Bryce Harper makes history in Game 5 (video)

WASHINGTON -- Until tonight's Game 5, Washington Nationals rookie Bryce Harper looked overmatched in his first playoff series with just one hit and six strikeouts in 18 at-bats.

But the team leader with nine triples during the regular season became the first teenager in postseason history to hit one in the first. He followed it up with a long home run to right leading off the third.

True to form, it didn't take Harper much longer to complete his circuit around the bases than it did to make it three-fourths of the way around. Deadspin's Timothy Burke timed Harper at 17.17 seconds, which is fast but still nearly a full second slower than Harper's major-league best 16.2-second time on a home run Aug. 30 – which just happened to come at home against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Harper's home run also made him the second-youngest player to hit one in the playoffs. Andruw Jones was about 19½ when he had two for the Atlanta Braves in 1996.