Phillies make Bryce Harper leadoff hitter for just 40th time in MLB career

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The Philadelphia Phillies are on the road facing the Cincinnati Reds ahead of the All-Star break, and they won Game 1 of the series in a thriller on Tuesday night.

Now, for Wednesday night's affair, the Phillies are shaking things up in a big way. The lineup for the Phillies looks very different. There are four left-handed hitters atop the lineup, and Trea Turner is sitting on the bench.

But, most notably, the Phillies announced lineup features Bryce Harper hitting leadoff. This is a very rare situation for Harper, as in his MLB career, this will be just the 40th game he's hit in the leadoff spot.

Bryce Harper hitting leadoff for Phillies vs. Reds tonight is very rare scenario

Harper is at first base, and hitting first on Wednesday night against the Reds and Chase Burns, the 2.40 ERA Reds ace with a 10-1 record.

Kyle Schwarber is hitting second, Brandon Marsh is third, and Bryson Stott is fourth. Alec Bohm is fifth, Gabriel Rincones Jr. is sixth, Justin Crawford is seventh, J.T. Realmuto is eighth, and Edmundo Sosa is ninth.

During his MLB career, this will be just the 40th time Harper has hit in the leadoff spot, and it will be just his 39th game hitting leadoff to begin a game.

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In 148 at-bats as a leadoff hitter, Harper has 39 hits, 22 runs scored, seven doubles, one triple, 11 homers, 28 RBIs, and 20 walks for a .264 batting average and a .908 OPS.

Across all 1,877 games during his MLB career, and all 6,758 at-bats, just 39 games and 148 at-bats of Harper's career have come from the leadoff spot.

He's not been a leadoff hitter for the Phillies in 2026, though he did play one game last year as a leadoff hitter, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

This is a very rare occurrence for Harper, and it's going to be very interesting to see if this will be a trend going forward, or if this is a one-off occurrence with Turner on the bench and facing a right-handed pitcher.