Schwarber and Harper stay hot, Phillies destroy the Mets yet again, 6-2
The Phillies outscored the Mets 21-5 over the final two games of the series after dropping Thursday’s opener, taking the set with a 6-2 win on Sunday night at Citizens Bank Park behind Zack Wheeler, another Schwarbomb, and Harper coming within a triple of hitting for the cycle in back-to-back games.
The offense that has been ranked near the bottom of baseball for most of the season put up a .290 team average across the homestand with 11 homers, nine doubles, and three triples in six games, which is the kind of sustained production that has been almost nonexistent from this lineup all year and showed up at exactly the right time heading into a seven-game road trip.
The Phillies are 42-35 after going 4-2 on the homestand with Mattingly now sitting at 33-16 since taking over on April 28, winning 12 of 16 series in a stretch that has closed the gap on first-place Atlanta from 10.5 games a month ago to 6.5 as of Sunday night. The run differential that was minus-54 when Thomson was fired has climbed all the way to minus-4 and might actually flip positive before the All-Star break if the bats keep doing what they did this weekend.
Schwarber’s Power Numbers Are Getting Into Historic Territory
Schwarber crushed a three-run shot against Mets lefty David Peterson in the second inning on Sunday for his major-league-leading 29th homer of the season, pushing his pace to 61 on the year, which would shatter every Phillies franchise record and put him alongside the most exclusive single-season power performances in baseball history.
Eight hits on the homestand and five of them were home runs, meaning Schwarber’s hit distribution over the last six games was 62.5 percent homers, which is the kind of stat that reads like a typo but is just what happens when the most dangerous power hitter in baseball gets locked into one of his June streaks.
Gotta Be June
He now has seven homers this month with 74 in 226 career games in June because Schwarber apparently treats the calendar flipping from May to June like a switch that activates whatever part of his brain is responsible for hitting baseballs 450 feet.
The three-homer game on Saturday followed by another bomb Sunday gives him four homers in two games and five across the homestand, and the raw power has been so consistent all season that the 60-homer pace feels less like a projection and more like a real possibility if his body holds up through the summer.
In four and a half seasons with the Phillies, Schwarber has 216 home runs with his career total at 369 at age 33 on a contract that runs through 2030.
The 500-homer conversation is becoming unavoidable and the Hall of Fame case is building in real time with every ball he deposits into the upper deck because the man leads the league in homers year after year while playing first base and batting leadoff like it’s the most natural combination in sports.
Before Sunday’s game he met with the family of Pennsylvania State Trooper Timothy J. O’Connor who was killed during a traffic stop in Chester County in March, catching a ceremonial first pitch from the trooper’s brother Christopher because that’s who Schwarber is when the cameras aren’t on him. Then he went out and hit a three-run homer a few hours later because that’s who he is when the cameras are on.
Harper Was One Hit Away From Back-to-Back Cycles
One night after completing the first cycle of his career in five innings, Harper singled, doubled, and homered on Sunday to come within a triple of doing it again in consecutive games, which is almost certainly something that has never happened in the history of professional baseball.
The man went from 1-for-22 in his previous seven games to 7-for-10 over the weekend with two homers, two doubles, two singles, a triple, and six RBI since switching to the 35-ounce bat and taking early BP on the field instead of the indoor cage.
Bryce Harper Heat Check
Harper said he’s sticking with the heavy bat as long as his body cooperates because the results have been too dramatic to change anything, and honestly the simplicity of his approach to breaking out of the slump is one of my favorite things about the entire season. No analytics department consultation, no two-week mechanical overhaul with the hitting coaches, no deep dive into launch angles and exit velocities.
Harp grabbed a heavier bat because it felt right and went 7-for-10 with a cycle and a near-cycle over two games. Old-school baseball problem-solving at its finest from a two-time NL MVP who knows his swing better than any computer ever will.
Wheeler Went 7-1 by Gutting Through a Messy Sixth
Wheeler didn’t have his sharpest command Sunday and pushed past 100 pitches in the sixth when he uncharacteristically walked three batters to load the bases with one out, forcing Mattingly to visit the mound for a conversation about whether to pull his ace or let him try to work through it.
Mattingly stayed with Wheeler for one more batter and got a fielder’s choice that scored a run before going to Bowlan who struck out Semien to end the threat and keep the game from unraveling.
That’s the difference between a 7-1 pitcher with a 2.11 ERA and everyone else on the staff. Wheeler didn’t have it in the sixth and instead of caving he got the ground ball the Phillies needed because elite pitchers find ways to limit damage even on nights when the stuff isn’t cooperating.
His ERA sits at 2.11 and since returning from the injured list on April 25, he and Sanchez have combined for 21 starts with the Phillies going 17-4 in those games. Eighty percent win rate when either co-ace takes the ball, which is the kind of foundation that carries teams deep into October if the rest of the roster provides even league-average support around it.
Alvarado, Kerkering, and Duran combined for three scoreless innings after Wheeler departed to close out a bullpen performance that was exactly what the coaching staff needed after some shaky relief outings earlier in the week.
The Offense Showing Up Right Now Changes Everything About the Trade Deadline
The Phillies’ pitching has been carrying this team since Mattingly took over and the pitching is still the foundation, but the bats finally producing at a high level for a sustained stretch changes the calculus heading into the deadline because Dombrowski can now approach July from a position of strength rather than panic.
A team hitting .290 on a homestand with 11 homers and 36 runs in four wins doesn’t need to overhaul the entire lineup. It needs targeted additions to fill specific gaps while the core of the offense continues to perform at the level it showed this weekend.
Schwarber leading the league in homers at 29 with Harper locked in using the heavy bat and Bohm continuing to drive in runs from the middle of the order gives the Phillies a legitimate offensive nucleus that can compete with any lineup in the National League when all three are clicking at the same time.
The rotation behind Sanchez and Wheeler still needs help, the bullpen still needs reinforcement, and the outfield depth is still a problem with Garcia done for the year, but the offensive concerns that dominated the first two months of the season are starting to look less dire with every game where the bats show up.
Four in Washington Before the Schedule Gets Tougher
The Phillies head to D.C. for four against the Nationals carrying the best offensive momentum of the season into a series against a team that isn’t going to the playoffs. Washington should be a prime opportunity to stack wins and keep building toward the All-Star break while the rotation lines up favorably and the offense is riding the confidence of a homestand where Schwarber hit four homers in two games and Harper put his name in the record books.
Mattingly at 33-16 with 12 series wins in 16 is the best start by a Phillies manager in franchise history and the team is playing its best baseball of the year at exactly the right time. The trade deadline is still coming and Dombrowski still has work to do, but the Phillies heading into that deadline at 42-35 with the pitching staff performing at an elite level and the offense finally joining the party gives the front office room to be strategic about which moves to make instead of scrambling to fix everything at once.
Take the series in Washington, keep the momentum rolling, and head into the All-Star break playing like a team that belongs in the October conversation. Because right now, the Phillies look like they do.
Join The Chase
Read More
Phillies top international prospect Francisco Renteria is on a HEATER right now
Francisco Renteria went 3-for-4 with a homer and a triple…
Historic Night at The Bank: Phillies tally 17 hits and 15 runs against the New York Mets
Before Kyle Schwarber hit the first of his three home…
WATCH: Kyle Schwarber crushes THREE home runs, including 2 in the same inning during historic slaughter of the New York Mets
While Bryce Harper was busy hitting for the cycle on…
Comments (0)