Walk this way: Harper shows he’s a team player

CHCAGO — No wonder Bryce Harper wants to make baseball fun again.

He’s barely being allowed to participate.

That was the case this weekend, for sure. The Cubs gave the reigning National League Most Valuable Player the Barry Bonds treatment, even on Sunday, when you would have thought they’d have been above it.

They had Jake Arrieta on the mound, having won his last 17 decisions and having one of the best stretches of pitching in the sport’s history. But one of the beauties of baseball is that you never really know what you’re going to see in a game.

So why not a record-tying six walks to Harper in a 13-inning, 4-hour, 54-minute spectacular won by the Cubs, 4-3, on a ringing line drive into the left-field bleachers by Javier Baez?

It was certainly that kind of a weekend for the Nationals. They came to Wrigley Field having ridden Harper and their strong pitching staff to a sweep in St. Louis and a series victory in Kansas City. But they head home after a four-game sweep in which the Cubs basically took the bat out of Harper’s hands.

“It’s happened before to me, not at this level, but when I was younger — high school, college and whatnot,” Harper said. “They had a plan and they stuck with their plan and unfortunately it worked. We battled. We battled on the whole road trip. We finish the road trip 5-5. We’ll take that any day of the week.”

After hitting his 10th home run on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium, Harper was 1-for-4 with 13 walks (four intentional), a sacrifice fly and a hit-by-pitch as the rampaging Cubs served humble pie to the visitors. He’ll open the Nationals’ homestand against the Tigers and Marlins hitting .265 with 27 RBIs, 30 walks and a 1.065 OPS in 31 games.

Facing Arrieta, you figured Harper would be challenged in the series finale.

“Yeah because he’s a challenge type guy,” Nats manager Dusty Baker said. “Apparently he was following the game plan. That’s just how it goes for the series.”

Shockingly, Harper had seven plate appearances overall and never swung at a single pitch. He wound up becoming the fourth player in history with six walks in a game — matching a mark set by Jimmie Foxx and tied by Andre Thornton and most recently Jeff Bagwell, in 1999 — and being hit by a Trevor Cahill pitch in the one …

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