It didn’t take long for Bryce Harper to hit his stride in his first action in Triple-A.

After a rough spring with the Washington Nationals in which he struck out 11 times in 28 at-bats, Harper saw immediate results in his first game with the Syracuse Chiefs. He tormented Rochester Red Wings starting pitcher P.J. Walters, opening the season with two hits in his first two trips to the plate.

‘I think the best thing was me getting sent down to Triple-A and really getting on that grind every day, working in the cage and getting my routine back,’ Harper said. ‘I think that’s the big thing me and (hitting coach) Troy Gingrich have been working on and he does a lot of things well for us, works with every single guy on our club and he’s a really big help for all of us.’

Through six innings, Syracuse’s only two hits against Rochester pitching belonged to Harper. The Chiefs fell behind by seven runs in the top of the seventh inning and were unable to make a comeback, falling 7-4 to Rochester in front of a generous 6,178 fans on opening day at Alliance Bank Stadium on Thursday. Harper finished 2-for-4 at the plate with a double, single and strikeout in his debut with Syracuse.

The 19-year-old, batting fifth, showed immediate maturity at the plate during his first at-bat battling from behind 0-2 in the count before knocking the seventh pitch of the plate appearance down the right field line for a double and his first hit at the Triple-A level.

Harper added a one-out single and a stolen base in the fourth inning, but the next two Chiefs batters were sent down in order.

‘I’m sure he was nervous like everyone else in his first experience in Triple-A and I thought his first ‘AB’ he battled, they pitched him tough, they pitched him inside,’ Chiefs manager Tony Beasley said. ‘He did a nice job staying in there and competing and got his first double and then his next AB he got a base hit as well.

‘I’m happy with how he handled himself today.’

The Chiefs struggled to plate Harper when he got on base, enabling the Red Wings to jump out to a two-run lead by the sixth inning.

Harper finally got his turn to try and push through a run with a baserunner on first base in that same inning. But Red Wings manager Gene Glynn immediately signaled to the bullpen to bring in left-handed pitcher Tyler Robertson to face Harper. Robertson fooled Harper with an off-speed pitch during that at-bat with the count at 1-2, and Harper struck out swinging.

The Chiefs stranded five runners on base through six innings.

‘I think he had two hits and he had runners on and I don’t think they wanted him to face a righty again,’ Beasley said.’He’s going to be up against that, it’s baseball.’

With Syracuse’s offense sputtering, the Red Wings jumped out to a seven-run lead in the seventh making the most of three early errors.

The Chiefs dug out of the rut in the seventh, behind Seth Bynum’s two-run single to left field that was aided by an error from Rochester outfielder Rene Tosoni. Syracuse sliced two more runs off that deficit to make it a 7-4 lead.

Harper came up to the plate with two outs and a runner on second, but he had wasted all his magic in the first half of the game. He hit a sharp ground ball to second base that was smothered by Red Wings second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka to end the rally.

Harper ended the afternoon with the only multi-hit game for the Chiefs, putting together a solid performance in his first action of the season. And he knows that this is the beginning of the trip to getting the major leagues.

And Harper lived up to the billing on Thursday.

‘It’s a blessing being out there every single day,’ Harper said. ‘I love being out there and it’s a blessing to be in Triple-A and to be out there with the guys I’m with. I just try to live for today and just play for today and not worry about two weeks or a week or tomorrow.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on April 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm