Since his debut in late April of last year, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper has certainly garnered quite a bit of attention, both for his performance on the field and his all-out style of play.
On Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves, he got some attention he didn’t ask for.
Harper clubbed a solo home run to center field off Braves starter Julio Teheran in the bottom of the third inning, breaking a scoreless tie at the time.
During his next at-bat in the bottom of the fifth, Harper was drilled in the right thigh on a pitch from Teheran.
Harper jawed at Teheran and the benches and bullpens from both sides sprinted onto the field. However, order was quickly restored, no punches were thrown and the game resumed in quickly thereafter.
While the action on the field turned out to be nothing more than a gentlemanly quarrel, the official team Twitter accounts decided to do battle on their own.
The Atlanta Braves struck first.
Okay, the person handling the Braves Twitter account apparently thought it was funny to throw a Harper quote back in the face of the Nationals.
But in this case, it was the Braves who were clowned.
While the battle—or lack thereof—on the field could be classified as a stalemate, the Nationals were the knockout winners on Twitter.
Unfortunately, it was the only battle the Nationals would win. Harper ended up registering the last out of the night, striking out on a 99 MPH fastball from closer Craig Kimbrel as Washington lost the game, 2-1. The Nationals dropped their second straight to the Braves and have now lost nine of 12 games to their NL East rivals on the season.
But hey, they completely whipped the Braves in the world of social media.
Doug Mead is a featured columnist with Bleacher Report. His work has been featured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, SF Gate, CBS Sports, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle.
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