Harper, 0-for-2024 when the frigid night began, smacked, smashed and smoked three home runs and drove in six runs, the catalyst for Philadelphia’s 9-4 drubbing of the Reds.
Harper drove home runs through a wind-swept rain his first two at bats against Graham Ashcraft, then unloaded a grand slam off Brent Suter, Harper’s seventh career grand slam.
And it was a red-faced night for Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz. He made three errors.
They were career homers numbers 307, 308 and 309 for Harper. The second home run was his 1,000th career run scored.
The wind-chill factor was 33 degrees with gusting winds at 25 miles an hour and the 28,115 fans were dressed like Himalayan sherpas. Harper heated them up.
The Phillies started Spencer Turnbull, a guy who pitched a no-hitter a few years back for the Detroit Tigers, but has fumbled to find his way ever since.
But he was in fine form Tuesday night and held the Reds to one unearned run through five innings. He gave up three hits and had no walks. His seven strikeouts were his most since the night he pitched the no-hitter.
Ashcraft retired the first two Phillies in the first before Harper drove one 420 feet over the center field wall.
The Reds tied it, 1-1, with an unearned run in the third. With one out, Tyler Stephenson grounded to shortstop Trea Turner. He looked at the ball in his hand, then threw a snowball over first baseman Harper’s head.
Stephenson landed on second and scored on Will Benson’s double to right.
Harper struck again on Ashcraft’s first pitch of the fourth. Harper drove it into the right field seats, 365 feet away.
Then Cincinnati’s defense was defenseless, leading to six Phillies runs in the sixth and seventh.
Turner led off the sixth with a single and took second on Ashcraft’s wild pitch, then moved to third on a sensational diving catch by Benson on Harper.
But with two outs, De La Cruz nonchalanted a weak ground ball hit by Bryce Stott. He flipped the ball underhanded, low, wide and ugly. Turner scored on the error to make it 2-1.
De La Cruz muffed one again in the seventh, opening the door as wide as the Delaware River, leading to five Phillies runs.
It began with a single by Brandon Marsh. Johan Rojas hit a double play ground ball to De La Cruz, but he had difficulty extracting the ball from his glove, then threw wild to first base.
Instead of two outs and nobody on, there were two on and no outs. When Ashcraft walked Turner to fill the bases, Suter was brought in to face Harper.
And 428 feet later, Harper had his grand slam, and the Phillies had an 8-1 lead.
While all this was transpiring, the Phillies were forced to go with an unknown commodity on the mound.
It was reported that four members of the Philliies bullpen were unavailable, so the Phillies called up Ricardo Pinto from the minors just before the game.
And this Pinto turned into a horse after being a globe-trotting pitcher. He played in China, Japan and Mexico to keep his MLB hopes burning.
He lit his candle on this night — finishing the game with four innings. Three were solid, no earned runs, but got tired in the ninth and gave up two harmless runs and three hits.
The Reds scored the unearned run on Pinto in the eighth, but the Phillies retrieved it in the bottom of the eighth with another home run — no, not by Harper. This one, off Buck Farmer was hit by Brandon Marsh.
And De La Cruz made his third error.
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