The night started like just another Monday. It ended like a fireworks show at Citizens Bank Park.
Kyle Schwarber didn’t just hit two home runs. He hit two statement home runs — including a grand slam that turned the sixth inning into an eight-run carnival and turned the Baltimore Orioles into the answer to a trivia question. Final score: Phillies 13, Orioles 3.
Six RBIs later — yes, six — Schwarber now leads the majors with 94 of them. Oh, and his 40th homer of the season? Just another league leader in the bag. The Phillies, now 1 1/2 games up on the Mets after New York lost 7-6 in 10 to the Guardians, might want to bottle whatever was in the air Monday night.
The first Schwarbomb? A two-run rocket into the second deck in the third inning to tie the game at 3. The second? Picture this: bottom of the sixth, crowd of 41,099 chanting “MVP! MVP!” — and the reigning All-Star Game MVP obliges. Yaramil Hiraldo throws it, Schwarber launches it to right-center, the place goes absolutely bonkers.
Schwarber’s slam didn’t just blow open the game. It also made a little history: he’s now the fastest player in Phillies history to reach 40 homers, doing it in the team’s 112th game of the season. Ryan Howard needed the same number of games to hit 40 in 2006 — but the Phillies’ schedule was two games further along when he got there.
That was just the loudest moment in an inning full of them. Harrison Bader, still unpacking after the trade deadline, ripped his first Phillies homer — a three-run tiebreaker earlier in the sixth. Bryce Harper? He joined the party with a solo shot, his 17th. And in the eighth, Edmundo Sosa and Weston Wilson went back-to-back for a 13-3 lead, because why not?
"I'm here for a reason -- one singular reason," Bader told reporters, "and that's to perform and help this team win."
Jesús Luzardo (10-5) gave up a two-run homer to Tyler O’Neill and a solo shot to Jordan Westburg, but otherwise kept things calm over six innings.
By the time the last out was recorded, the Phillies had turned a tense, tied ballgame into a laugher. And the MVP chants? They might have to keep practicing.
Jesús Luzardo (10-5) gave up a two-run homer to Tyler O’Neill and a solo shot to Jordan Westburg, but otherwise kept things calm over six innings.
By the time the last out was recorded, the Phillies had turned a tense, tied ballgame into a laugher. And the MVP chants? They might have to keep practicing.
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