Bryce Harper homer, Aaron Nola two-hitter lead Phillies to 2-0 win over Cardinals

Late in the game Sunday, with Aaron Nola cruising to the first nine-inning shutout of his 143-start major league career, J.T. Realmuto sidled up to Bryce Harper in the Phillies’ dugout to reinforce an important lesson from this weekend, one that might even keep Harper at peak performance as he gets older.

Sometimes, the Phillies catcher said, taking a day off isn’t so bad.

Harper woke up Saturday with a stiff back. He agreed to sit out a game, a concession that is typically rougher on him than a root canal. But he felt better Sunday, returned to the lineup, and cracked three hits, including a tone-setting solo home run in the first inning, to back Nola’s sparkling gem in a 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before an announced crowd of 10,876 at Citizens Bank Park.

“If it’s a day here and there that he needs to take off and get that back back in shape, especially if he’s going to show up the next day and get three hits and hit a homer, so be it,” Realmuto said. “That’s what’s best for the team, keeping him on the field in the long run. He knows that. We actually had that conversation in the dugout.”

In winning the three-game series against the Cardinals and climbing back above the .500 mark, the Phillies (8-7) reaffirmed what has been evident for a few years: When the best players on their top-heavy roster are at their best, they usually win.

And Harper and Nola were the best players on the field.

Nola bounced back from consecutive rocky starts against the New York Mets by holding the Cardinals to two hits -- leadoff singles by Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong in the second and eighth innings, respectively. In between, he dominated, racking up 10 strikeouts without issuing a walk, not allowing a runner to reach second base, and getting doused with an energy drink in the dugout.

» READ MORE: Phillies farmhands Jeff Singer and Zach Warren eagerly await the return of minor-league baseball | Bob Brookover

“It was a cool day, man,” Nola said. “I want to say that’s the first Gatorade shower I ever had. But it was a fun day. It was a great win, great series win. I think that’s the most important thing we take out of it.”

Second-most. Harper awoke Saturday with a stiff back, the result, he believes, of sliding hard into second base on one of his signature hustle doubles in the second inning Friday night.

The discomfort was in a slightly different spot, Harper said, from the pain that hampered him last year. But after doing physical therapy in the offseason and even changing his throwing motion to ease the stress on his back, he was alarmed by the flareup.

Here’s the thing about back problems, as Phillies manager Joe Girardi can attest: They don’t usually disappear. They come and go. They require treatment and -- as much as Harper detests it after starting 226 of 237 games since signing his $330 million contract with the Phillies -- even occasional rest.

“I can tell you from experience. I worked and worked and worked, and every once in a while, you kind of feel a little cranky,” Girardi said. “But I was able to play whole seasons, and every once in a while I would just need a day. I don’t think he’s any different than the regular population.”

If Harper didn’t already know that, he seems to understand now. It helps, too, that a day of rest helped produce a day like Sunday.

Harper took healthy cuts at four of the first five pitches he saw from Cardinals starter John Gant, fouling off each of them. And after smoking three balls at 109, 103.1, and 108 mph Friday night and getting only the double to show for it, he blasted the seventh pitch from Gant 111.8 mph into the second deck in right field to open a 1-0 lead.

“I felt probably 70 or 80% better today,” Harper said. “If I can get that feeling after a day like [Saturday], I’d take that at any point.”

Harper walked in the third inning, doubled in the fifth, and singled in the seventh. The double was part of a rally that produced the Phillies’ other run. It followed a Rhys Hoskins walk, and after the Cardinals walked Realmuto intentionally to load the bases, Alec Bohm lifted a sacrifice fly that made it 2-0.

» READ MORE: Gabe Kapler returns to Philadelphia next week, with lessons from his Phillies years in tow | Scott Lauber

Nola did the rest. And while the Phillies celebrated a start that affirmed Nola’s credentials as an ace, Harper might have discovered the secret to managing his back issues.

“You’re definitely cautious thinking about, ‘Oh man, not again,’” Harper said. “But I was sitting on the bench later in the game and I was thankful that I took the day off, thankful for my training staff pulling me out and going, ‘Hey, we need you more for the long haul. We don’t need you for today.’ Just going to be a little more cautious in what I do and listen to the people around me as well.”