper does it today? Well, he'll be facing Marlins right-hander Tom Koehler, against whom he has had just a bit of prior success.

How much success? In his career against Koehler, Harper is 7-for-24 with five homers. Four of those homers came in 11 head-to-head at-bats last season, including three on May 6 at Nationals Park.