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Bryce Harper loses an out on rarely-enforced rule

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Apr 1, 2026 3:16 PM ET

Bryce Harper was left frustrated on Wednesday when he had an out taken away from him thanks to a rule that rarely comes up in Major League Baseball.

Harper thought he had the third out of the inning when he tagged Washington’s Jacob Young out at first during Wednesday’s game between the Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa. However, Young was ruled safe when first base umpire Ryan Blakney ruled that Harper pushed Young’s hand off the bag to make the tag.

Umpire rules that Bryce Harper pushed the runner's arm off the base. Instead of it being three outs, the game is tied pic.twitter.com/C957yxo59J
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 1, 2026

Had Young been ruled out, the inning would have been over. Instead, a run scored and the Nationals tied the game at 1.

The call appeared to be the correct one. Young narrowly got back in and Harper, intentionally or not, nudged his hand off the base to tag him out. The rule rarely comes into play, but it did here.

It has been a rough start to the season for both Harper and the Phillies. He entered Wednesday’s game in a 2-for-20 stretch to start the season. Needless to say, that was not how he hoped to start the campaign after taking offense to the Phillies suggesting that his performance last season was not to the elite standards that are expected of him.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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