Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott deliver two hits apiece, Zack Wheeler dazzles in Phillies’ 5-2 win over Pirates

It’s got to be the hair.

More precisely, the lack of hair.

When the Phillies came home at the beginning of the week, Bryce Harper shaved his flowing locks. He opted for a Nick Sirianni-style buzz cut, adhering to the superstition that a changed look might bring about a change in luck.

Sure enough, when Harper drove a pitch to left field for an RBI double in the fourth inning of Saturday’s 5-2 Phillies victory over the Pirates, it was the 12th time that he reached base in 20 post-shearing plate appearances.

» READ MORE: Nobody sees fewer pitches in the strike zone than Bryce Harper. Can he do more with less?

“It’s like the flip of a switch with him,” said Bryson Stott, who drove in three runs with a homer and two-run single. “It’s just one ball off the end of the bat or a swinging bunt or something that gets him locked in, and then he starts hitting the barrel every time, it feels like. He’s looked good this week, for sure.”

So, yeah, it’s got to be the hair.

It could also be the Pirates, losers of 15 of 19 games, a stretch so miserable that they fired manager Derek Shelton 10 days ago. They blew a late two-run lead in the opener Friday night and were overmatched by Zack Wheeler for six scoreless innings in the Phillies’ series-clinching win Saturday.

At least they’re sending Paul Skenes to the mound Sunday.

But the Phillies can only play the opponent on the schedule, and all the wins count the same. So, they’ll unapologetically rack ‘em up against 15-31 Pirates before trying to do the same next week in Denver against the 7-37 Rockies.

The Phillies are 27-18 and have won six of seven series since getting swept last month in New York. They’re 1½ games behind the division-leading Mets and not far off their own 31-14 pace from the same point last year.

“I think we played better last year, to tell you the truth,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But it looks like we’re starting to play better now.”

In that case, let’s get back to hair — and not only Harper’s.

» READ MORE: Mick Abel ‘super excited’ for MLB debut Sunday: ‘It’s a good shot for me to go out there and show who I am.’

Two batters before Harper one-hopped the left-field wall in the three-run fourth inning, the Phillies broke open the game on Stott’s line-drive single to left. Alec Bohm scored easily ahead of hirsute Brandon Marsh, who ran like his long, wet hair was on fire. (See what we did there?)

Although Marsh was barely around third base when Pirates left fielder Nick Solak scooped up the ball, he never stopped coming. He nearly caught up to Bohm, who had gone back to tag up in case Solak somehow caught the ball, and slid across the plate to make it 4-0.

“Marsh got a great read,” Thomson said. “Luckily, Bohm was heads-up and kept running, or Marshy would’ve had to push him.”

Wheeler dazzled, as usual. After tossing seven scoreless innings last Sunday night in Cleveland without the peak velocity on his fastball, he dialed up 98 mph six times in the first inning.

There wasn’t any let up, either. Wheeler still registered 97s in the fifth inning. He scattered three hits (all singles) and erased Bryan Reynolds’ leadoff knock in the fourth inning by rolling a double play.

And if you chalk it up to beating up on a weaker opponent, well, no. This was Wheeler being Wheeler.

“I mean, it’s the same quotes,” Thomson said. “You can take quotes from the last 20 starts and fill it in.”

If it’s possible, Wheeler has been even sharper than usual, not that you’d know it from talking to him.

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Never mind that he has a 2.67 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP and leads the majors with 64 innings. He also has a 32.8% strikeout rate, up from his 25.3% career mark; his walk rate is 4.9%, down from his 7.0% mark.

Ever the perfectionist, Wheeler lamented that his cutter is “lacking a little bit,” as hair-brained as that seems. (Sorry, unavoidable.)

“Command’s good, so I’m throwing a lot of strikes,” Wheeler said. “Maybe that’s why I let up so many home runs early on just because you throw a lot of strikes. The walks are down and strikeouts are up also, so it’s kind of a give-take type thing. Just try to find the middle line.”

If Wheeler was Harper, he might change his look. But the Phillies wouldn’t change a thing about their ace.

“A guy with that many pitches — and that many strike pitches — he might save one or two the first time through the order, and then he busts out the splitter and then he’ll throw the cutter,“ Stott said. ”That’s what the great ones do. They’ll keep a pitch or two in their arsenal and start using it the second and third time through."

Or they just overpower you with hair-raising velocity.

“Sometimes it just explodes out of his hand and you know he’s got his A-plus-plus stuff instead of his A-plus stuff,” Stott said. “And today was one of those days, for sure.”