Bryce Harper snagged a one-hopper on an infield drill, earning a “nice play, Harp!” from manager Rob Thomson. A two-time NL MVP, Harper later chucked a baseball from first base into the left field seats.

“That won’t get it done,” infield coach Bobby Dickerson yelled. “That guy’s going to score.”

Harper and the rest of the NL East champion Phillies will do what they can this week to stay sharp ahead of Game 1 Saturday in the NL Division Series. The Phillies — who will play either Milwaukee or the Mets — made the playoffs for the third straight season, winning the AL East.

While October baseball has a familiar feel in Philly, the five-day layoff is new. The Phillies won NL Wild Card Series with sweeps of St. Louis in 2022 and the Marlins last season before they knocked out Atlanta in the NLDS both years. The Phillies’ 12th division crown earned them the No. 2 seed behind the Dodgers in the National League — and a short respite from the playoff grind.

Just don’t call it a break.

“It’s not a vacation,” second baseman Bryson Stott said following Tuesday’s workout.

The Phillies took batting practice, infield drills and pitchers fielding drills as they tried to keep a routine as close to normal as it gets during the regular season. Led by team captains that include Harper and Trea Turner for one team, and Kyle Schwarber and J.T Realmuto for the other, the Phillies will play an intrasquad game this week.

“We’re going at it high level,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “I think the players, knowing them, they realize that. They know they need to do that.”

Owner blames self for signing Montgomery

Diamondbacks owner Tom Kendrick said he is the person responsible for signing pitcher Jordan Montgomery, who underperformed this season after joining Arizona on a hefty free agent contract.

The defending NL champion Diamondbacks missed the playoffs after finishing the regular season tied with the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves with an 89-73 record. But the Mets and Braves owned tiebreakers over Arizona because they won the season series and earned wild-card spots.

Kendrick told Arizona Sports on Monday that he was the person pushing for the signing of Montgomery, who helped the Texas Rangers beat Arizona in the World Series.

Montgomery went 8-7 with a 6.23 ERA after signing a $25 million, one-year deal.

“If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed,” Kendrick said. “Because I brought it to (the front office’s) attention. I pushed for it. They agreed to it — it wasn’t in our game plan. You know when he was signed — right at the end of spring training. And looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to invest that money in a guy who performed as poorly as he did. It’s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint.”

Average game time lowest since 1984

The average time of a nine-inning major league baseball game dropped to 2 hours, 36 minutes in the second year of the pitch clock, the lowest since 1984.

The average was down 4 minutes from 2023 and 28 minutes from 2022. It had not been this low since 1984’s 2:35. MLB shortened the pitch clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18 ahead of the 2024 season while keeping it at 15 seconds without runners on base.