Cardinals take a bizarre swipe at Bryce Harper during game

The St. Louis Cardinals tried to make Bryce Harper look bad during Monday’s game … but ended up doing virtually the opposite.

St. Louis hosted Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday for the first game of a three-game set. During Harper’s at-bat in the third inning, the Cardinals took a strange swipe at him on their scoreboard at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Mo.

“Bryce has 388 career home runs but has only eclipsed the 40 HR mark once in a single season,” the scoreboard read. You can see the screenshot at the link here.

The Cardinals were correct that Harper has only managed to hit 40 homers once (with 42 in the 2015 season with the Washington Nationals). But instead of coming across as an indictment of Harper, that jab actually painted Harper in a positive light (as he has been consistent enough to produce in every single season instead of just padding his stats with one or two strong years).

St. Louis and Philadelphia clearly do not like each other, especially after a recent playoff head-to-head in the 2022 NL Wild Card round (which the Phillies won 2-0). The two squads even had an incident earlier this season when Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker got jeered by Philadelphia fans after winning the 2026 Home Run Derby.

But that was still a pretty strange topic to prod Harper over during Monday’s game. After all, there is plenty of other material to roast the former NL MVP about these days.