PHILADELPHIA — There are nights when Kyle Schwarber changes a game with one swing.
Then there are nights like Friday.
The Phillies' designated hitter entered the evening leading Major League Baseball in home runs. He left it without adding another.
Instead, he did something he had never done before.
Four singles.
One daring dash home.
And another Phillies victory.
Schwarber collected four hits for the first time in his career without any of them leaving the yard, then scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as the Phillies beat the White Sox, 8-6, before 41,102 at Citizens Bank Park.
For a player whose offensive identity has long been built around tape-measure home runs, towering slugging percentages and prodigious strikeout totals, Friday looked almost like a throwback performance from a different era.
Almost.
Because even on a night when Schwarber played the role of table-setter instead of wrecking ball, he still found himself in the middle of the game's defining moment.
The Phillies had watched a pair of early leads disappear.
Jesús Luzardo struggled to put hitters away and surrendered three home runs over six innings. A 5-2 advantage vanished. A 6-3 lead vanished. By the seventh inning, the game was tied and the Phillies once again found themselves searching for a timely hit.
Schwarber started the inning with what had become his specialty on this particular night — another single.
Trea Turner followed with a walk. Bryce Harper punched a base hit into the outfield. Suddenly the Phillies had the bases loaded with one out.
Edmundo Sosa then lifted a fly ball into shallow left field.
Most runners would have paused.
Schwarber never considered it.
As soon as Sam Antonacci made the catch, Schwarber broke for home.
The throw forced catcher Edgar Quero up the third-base line. Schwarber adjusted on the fly, dove headfirst toward the inside corner of the plate and slid underneath the tag.
Citizens Bank Park erupted.
The Phillies had the lead.
"I wasn't that confident," interim manager Don Mattingly admitted afterward.
Neither was anyone else.
Except Schwarber.
The play perfectly captured what has become one of the more fascinating developments of the Phillies' season. Since Mattingly took over, the club has rediscovered an edge that was missing during the season's disastrous opening month. They are winning games in different ways. They are creating pressure. They are taking extra bases.
And increasingly, they are finding contributors throughout the lineup.
On Friday, Schwarber set the tone.
Brandon Marsh supplied a two-run homer. Adolis GarcÃa added another. Sosa delivered the biggest at-bat of the night. The Phillies manufactured runs through productive outs, aggressive baserunning and situational hitting.
It was the type of offensive performance that has often been absent during a season in which runs have sometimes been difficult to find.
Yet the story kept circling back to Schwarber.
For years, debates have followed him wherever he has hit in the lineup. Traditionalists have argued a player with his profile should bat cleanup. Others have countered that his elite on-base skills and power make him an ideal modern leadoff hitter.
On Friday, Schwarber somehow managed to satisfy both sides.
He reached base four times via single.
He scored twice.
And he generated the game's winning run with his legs.
It was a statistical oddity unlike anything else in his career.
Before Friday, Schwarber had hit four home runs in a game.
He had never collected four singles in one.
Before Friday, the last time he had recorded three singles in a game came as a rookie in 2015.
This version of Schwarber looked less like the sport's premier slugger and more like an old-school leadoff man who happened to possess 23 home runs.
Not that he cared how the production arrived.
At this stage of the season, results are results.
And lately, the Phillies are getting plenty of them.
The victory was their fourth straight, their eighth in ten games and their 25th in 35 games under Mattingly. After spending much of April trying to climb out of a hole, they continue to gain traction in the National League race.
The final outs belonged once again to Jhoan Duran.
The hard-throwing closer worked a clean ninth inning for his 15th save, extending his personal save-conversion streak to 16 consecutive opportunities dating back to last season. He has become one of baseball's most reliable finishers, posting a 1.21 ERA while repeatedly turning the final inning into little more than a formality.
For most teams, the headline would have been the closer.
For the Phillies, it was the slugger.
The guy with 23 home runs.
The guy who won a game with four singles and a headfirst slide.
Sometimes baseball has a sense of humor.
And sometimes Kyle Schwarber wins one without ever leaving the yard.
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