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SAN DIEGO — Bryce Harper knows hitting and MVPs. Just listen to what he told The Post about Daniel Murphy.
“Having Murph, he is a wizard for us,’’ Harper said at Monday’s All-Star interview session about his Nats teammate. “To watch him every single day, his routine, the mentality that he has in every at-bat. He’s unbelievable. I look forward to what he has in store for us for the second half and if he can do anything that he did in the first half, he’s the MVP in my mind.’’
Murph the MVP.
That’s quite the endorsement and Murphy was touched by Harper’s’ words, telling The Post, “Coming from a guy who put up a season that looked like Ted Williams last year, that’s humbling to say the least and I had to watch him do it 19 times last year [as a Met]. MVP talk means your ballclub is playing well. We’ve put ourselves in a good position.’’
Murphy has put the Nationals in that position by hitting .348 with 17 home runs and destroying his old team. Murphy and Harper are quite the pair talking hitting.
“Both of us talk about each other so we can bounce things off of each other and that is great,’’ Harper said. “Him hitting three, me hitting four or me hitting three and him hitting four, it really doesn’t matter. It’s unbelievable. He just adds so much impact to our whole team, I mean he’s tackling the ball at second base, making plays, it’s a lot of fun.’’
“Bryce is so good,’’ Murphy said, “and I just enjoy talking hitting so much, anytime I find someone to talk to, I kind of cling to him, because some people kind of tell me to beat it. He said something interesting the other day, that I hadn’t thought about, making the shortstop his foul pole. It’s a huge help when you can pick Bryce’s brain.’’
Matt Harvey’s agent, Scott Boras, told The Post that Harvey will have surgery to repair thoracic outlet syndrome “late this week and then have an extended rehab.’’ The surgery will be performed by Dr. Robert Thompson.
“The doctor is very confident that Matt will be certainly back to normal because we are talking about a nerve entrapment, give it some space by removing the rib,’’ Boras said. “The success rate on that has been very good.’’
The fact it is nerve entrapment and not vascular is a big plus for Harvey.
“Normally if it’s vascular you have to treat something else,’’ Boras explained. “Here you just have to get the nerve out of the entrapped muscular area.
“As I said earlier in the year there were a lot of unknowns and part of the unknowns were about release point and arm slot,’’ Boras added. “His velocity was there, but he was inconsistent with his location, and until the entrapment of the nerve got more pronounced only then did we know what was really troubling him.’’
Terry Collins tabbed the Giants Johnny Cueto to start for the NL. Ned Yost chose Chris Sale to start on the mound for the AL.
Many players praised former Padres star and Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn and what he meant to their careers. Sale stopped using chewing tobacco the day Gwynn died in 2014 of salivary gland cancer.
“He made a very big impact on my life,’’ Sale said. “Tony was an inspiration to the game for many, many people.’’
Leave the last word to Bartolo Colon. The Mets ageless right-hander said he believes he is so beloved by fans because “I think they realize I am just out there having fun and enjoying myself and they like to laugh at me when I’m up at-bat and something falls off. I’m always goofing off and they like that. I enjoy life in every way because you never know when is your last day.’’
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