It was the kind of night that makes you wonder if the Phillies should’ve saved a couple of these swings for October.
Eight home runs. That’s right, eight. More than any Phillies team has ever hit in the 141 years they’ve been playing baseball.
And all of it — every Schwarbomb, every Sosa stunner, every Bohm blast — came on the same night the Phillies locked up something just as nice: a first-round bye to the National League Division Series. Their 11-1 thumping of the Miami Marlins was over by the middle innings, but it doubled as a statement that October is waiting, and this team intends to show up loud.
So if you’re keeping score at home: franchise record in homers, franchise record in clinching serenity. That’s not a bad Wednesday night in South Philly.
Edmundo Sosa? He hadn’t played in 12 days. First game off the IL. First multi-homer game of his life. And then … boom-boom-boom. Three home runs, just like that. No shortstop in Phillies history had ever done that before. Larry Bowa never did it. Jimmy Rollins never did it. Even Trea Turner hasn’t done it. But Sosa did, on the night the Phillies turned October from anxiety to anticipation.
Kyle Schwarber? Two more rockets, including his longest of the season — 468 feet of “are you kidding me?” into the upper deck. That gave him 56 homers, two shy of Ryan Howard’s club record of 58. He’s got four games left. He’s got a real shot to pass Howard, and maybe even flirt with 60.
And just for fun, Bryson Stott took a left-hander deep, Otto Kemp homered in back-to-back games for the first time, and Alec Bohm joined the party too. By the time the seventh inning ended, the Phillies had hit four homers in one inning for the first time since 1985.
When it was over, all five guys who homered lined up for a group photo in front of the dugout. Because how could they not? This was the night when Citizens Bank Park felt like a Home Run Derby — except it counted. And it clinched something that matters.
Meanwhile, on the mound, Jesús Luzardo wasn’t exactly bad. He struck out 10 in seven innings, gave up just three hits and one run, and wrapped his year with a career-high 216 strikeouts and 183 2/3 innings. But when the other side is turning every mistake into a souvenir, none of that matters.
Ryan Weathers wore the brunt of it, tagged for three of the bombs in just 4 2/3 innings. Then Valente Bellozo came in and gave up four more in one frame. That’s how you get to eight. That’s how you get to history.
“Winning the bye is like winning a playoff series,” manager Rob Thomson said afterward. And he wasn’t wrong. The Phillies won’t play a postseason game until October 4, when the real journey begins. They’ll need 11 more wins to finish this story the way they want it to end.
But whatever happens next, here’s what can never be taken away: the night the Phillies turned the Marlins into batting-practice dummies, the night Edmundo Sosa became the unlikeliest hero in franchise history, and the night a team that has its eyes on a parade also made room for a little history of its own.
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