The Main Event

  • August 21, 2023 – Bryce Harper legs out an inside-the-park home run in the fifth inning — aided by a fielding mishap in the Giants’ outfield — as the Phillies beat San Francisco 10-4 behind seven strong innings from Aaron Nola.

On August 21, 2023, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants 10-4 at Citizens Bank Park in a game that had a little bit of everything: a rare inside-the-park home run from franchise cornerstone Bryce Harper, seven strong innings from homegrown ace Aaron Nola, and a three-hit night from Alec Bohm. It was the kind of win that felt routine in the standings with the Phillies improving to 68-57 on their way to a Wild Card berth, but the individual performances from Harper and Nola made it one of the more memorable regular-season nights of that pennant-race summer.

Harper’s inside-the-park homer

The signature moment came in the bottom of the fifth inning. With two strikes against him, Harper drove a sinker from Giants starter Sean Manaea deep to left-center field. The ball caromed off the bottom of the outfield wall in a way that sent it skittering away from Giants outfielder Wade Meckler, who struggled to locate it in the corner. By the time San Francisco tracked the ball down, Harper had rounded the bases without a play at the plate, giving the Phillies a run without so much as a slide. It was ruled his tenth home run of the season and was the second inside-the-park homer of his career; his first had come at Citizens Bank Park two years earlier, on July 27, 2021.

Inside-the-park home runs are among the rarest events in baseball, requiring a mix of raw speed, an outfielder’s misplay, and a bit of fortunate bounce, and Harper’s has stood out ever since as one of the signature highlight-reel moments of his Phillies tenure — as much for the visual of a former MVP legging out a play usually reserved for burners than for its impact on the scoreboard.

Nola matches Harper’s flair with efficiency

While Harper provided the highlight, Nola provided the substance. The right-hander worked seven innings, allowing seven hits and two runs, which in true Nola fashion, both came on solo home runs, while striking out five and walking just one. It was the kind of start the Phillies had been waiting on for much of that summer; Nola’s 2023 season had been an uneven one, with his ERA swinging from sparkling starts (a scoreless outing against the Braves in June, a one-hitter against Detroit) to rough patches (an 8-plus ERA outing against Kansas City earlier that same August).

The start against the Giants was part of a strong stretch to close the month, one that helped stabilize a Phillies rotation grinding through a tight National League Wild Card race. Nola picked up the win to move to 11-8 on the season, and the outing was a reminder of why the Phillies valued him as their rotation anchor heading into the stretch run and the postseason run that followed just weeks later.

A complete team effort

Nola and Harper didn’t do it alone. Third baseman Alec Bohm added a three-hit night, including a third-inning solo home run to center field off Manaea that briefly needed a crew chief review before the call stood. Between Bohm’s bat, a steady Phillies offense that scored in five different innings, and Nola holding the Giants in check, Philadelphia turned what began as a tight game into a comfortable 10-4 win. Manaea, by contrast, took the loss and fell to 4-4 on the season.

Harper’s larger impact on the Phillies

That August night was one small entry in what has become one of the most consequential eras of Phillies baseball in decades, with Harper at its center. Philadelphia signed Harper to a 13-year, $330 million contract in February 2019, the largest deal in North American sports history at the time, betting that his bat and star power could turn around a franchise that had missed the playoffs every year since 2011.

It took time to pay off, but by 2021 Harper had delivered his second career National League MVP award, batting .309 with 35 home runs and a league-leading .615 slugging percentage — numbers that made him just the fourth outfielder in major-league history to reach 100 runs, 100 walks, 40 doubles and 35 home runs in a single season, joining Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds and Stan Musial.

A year after that, in October 2022, Harper delivered the signature swing of the Phillies’ pennant-winning run: a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning of NLCS Game 5 against the Padres that sent Philadelphia to its first World Series since 2009. He was named NLCS MVP after hitting .400 with three doubles, two home runs and five RBIs in that series. Eight All-Star selections and four Silver Slugger awards later, Harper’s tenure in Philadelphia has fundamentally reshaped the franchise’s identity, turning the Phillies from also-rans into perennial October contenders.

Nola’s rise as the Phillies’ homegrown ace

Nola’s path to that mound in August 2023 traces back to 2014, when the Phillies drafted him seventh overall out of LSU. He worked his way up through a rebuilding farm system to become the staff’s most consistent starter, earning his first All-Star selection in 2018 and finishing among the top ten in National League Cy Young voting three times across his career.

The Phillies signed him to a four-year, $45 million extension in 2019 to keep him through his arbitration years, and rather than let him hit the open market after the 2023 season, they re-signed him that November to a seven-year, $172 million deal — a contract with a full no-trade clause that reflected the club’s long-term commitment to the pitcher who had grown up in their own system.

Nola has since climbed the franchise’s all-time strikeout leaderboard, passing Robin Roberts for second place behind only Steve Carlton, cementing his place among the most durable and important starting pitchers in franchise history.

Individually, neither the home run nor the pitching line from that August night rewrites any record books. But taken together, Harper and Nola’s contribution, along with a big night from Bohm, delivered exactly what the team needed. The win against the Giants was the exact formula that would carry the Phillies to back-to-back deep playoff runs and reestablished Philadelphia as one of the National League’s most dangerous teams.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for August 21

  • August 21, 1917 – Chief Bender hurls a one-hit, 6-0 victory over Chicago. The Cubs’ only hit was a second-inning single by Pete Kilduff.
  • August 21, 1949 – The Phils forfeit a game to the Giants after a barrage of debris is thrown from the Shibe Park stands in response to an umpire’s call that Richie Ashburn trapped a line drive. It was the first forfeit in the majors in seven years.
  • August 21, 1972 – Steve Carlton loses to Phil Niekro and the Atlanta Braves 2-1 in 11 innings, snapping a personal streak of 15 wins without a loss.
  • August 21, 1982 – The Phillies trade Sparky Lyle to the White Sox for cash.
  • August 21, 1990 – The Phils score two runs in the eighth inning and nine in the ninth inning to cap a 12-11 comeback win over the Dodgers.
  • August 21, 1991 – Pittsburgh’s Randy Tomlin hits John Kruk with a pitch, the first time in Kruk’s more than 2,600 career plate appearances he didn’t get out of the way.
  • August 21, 2015 – Jerad Eickhoff makes his major league debut on the mound, picking up the win over Miami. He also drives in two runs in the 7-1 victory, making him the first starting pitcher in team history to drive in multiple runs in his first big league game.
  • August 21, 2020 – The Phillies trade Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold to Boston for Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman.
  • August 21, 2021 – Aaron Nola strikes out his older brother Austin on three pitches in a game against San Diego, the first time the brothers face each other in the majors. Austin’s team comes out on top, though, with a 4-3 walk-off win.

ICYMI

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for August 21

  • Ledell Titcomb (born 1866) – A left-handed pitcher who debuted with the Philadelphia Quakers in 1886; his best season came with the pennant-winning 1888 New York Giants, though he also had brief stints with the American Association’s Athletics and the Rochester Broncos.
  • Wes Schulmerich (born 1901) – An outfielder who spent two seasons (1933-34) with the Phillies as part of a seven-year big-league career spent mostly with the Boston Braves; he was known as a fast, sure-handed fielder with a strong arm.
  • Murry Dickson (born 1916) – A well-traveled right-hander who pitched for the Phillies from 1954-1956, leading the National League with 20 losses in 1954 despite a respectable 3.78 ERA.
  • Hilly Flitcraft (born 1923) – A left-handed pitcher whose entire big-league career consisted of three games for the Phillies in 1942; he retired at 19 to run the family dairy farm during World War II.
  • Craig Robinson (born 1948) – A shortstop who broke into the majors with the Phillies in 1972 after the club drafted him in 1970, playing two seasons in Philadelphia before being traded to Atlanta.
  • John Stearns (born 1951) – A catcher drafted and briefly fielded by the Phillies (one game, 1974) before being traded to the Mets, where he became a four-time All-Star known for his hard-nosed style of play.
  • Ken Jackson (born 1963) – A shortstop whose entire MLB career was eight games for the Phillies in September 1987, batting .250 with two doubles.
  • Lou Collier (born 1973) – A utility infielder/outfielder who closed out his MLB career with the Phillies in 2004 after earlier stints with the Pirates, Brewers, Expos and Red Sox.
  • Alan Rangel (born 1997) – A Mexican right-handed reliever who made his Phillies and MLB debut in June 2025 and earned his first career save with five shutout innings against Atlanta later that month.

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