But perhaps the most telling part of Wednesday night was why the Phillies needed it.
Cristopher Sánchez, so dominant at Citizens Bank Park for so long, surrendered six runs for the first time at home in more than two years. Houston led by four runs in the third inning. It reclaimed a two-run lead in the fourth. The Astros had 10 hits against one of the National League’s best pitchers.
And somehow, Sánchez walked off the mound after six innings without the Phillies even trailing.
They had picked up their ace.
Then they buried the Astros.
Schwarber's grand slam capped a six-run sixth inning and turned a wild comeback into an 11-7 Phillies win, one built less around a single heroic swing than an offense that simply refused to let Houston get away.
The Phillies trailed 4-0.
They tied it.
They trailed 6-4.
They came back again.
They entered the bottom of the sixth down 6-5.
They exited it ahead 11-6.
Schwarber supplied the exclamation point. Everything before it was the story.
Sánchez entered the night with a 2.58 ERA, but Houston gave him the kind of evening that has almost disappeared from his home résumé.
The six earned runs were his most at Citizens Bank Park since July 31, 2024, when the Yankees also scored six against him in 5 2/3 innings.
This wasn't necessarily a night when Sánchez's stuff disappeared.
His sinker averaged 94.6 mph, only about a half-mile per hour below his season average. His changeup averaged 86.7, essentially in line with its normal velocity.
Houston simply kept touching it.
Sánchez generated only six whiffs on 41 Astros swings, a 15 percent rate. Houston put 23 balls in play against him, collected 10 hits and produced nine hard-hit balls. His usually effective sinker generated only one whiff on 18 swings.
This was contact, contact and more contact.
Yordan Alvarez opened the scoring with an RBI double in the third. Isaac Paredes followed with a two-run homer. After Jose Altuve collected the 2,500th hit of his career, Yainer Diaz singled him home.
Four-nothing Houston.
Against Sánchez.
At Citizens Bank Park.
That usually sounds like the beginning of a loss.
Instead, the Phillies erased all four runs before the inning was over.
J.T. Realmuto singled. Bryan De La Cruz singled. Trea Turner drove Realmuto home. Bryce Harper followed with a two-run single, and Luis Arraez tied the game with another RBI hit.
Five hits. Four runs.
Reset.
Then Sánchez gave up another punch.
Daulton Varsho reached to begin the fourth, and Cam Smith followed with a two-run homer to center.
Houston 6, Phillies 4.
Again.
But this Phillies lineup kept behaving as if deficits were temporary inconveniences.
Turner homered with two outs in the fifth, his 19th of the season, cutting Houston's lead to 6-5.
Then came the sixth inning, the sequence that changed everything.
Arraez doubled.
Bryson Stott reached when first baseman Christian Walker committed a fielding error.
Manager Don Mattingly sent Edmundo Sosa to pinch-hit for Brandon Marsh, and Sosa immediately lined an RBI single through the right side.
Six-six.
Justin Crawford then chopped a ball toward short. Houston initially received the out at first, but the Phillies challenged the call and won.
Crawford had a single.
The bases were loaded.
And the Astros bullpen was coming apart.
Bryan King faced four hitters in the inning and retired none of them. He surrendered three hits and four runs, three earned.
AJ Blubaugh entered with the bases loaded.
Realmuto struck out, offering Houston a momentary escape route.
De La Cruz took it away.
He worked a bases-loaded walk that forced Stott home.
Phillies 7, Astros 6.
That's an important detail.
Because Schwarber did not come to the plate needing to rescue the Phillies.
They had already rescued themselves.
He came to finish Houston off.
Schwarber had struck out in the first inning. He struck out again in the third. He flew out in the fifth.
His fourth trip to the plate was different.
Bases loaded.
One out.
One swing.
The ball disappeared into the right-field seats for Schwarber's 44th homer of the season.
Grand slam.
Eleven-six.
Citizens Bank Park erupted, and a game that had belonged to Houston three innings earlier suddenly looked like a blowout in the other direction.
It was the perfect ending to an imperfect offensive night.
The Phillies struck out 12 times. Harper and Schwarber combined for six of them. They committed two errors. Arraez was caught stealing. Their ace allowed six runs and 10 hits.
And they scored 11.
That's the October takeaway.
Postseason games aren't always clean. A starter won't always give you seven dominant innings. Schwarber won't always homer in his first trip through the order. Harper won't always carry the offense.
Sometimes somebody has to cover for somebody else.
Wednesday night, practically everybody did.
Turner had two hits, scored twice, homered and drove in two. Harper drove in two. Arraez had two hits. De La Cruz reached three times, scored twice and forced home the go-ahead run. Sosa came off the bench and immediately delivered the tying hit.
The Phillies went 6-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
And their first four hitters combined for eight RBI.
Houston got one back against Jonathan Bowlan in the seventh when Paredes singled home Jeremy Peña, but Alex McFarlane followed with a clean eighth and the four-run margin held.
Sánchez's final line — six innings, 10 hits, six earned runs, two homers and only three strikeouts — looked nothing like the pitcher Philadelphia has grown accustomed to watching at home.
Earlier this season, Sánchez put together a historic stretch at Citizens Bank Park in which he repeatedly suffocated opposing lineups; by May, he had gone 20 consecutive home starts allowing two runs or fewer.
Houston finally cracked him.
The Phillies made sure it didn't matter.
Schwarber will own the highlight from Wednesday.
He should.
Grand slams have a way of swallowing everything around them.
But this game said something more interesting about the Phillies than another Schwarber home run ever could.
Their ace finally had a bad night at home.
And instead of Sánchez carrying them, they carried Sánchez.
Then Schwarber made sure nobody forgot it.
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