Entering play Monday, there were 103 qualified players in the National League, and 102 of them had struck out at least once this season. Bryce Harper, the 2015 NL MVP, wasn't one of them.

The Washington Nationals superstar finally surrendered to the laws of baseball Monday night when Braves left-hander Eric O'Flaherty struck him out looking to lead off the seventh inning. Until that strikeout, Harper and Melky Cabrera were the only qualified players out of 213 major leaguers who hadn't heard "strike three" called in 2016.

It's an impressive stat for a slugger like Harper, even if it's over a sample size of 23 plate appearances. Harper cut his strikeout rate by 6.3 percent last season, and amazingly almost walked as many times as he struck out. This year, other top hitters such as Paul Goldschmidt and Josh Donaldson struck out at least 10 times during Opening Week.

Statistics this early don't tell us much, but in the case of Harper, his ability to avoid striking out during the first week of the season is just another example of the brilliance we've come to expect.

Harper's having a lot of fun dominating these days, whether he's stealing bases with batting gloves in his mouth or swinging for home run No. 100 with a "100" emoji bat. He's having such a good time that he's already doing things this year he wasn't doing last, like stealing three bases in five games after tallying six during the entire 2015 campaign.

Speaking of campaigns, Harper doesn't need his Trump-inspired hat to make baseball fun again - it's evident he's already having a ball.