Week 4 EGI: Harper’s Debut Dazzles

Bryce Harper has landed in the big leagues in a very big way. In his first big league game, the Nationals and Dodgers played a 10 inning game that tops the leaderboard.

* denotes extra innings

The Nationals own the top of the list. In the April 28th game, it was a true pitchers duel between Stephen Strasburg and Chad Billingsley until the 7th when Adam LaRoche homered. The lead wasn’t safe for very long, as A.J. Ellis scored Jerry Hairston on a double in the bottom of the inning. The Nationals took the lead in the 9th on a Harper sac fly and then tacked on another on a Wilson Ramos single. Henry Rodriguez couldn’t close it out for the Nationals, however, as he allowed 2 runs to tie the game. The Dodgers actually had a great chance to win, with the tying run on 3rd, and the winning run on 2nd with only 1 out. However, after James Loney was thrown out the plate, it looked like Rodriguez would close it out. But a wild pitch scored Adam Kennedy. This inning saw the Dodgers win expectancy go from 16%, to 70%, to 18%, to 62%, until finally settling at 50% as the game carried into extra innings. Matt Kemp activating beast mode in the bottom of the 10th by hitting a solo walk off homerun was just the cherry on top.

The two Nationals games took over the top spots for the year, with the Diamondbacks at Nationals on May 2nd taking the top spot for 9 inning games.

With a strong week, the Nationals are now easily the most exciting team.

The Angels and a struggling Albert Pujols are the least exciting, at 29.32.