The Braves have been dealt with and the Phillies are headed to the NLCS for the first time since 2010. After an upset of the 111-win Dodgers, the Padres will be the next roadblock for the Phillies.
Both teams will have tough pitching at their disposal. The Phillies will feature Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Jose Alvarado, and Seranthony Dominguez while the Padres will have Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove, and Josh Hader.
Recently, the Phillies’ success has been fueled by an all-hands-on-deck offense. From Harper, Castellanos, Hoskins, Marsh, Stott, and Segura, the entire lineup has gotten involved.
Well… almost the entire lineup.
There has been one player that has been noticeably quiet at the plate.
Kyle Schwarber has not gotten in the grove in the playoffs…yet.
The Phillies need Kyle Schwarber to step up
In the regular season, Schwarber was a beast of a power hitter. His 46 home runs were tops in the National League and second overall only behind Aaron Judge’s historic 62 home runs. That mark was 8 more homers than Schwarber had ever hit in a season.
His 46 homers were the most a Phillie has hit since Ryan Howard in 2008. He set a record for the most home runs hit by a Phils outfielder EVER. He passed Chuck Klein’s record of 43 which was set in 1929.
On the other hand, Schwarber became the first Phillies to strike out 200 times in a season. His strikeout on the final day of the season against Frabler Valdez set him as the 16th player to ever reach the 200K mark. Ryan Howard held the previous Phillies’ record with 199 strikeouts in 2007 and 2008.
Now with the Padres on the horizon, Schwarber could be another major key for the Phillies’ offense. The Schwarbarian had 8 muli-homer games in the regular season. Schwarber played 4 games in San Diego this season, slashing .294/.333/.706 with 2 home runs.
The monster is waiting to break out and don’t be surprised if it happens in San Diego.
