Only three men had ever done this in a Phillies uniform: Ed Delahanty in 1896, Chuck Klein in 1936, and Mike Schmidt in 1976. Now, nearly half a century later, Schwarber has carved his name on that same marble plaque of immortality. Twenty-one men in the history of Major League Baseball have hit four homers in a game. Philadelphia, improbably, has four of them.
“It’s one of those things,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s in a groove right now — tonight, anyway. It was good to see, because we needed it. He’s been hitting some balls hard, right at people. They’ve been pitching him tough. So it was just good to see.”
It wasn’t just a home run derby. It was a catharsis. Just hours removed from being humiliated in Queens by the Mets, the Phillies unleashed a 19-4 thunderclap on the Braves. Seven home runs in all. But one man carried the lightning bolt.
It started early. First inning, second batter of the game, a curveball from Cal Quantrill that never came back. Schwarber pulverized it into the second deck in right field, a 450-foot statement that this wasn’t going to be another ordinary night. By the end of the inning, J.T. Realmuto and Max Kepler had joined the act, the Phillies already sprinting past Atlanta’s three-run first-inning gift from Aaron Nola.
By the fourth, Quantrill was gone, and Schwarber’s rampage was just beginning. A full count from Austin Cox, another hanging curveball, and another trip around the bases. Two innings later, Cox again. This time Schwarber went the other way, a three-run shot into the left-field seats. Citizens Bank Park shook with MVP chants as Schwarber circled the bases, already three home runs deep, already in the rarest of company.
And then came the seventh inning. Wander Suero on the mound, two men aboard, a 1-2 changeup that fluttered across the heart of the plate. Schwarber didn’t miss. He couldn’t miss. The ball vanished into the night sky, and with it, history was made. Four swings. Four baseballs lost. A franchise record nine RBIs. The kind of line that lives forever in a city’s memory.
For a fleeting moment, it looked as if baseball’s ultimate Everest—five home runs in one game—might be within reach. In the eighth, with a position player, Vidal Bruján, lobbing a 57-mph souvenir pitch, Schwarber had his chance. This time, he popped out. History would stop at four. But that’s where history almost always stops. And four was more than enough.
The Phillies didn’t just beat Atlanta. They bludgeoned them. They turned the page on the misery of New York and opened a new chapter in Philadelphia baseball folklore. By night’s end, Schwarber stood alone atop the National League home run race with 49, one shy of Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the major league lead, and already the owner of a career-high 119 RBIs.
Delahanty. Klein. Schmidt. Schwarber. Four names, four centuries, four eras of Philadelphia baseball. And now, one unforgettable summer night in 2025 joins them, destined to be told and retold whenever this city speaks the language of baseball history.
It wasn’t just a home run derby. It was a catharsis. Just hours removed from being humiliated in Queens by the Mets, the Phillies unleashed a 19-4 thunderclap on the Braves. Seven home runs in all. But one man carried the lightning bolt.
It started early. First inning, second batter of the game, a curveball from Cal Quantrill that never came back. Schwarber pulverized it into the second deck in right field, a 450-foot statement that this wasn’t going to be another ordinary night. By the end of the inning, J.T. Realmuto and Max Kepler had joined the act, the Phillies already sprinting past Atlanta’s three-run first-inning gift from Aaron Nola.
By the fourth, Quantrill was gone, and Schwarber’s rampage was just beginning. A full count from Austin Cox, another hanging curveball, and another trip around the bases. Two innings later, Cox again. This time Schwarber went the other way, a three-run shot into the left-field seats. Citizens Bank Park shook with MVP chants as Schwarber circled the bases, already three home runs deep, already in the rarest of company.
And then came the seventh inning. Wander Suero on the mound, two men aboard, a 1-2 changeup that fluttered across the heart of the plate. Schwarber didn’t miss. He couldn’t miss. The ball vanished into the night sky, and with it, history was made. Four swings. Four baseballs lost. A franchise record nine RBIs. The kind of line that lives forever in a city’s memory.
For a fleeting moment, it looked as if baseball’s ultimate Everest—five home runs in one game—might be within reach. In the eighth, with a position player, Vidal Bruján, lobbing a 57-mph souvenir pitch, Schwarber had his chance. This time, he popped out. History would stop at four. But that’s where history almost always stops. And four was more than enough.
The Phillies didn’t just beat Atlanta. They bludgeoned them. They turned the page on the misery of New York and opened a new chapter in Philadelphia baseball folklore. By night’s end, Schwarber stood alone atop the National League home run race with 49, one shy of Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the major league lead, and already the owner of a career-high 119 RBIs.
Delahanty. Klein. Schmidt. Schwarber. Four names, four centuries, four eras of Philadelphia baseball. And now, one unforgettable summer night in 2025 joins them, destined to be told and retold whenever this city speaks the language of baseball history.
On a night when Schwarber was busy rewriting the home-run chapter of Phillies history, Nola was chiseling his name onto a different monument. His strikeout of Ronald Acuña Jr. in the sixth inning wasn’t just another number. It was 1,845 — the one that moved him past Cole Hamels on the Phillies’ all-time list.
Think about that symmetry. In 2015, Hamels walked off the mound at Wrigley Field having thrown a no-hitter in his final Phillies start. The very next day, a rookie named Nola took the ball. They were teammates for a week. And now, a decade later, Nola has passed him.
Only Robin Roberts (1,871) and Steve Carlton (3,031) have fanned more hitters in red pinstripes. Roberts could fall by season’s end. Carlton, with a record that looks like it belongs on another planet, will remain untouchable. But Nola’s place in this company tells you what he’s been for the better part of his time in Philadelphia: durable, dependable, always there.
“He’s a great pitcher,” Thomson said. “He was on the IL earlier in the season. He went a number of years of never missing a start, really. It tells you a lot about him. About his toughness, about his conditioning, things like that. He takes care of himself.”
Loading Phillies schedule...
Loading NL East standings...
Support the Mission. Fuel the Movement.
You’re not just funding journalism — you’re backing the future of youth baseball in Philly.
👉 Join us on Patreon »