While Kyle Schwarber led the National League and was second in all of baseball in home runs heading into the day, the Philadelphia Phillies slugger was in something of a power drought. His last home run came on Aug. 5. During Thursday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, that changed in a big way.
In the third inning, Schwarber took a 1-1 pitch from Cincinnati’s Justin Dunn deep. And this wasn’t a wall scraper, either, unless the wall in question is the batter’s eye, well beyond the center field fence. In fact, Schwarber nearly cleared that. It was a booming home run from Schwarber that traveled 451 feet.
The titanic blast caught the attention of the baseball world.
… I think Schwarber dented the brick wall? Holy moly what a shot. #RingTheBell
— Ian Riccaboni (@IanRiccaboni) August 25, 2022
While Schwarber is well behind Aaron Judge’s MLB-leading 48 home runs, this blast moved him to two ahead of St. Louis Cardinals slugger Paul Goldschmidt for the NL lead. And given that Goldschmidt leads the NL in batting average and RBI, Schwarber may be the only thing standing in Goldschmidt’s way to being the first NL Triple Crown winner since 1937.
The Phillies also got good news before the game when it was announced that Bryce Harper would be activated on Friday. Between Harper’s return and Schwarber rediscovering his power strike, Philadelphia’s lineup should be quite formidable during the final weeks of the season.
[MLB on Twitter]
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