05/15/26 10:41:00
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05/15 22:39 CDT Kyle Schwarber is on a heater. So are the Phillies. It's not a
coincidence
Kyle Schwarber is on a heater. So are the Phillies. It's not a coincidence
PITTSBURGH (AP) --- Kyle Schwarber can't really explain why he's on a tear
right now.
"It's a great question," Schwarber said.
One the Philadelphia Phillies slugger isn't particularly interested in
answering. All he knows is that he's found a little something. Even more
importantly, so has his team.
So even on a night the Phillies designated hitter smashed a pair of two-run
homers that boosted his season total to a major league-leading 20 and drew a
bases-loaded walk during a ninth inning rally, Schwarber was quick to deflect
attention to all that was happening around him during an 11-9, 10-inning
victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.
Bryce Harper, batting behind him, had four hits, including a tying single after
Pirates closer Gregory Soto walked Schwarber on four pitches to pull the
Phillies within two. Backup catcher Rafael Marchan delivered a two-run single
in the 10th. Orion Kerkering picked up his first save of the season and just
the third of his career.
"There's so much good that went on today that we were able to respond and fight
back," Schwarber said. "That's a really positive thing for us."
The win pushed Philadelphia's record to 13-4 since Don Mattingly replaced Rob
Thomson as manager and pulled the Phillies to within a game of .500 (22-23).
The fact that surge has come in lockstep with Schwarber going off is not a
coincidence.
"It's pretty amazing," Mattingly said. "He's a different cat from the
standpoint of how he does it. ... He's dangerous all the time. Doesn't matter
really lefties or righties, either one."
Schwarber went deep off both to fuel Philadelphia's rally from a six-run
deficit. He took Pittsburgh right-handed starter Braxton Ashcraft over the
fence in the fifth. The Pirates pulled Ashcraft in favor of left-hander Mason
Montgomery with one on and two outs in the seventh. It didn't matter. Schwarber
turned on a 96 mph fastball that caught too much of the plate and sent it into
the seats in right-center field to draw the Phillies within three.
The two blasts gave Schwarber nine home runs in his last eight games. It's the
second time in his career he's had that many homers in an eight-game span.
Former slugger Albert Belle is the only other player in major league history to
have that kind of prolific run twice.
"One of the cooler things I've seen in baseball," Harper said. "Just the ways
he puts the bat on the ball. Yeah, it been pretty fun to watch."
For Schwarber, the fun part isn't watching the ball sail from the barrel of his
bat to the farther reaches of the ballpark but what the scoreboard reads at the
end of the night.
A 10-game slide in April cost the popular Thomson his job. Mattingly --- who'll
miss Saturday's game to attend his son's graduation at Purdue --- has steadied
things. It's helped that one of baseball's best (and most expensive) lineups is
starting to produce.
Yet even as hot as Schwarber is at the moment, he's not getting ahead of
himself. His most impressive at-bat Friday might have been the one where the
bat never left his shoulder.
With the Phillies down three in the ninth, Schwarber let four consecutive
sinkers from Soto go by rather than take a hack and try to make something
happen. He trotted to first base and Harper followed with a long single off the
top of the wall in right-center to pull Philadelphia even.
"Greg's got great stuff and he's got a really nasty sinker in the bigger
slider, so it's just kind of really keying in on what you want," Schwarber
said. "And once I get 3-0, I was happy with the take."
He was even happier with what came next as the Phillies took another step
toward looking like the team that has been a postseason fixture the last four
years. While front-running Atlanta remains well ahead in the NL East,
Philadelphia's early season funk has passed and momentum seems to be building,
which Schwarber is far more concerned about than whatever home-run total is
next to his name.
"Obviously we know it's not anywhere near complete, right?" Schwarber said,
later adding, "It's been really cool to see the guys go out there and getting
their results and us as a team, to be able to kind of get the results that we
want."
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
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