Baker: "This is probably the worst period Bryce has gone through"

Manager Dusty Baker decided to rest slugger Bryce Harper for Wednesday's matinee series finale against the Mets.

Harper went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly RBI in last night's 7-4 win.

In Harper's last 15 games, he has hit .200 (8-for-40) with one homer, 4 RBIs, 24 walks and nine strikeouts.

Baker said Harper was fine with the news he wouldn't start.

"We got mutual respect, he was cool with it," Baker said. "He really showed no emotion with it, which is fine with me."

The Nationals are facing left-hander Stephen Matz today. But that wasn't the reason Baker decided to give Harper the day off.

"Lefties really don't bother any of those guys," Baker said. "It's really a mental day for Bryce. I was telling him don't do nothing, just concentrate and watch the game. (Tommy) Lasorda would do that for me. See who's going good, and who's going bad and why. A lot of times you can figure yourself out.

"If the guy has quick feet, quick hip or he's lunging or if he's sitting back too far. You can tell or if he's quiet. Right now one of the quietest hitters around is (Yoenis) Cespedes. You can't tell if he' swinging or if he's taking. You can straighten yourself out by watching others. By what they're doing or not doing."

Baker said he shared knowledge of what he had seen of slumps during his playing days and how he worked his way out of them. Harper has taken a ton of extra BP the last few days. Baker believes positive results from that extra work don't always show the very next day.

"What I did tell him that I've noticed in my many years as a hitter and as a batting coach and manager, sometimes you work, work and work and then it takes 24 to 48 hours for your body to memorize the correct muscle memory act that you were doing during your (workouts) trying to get back to normal," Baker said.

"Sometimes you take a break than, boom, it gives your mind and body a chance to get together as one and two and to memorize what it's done. Sometimes you can compound things by doing them wrong that they appear right and natural but your just making it worse sometimes."

Baker said one thing that works in Harper's favor is that he has been good before, very good, as in National League MVP good. That helps when fighting a slump.

"As you got older because you have more positive occurrences," Baker said. "I pity the guy that doesn't have any positive occurrences in his career. That's the guy that has to really fight the negative thoughts."

Baker thinks this might be the toughest stretch in Harper's young career at the plate.

"This is probably the worst period that Bryce has gone through," Baker said. "But every time you go through a bad streak it's the worse time of your whole life until the next one comes along. No matter what it is. And you learn from it.

"How many times have you said 'this is the worst thing that ever happened to me, my worst period in my life', and then you get through it? Then the next one is the worst one and the next one after that... One thing for sure this is not going to be the last one (for Bryce)."

Baker said he saw one of the all-time greats scuffle at the plate for periods of time.

"I saw Hank Aaron struggling one year and then he was embarrassed to be on the All-Star team," Baker reflected. "He was really struggling. I think he was hitting .265, .270 at All-Star break. Guess what, at the end of the year he was .325, 44 homers.

"Cream rises to the top. Barring injury, you're going to end up pretty close to where you belong."

Baker said he also gave Ben Revere the day off because they want him to be cautious in his return from the strained right oblique that forced the outfielder to miss 27 games.

"He's still coming off an injury, day after a night," Baker said. "We got to make sure that he's on the way. He'll probably play in all the Cardinals games. We are right in the middle of 16 (games) in a row. Michael (Taylor) needs to play sometime too."