PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber had time for a quick joke in the first inning Sunday afternoon.
Schwarber led off with a single, then Trea Turner turned the second pitch of the game around for a 422-foot home run into the bullpen, staking the Phillies to a two-run lead over Miami.
On the way back to the dugout, Schwarber made sure Turner knew that first-inning homers were kind of his thing.
“Sure enough, the next at-bat,” Turner said, “he did the same thing.”
The early offense, including Schwarber’s 43rd homer of the season to lead off the third, went for naught, a three-run edge and a brilliant pitching performance from Ranger Suarez squandered in a 5-4 loss to the Marlins. But the recipe of early power, specifically from Schwarber, has been a cornerstone all season.
Schwarber’s three leadoff home runs on the recent road trip brought into view how valuable his leadoff pop has been, a unique weapon the Phillies have used to unsettle opponents.
Schwarber has hit 17 leadoff homers in his two seasons in Philadelphia, after 13 in his previous seven seasons. His 30 career leadoff homers puts him in the top 20 all-time and sixth among a pretty impressive crew of active players (Ronald Acuna Jr. with 32, Jose Altuve 34, Charlie Blackmon 40, Mookie Betts 47 and George Springer 57). He trails only Jimmy Rollins (46) in Phillies history, easing past No. 2 on the list, Juan Samuel and his 14.
With 10 leadoff dingers this year, he’s one of only eight players in baseball history to hit double figures in a season, within striking distance of the record of 13 by Alfonso Soriano with the 2003 New York Yankees. Rollins had held the franchise single-season record with nine in 2007.
“I think our goal and our job is to not make them feel like they can settle in right away and feel like they’re going to have to work from Pitch 1,” Schwarber said. “If you can put that pressure on them — if it’s a run right away, if it’s a deep count, a walk, a hit, whatever it is — that’s our job to do.”
Most important, the Phillies are 13 and 4 in games that begin with a Scharber dinger. They had been 7-0 this year before two losses in Milwaukee last week. None of his 10 lead-off homers in 2023 have turned into a multi-homer game, after five of the seven in 2022 did.
Count it as one of many reasons manager Rob Thomson is so insistent on keeping Schwarber and his .198 (and rising!) batting average in the leadoff spot. In addition to his ability to draw walks, 114 and counting, with a chase rate that is in the 87th percentile in the bigs, Schwarber can with one judiciously selected swing of the bat change games.
Schwarber’s solo home run Sunday hit the LifeBrand sign on the face of the second deck in right for his 94th RBI, tying the career-high he set last year.
Thomson needs to go back no further than Wednesday, when the Phillies parlayed Schwarber’s leadoff home run into loading the bases in San Diego.
Though they didn’t tack on, they did tire starter Michael Wache, leading to his exit after four laborious innings and a chance to wear on the Padres’ bullpen in what became a 5-1 win. With Turner, who hit his 24th homer of the season, comfortable and humming along in the 2-hole, the top-order power is there from the jump.
“It puts the other team kind of on its heels,” Thomson said. “At times, it can shake the starter up a little bit. He hit the leadoff home run against Wacha, and then next thing you know, we have the bases loaded. Now, we didn’t score, but we got the bases loaded. And I think it shakes a guy for a minute.”
“I feel like that’s what we both can do,” Turner said. “He hits the homer quite a bit, and I’ve got going. I think we can change the game in a hurry, and it’s nice putting those runs up early and trying to put the pressure on the other guys.”
Schwarber’s timing seems impeccable. He led off with homers on Opening Day and the start of the second half last year. His leadoff homer in Washington on Oct. 1 was crucial to the Phillies salvaging the back end of a doubleheader in the heat of the Wild Card race, and he added the leadoff shot and a second solo homer in the playoff clincher in Houston two days later.
“I don’t know if that’s a skill,” Thomson said. “I think it just happens. But he does hit some big ones for us.”
They may only be single runs, as goes the common argument for why Schwarber should be hitting lower in the order. But without fail, they are momentum-defining ones.
“It’s always a positive thing,” Schwarber said. “We’re not going up there just trying to do the leadoff home run thing, but whenever it does happen, you hope it can flip the momentum.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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