It's not opening day until Bryce Harper announces his arrival. Consider his arrival announced... with a bang.
The Washington Nationals superstar continued his own personal tradition, launching the fourth opening-day home run of his relatively short (but already decorated) career on Monday afternoon in Atlanta.
Harper didn't wait around either, connecting against Braves' starter Julio Teheran in his first at-bat of the season. And considering his volatile history with Teheran, this may have been the sweetest of his opening-day homers.
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Seriously, do not challenge Harper when that opening-day adrenaline is flowing. As scary as he is for opposing pitchers under every-day circumstances, he takes things to another level in the opener.
In homering in Monday's opener, Harper also equaled some franchise history that dates back to its days in Montreal.
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Bryce Harper joins Vladimir Guerrero and Gary Carter as only players in team history to homer in consecutive Opening Days
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Expos fans would have loved Harper had history gone differently. As it is, he's winning over Nationals fans and baseball fans in general one gigantic home run at a time.
Harper finished the game 1-for-3 with two walks.
The Nationals went on to win 4-3 in 10 innings thanks to Harper's blast and a big afternoon from Daniel Murphy. Making his debut with Washington, Murphy added a solo home run of his own and delivered the go-ahead run with an RBI double in the 10th inning. He was on the defensive side of the first violation of baseball's updated sliding rules, leading to a key double play for Washington.
On the Braves side, Freddie Freeman and Adonis Garcia both muscled up with solo home runs against Max Scherzer.
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