PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber, in typical self-effacement, brought up his sixth at-bat Thursday night before touching on the first five. That one, out of the hand of a guy who had started the game at shortstop, barely left the infield.
Four of the first five left the ballpark.
In a season of milestones, Schwarber added an indelible one Thursday, becoming just the 21st player in major league history to hit four home runs in a game and setting the Phillies franchise record with nine RBIs in a 19-4 win over Atlanta Thursday night.
“It’s pretty cool, to go out there and do that,” Schwarber said. “You get the opportunity for a fifth one and, you know, I stink against a position player. But it was a fun night, great atmosphere. I wouldn’t want to do it with a better group of guys that we have here.”
Schwarber moved into sole possession of second place in franchise history for homers in a season at 49, leaving only Ryan Howard’s 58 in 2006. He’s got a month to chase the record down.
He’s the fourth Phillie to hit four homers in a game, joining Ed Delahanty on July 13, 1896; Chuck Klein on July 10, 1936; and Mike Schmidt on April 17, 1976. Klein and Schmidt both needed 10 innings to do it, and Delahanty’s feat at Chicago’s West Side Grounds included two inside-the-park homers at a ballpark where left-center field measured 523 feet and center field 482.
Schwarber is the third player to hit four homers in a game this season, joining Eugenio Suarez, then with Arizona on April 26, and the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz on July 25.
He had a shot at a fifth, popping out to shallow left off shortstop-turned-pitcher Vidal Brujan in the eighth.
“I shouldn’t have even asked the question,” Schwarber said. “I was in the cage and I was like, how many guys have hit five? And no one said anything. I was like, oh, okay, that answers the question.”
History aside, the homers were a balm for a team that was shutout Wednesday night by the Mets in being swept out in Queens. Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Max Kepler homered in the first inning, then Bryce Harper added a solo shot in the third. The Phillies collected 20 hits and just the third seven-homer game in club history.
Schwarber landed the first blow, answering the Braves’ three runs in the first inning with a solo shot to the second deck in right to get the Phillies right back in it.
He hit a two-run bomb off reliever Austin Cox in the fourth, his first of two off the lefty. That gives Schwarber 19 home runs off left-handed pitchers this season, one more than he hit off southpaws in his first seven major league seasons combined. He also has 13 home runs off left-handed relievers this year, a major league record in the divisional era, passing the 11 hit by Barry Bonds in 2002.
He added a three-run shot off Wander Suero in the seventh to get to nine RBIs.
The game got off to a rocky start for the Phillies, with Aaron Nola allowing three runs in the top of the first. He walked Ozzie Albies with the bases loaded, then gave up a two-run single to Michael Harris II. But the Braves ran into an out, Bryson Stott relaying home for a 2-4-2 put out of a double steal and Realmuto applying the tag on Albies before he could slide around him.
That stopped the damage at three runs, giving the struggling Nola a lifeline. For a pitcher that entered with a 6.52 ERA, he made the most of his reprieve. He got through six innings, allowing four runs on four hits.
He retired eight straight batters, interrupted by Matt Olson’s solo homer to lead off the sixth. He walked three, though just one after the first inning, and struck out four.
His four strikeouts bring him to 1,845 for his career, passing Cole Hamels for third in Phillies history.
The batters punished the Braves for their wastefulness, with an even shakier arm on the bump in Cal Quantrill. Realmuto’s first-pitch bomb to left tied the game at 3 after just four batters. Kepler ripped one out to right with two outs to put the Phillies up for good at 5-3.
They kept piling on. Harper led off the third with a solo homer. Harrison Bader, who finished a homer shy of the cycle with four hits, tripled in the fourth and scored on a single by Stott, who was chased home by Trea Turner’s double.
A two-run double by Alec Bohm made it 12-3 after four. Schwarber’s three-run jack the opposite way in the fifth stretched the lead to 15. Edmundo Sosa made it 19 in the eighth with an RBI single. More importantly, he managed to avoid hitting into a double play to get Schwarber back to the plate for a shot at five.
Schwarber’s instinct, even after such a momentous night, was to not stray far from his even-headed mentality. It was one game, just like Wednesday’s loss was, albeit at the other end of the spectrum.
That equanimity is part of what allowed Schwarber to appreciate the full history of such a night.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “It just cooperated, right? I’ve been saying, you can do everything right and get out, and you can do everything wrong and get a hit. It just happened to cooperate and got some pitches, put some good swings on it, and that was the result. It’s fun. It’s exciting.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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