The Philadelphia Phillies secured a thrilling 11-9 comeback victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday, thanks to some historic help from outfielder and designated hitter Kyle Schwarber.
Down 6-1 in the top of the fifth inning, the slugger crushed his 19th home run of the season and brought the Phillies two runs closer to a tie.
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Two innings later, the Phillies had already gone down by five runs again. That’s when Schwarber slammed his 20th home run of the season, helping set the Phillies up for their eventual comeback.
Schwarber has now sent out 20 home runs in the first 45 games of the season, tying Cy Williams in 1923 for the fastest player in Phillies history to reach 20 dingers in a season.
He’s also the first Phillies player since Mike Schmidt in 1976 to hit nine homers in an eight-game span. Through 45 games, he’s set a historic home run pace of 72, just one behind Barry Bonds‘ single-season record of 73.
While Schwarber’s batting has been nothing short of historic recently, he noted after the game that he’s just happy the Phillies are playing winning baseball.
“I’m just happy that we are finding a way to win games,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. Yeah, sure, you want to have success at the plate. Do you want to do a lot of positive things? Yes. … You are way happier with the win than the loss. I’m happy [the home runs] are correlating with the wins.”
After a slow start to the season, the Phillies are 7-3 over their last 10 matchups and now sit at second in the National League East with a 22-23 record.
If Schwarber continues to hit at this level, they’ll have a good shot at a postseason run.
James Parker is a sports writer for Ball Exclusives, follow him on X @TheJames_Parker
