Kyle Schwarber delivered a performance for the ages, capping his third home run of the night with a go-ahead, three-run shot in the ninth inning to lift the Phillies to a dramatic 10-9 victory over the Blue Jays on Tuesday. Down 6-1 after a disastrous first inning, the Phillies clawed their way back, culminating in Schwarber’s towering 426-foot blast off Chad Green’s 96 mph fastball. The ball landed in the second deck as Toronto right fielder George Springer barely flinched.
Schwarber joined Phillies legend Mike Schmidt as the only players in franchise history to collect five hits and three home runs in a single game. Schmidt accomplished the feat as part of his record-tying four-homer performance on April 17, 1976.
Before his explosive night, Schwarber had not homered since Aug. 14, when he launched a grand slam against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. In the 17 games since, he struggled mightily at the plate, batting just .145 with three doubles, four RBIs, eight walks, 27 strikeouts, and a .432 OPS. But on Tuesday night in Toronto, he snapped out of that slump in emphatic fashion.
His leadoff homer in the first was his 12th of the season, and he added another solo shot in the fourth before his game-changing drive in the ninth. His 31st homer of the year made him the first Phillies player ever to record two three-homer games in a season. He finished 5-for-6 with six RBIs, falling just a triple short of the cycle. His stat line included a double in the third and an RBI single in the seventh, marking his third career three-homer game and first-ever five-hit effort.
The Phillies’ comeback overshadowed a rough start from Tyler Phillips, who was tagged for six runs on eight hits in just two-thirds of an inning, including two-run homers by Daulton Varsho and Addison Barger. Despite the early deficit, the Phillies’ offense kept chipping away. Nick Castellanos and Bryson Stott drove in runs in the third, while Schwarber’s second homer brought them within two in the fourth.
Orion Kerkering (4-2) held the line with a scoreless eighth, and though Matt Strahm, the Phillies' seventh pitcher of the night, allowed a solo homer to Leo Jiménez in the ninth, he secured his second save to lock down Philadelphia’s third consecutive win. The NL East leaders matched a season-high with 18 hits, continuing their surge at the top of the division.
The two clubs will wrap up their brief two-game series on Wednesday, with Cristopher Sánchez taking the mound for the Phillies. He’ll face Bowden Francis, the AL Pitcher of the Month for August,
