Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, the Phillies returned to Philadelphia after a difficult defeat in New York, being swept by the Mets. The dark times, however, were suddenly lifted Thursday evening, as the Philadelphia, donned in their powder blue jerseys, embraced the force on Star Wars Night on their way to a 19-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Kyle Schwarber hit a saga’s worth of home runs, four to be exact, on the night while Aaron Nola moved into third place on Philadelphia’s all-time strikeouts list. The Phillies’ box score was filled from top to bottom as the team locked in, dominating the Braves.
“Huge character win,” manager Rob Thomson said of the win post-game. “You get down three and I know the radio stations were wanting the fans to boo us and all that stuff, but that’s alright. But we came back, scored five, and then just chipped away and just kept going.”
The Bats Awaken
As the classic battle between light and dark began, Aaron Nola struggled early against the Braves, allowing the first two baserunners, Jurickson Profar and Matt Olson, to reach base on a single and a walk, respectively. Nola pinched Ronald Acuňa Jr. on a fastball, forcing him to pop out to Bryce Harper in foul territory. Drake Baldwin then slipped a single into center field, loading the bases. Nola then walked Ozzie Albies on a full count, scoring Profar.
With the first run on the board, Michael Harris II caught a knuckle curve, sending it off of the wall in right field, scoring two more runs for the Braves. The 41,293 fans in attendance for the Phillies began to rain boos onto the field after watching the Phillies get swept in their previous series in New York.
Favor began to turn in Nola’s direction, however, as he struck Marcell Ozuna out looking on a sinker to the outside corner. On the 0-1 pitch to Nacho Alvarez Jr., Harris II went to steal second, beating the throw from J.T. Realmuto to Bryson Stott. Stott, however, saw Albies attempting to take home on a delayed attempt, and threw him out for the final out. The putout went 2-4-2 in the scorebook with Albies getting caught stealing.
The Phillies Strike Back
With how the last few days had gone for the Phillies, it was not looking like they would rebound on Thursday, down three just a half-inning into the game. The Phillies, however, were ready to get on base by any means necessary.
Kyle Schwarber wasted little time hitting his 46th home run of the season, a 450-foot bomb into right field to put the Phillies on the board. Schwarber had been on a 0-for-20 skid. Harper then followed up, slinging a fastball from Cal Quantrill the opposite way, past the shifted defense to get on base. One pitch later, Harper was trotting home as J.T. Realmuto smacked his 11th home run of the season into left field, tying the game up a 3-3.
After watching two of the previous three at bats end in home runs, Brandon Marsh got sneaky, bunting the first pitch past Alvarez to get on base. Marsh did not stay on the base for long, however, as Alec Bohm hit into a fielder’s choice, taking his place at first.
Max Kepler, however, sought to make it three home runs on the inning for the Phillies. On the sixth pitch of the at bat, he succeeded. Kepler drove a cutter middle and in 399 feet into right-center field, giving the Phillies a 5-3 lead after the first.
Two innings later, Bryce Harper, who seemingly never wants to be outdone by his teammates, led off the bottom of the third with a first pitch solo home run 442 feet into right-center field.
Schwarber executes Order 66
Harrison Bader started the bottom half of the fourth with a triple to straightaway center field. Bryson Stott then reached base on a single to score Darth Bader. Trea Turner then returned the favor, scoring Stott on a double down the left field line. Following those three hits, all nine of the Phillies’ starters reached base in the first four innings.
The Braves then went to the bullpen, taking out Quantrill in exchange for reliever Austin Cox. Schwarber then hit his 47th home run of the season, his second of the day, down the right field line. Schwarber has now hit multiple home runs in a game for the fourth time this season, 35 times in his career.
Harper and Realmuto worked back-to-back walks off Cox. Two batters later, Bohm slipped a double past the third baseman, down the left field line, to score both Harper and Realmuto. Bohm is now alongside Harper with an 11-game active hit streak, giving the Phillies a 12-3 advantage.
Bader notched his second hit of the day, a single up the middle, to lead off the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Turner reached base on an infield single to Albies. Schwarber, who had already hit two home runs on the night, decided to go for an opposite-field home run.
The National League MVP candidate succeeded. Schwarber slapped a fastball into left field for his 48th home run of the season, increasing the Phillies’ lead to 15-3. Schwarber now stands 10 home runs behind Ryan Howard for the most in a single season in Phillies’ history, with 28 games remaining in the season.
Attack of the Nols
Aaron Nola entered the night having struck out 1841 batters on his career, just three strikeouts short of third place in Phillies’s history, a spot owned by Cole Hamels. In the top of the fourth inning, Nola got Harris II swinging on a full-count fastball to tie Hamels. It would take a couple more innings, however, for Nola to get ahead of Hamels.
In the top of the sixth inning, with a 12-run lead over the Braves, Nola let up a solo home run to Matt Olson to start the inning. Ronald Acuňa Jr. then stepped up to the plate with no outs. After Nola fell behind 3-0, he pitched three straight fastballs to get back to a 3-2 count, with two foul balls in the mix. Then, Nola pitched a knuckle curve that painted the low-and-away corner to a swinging Acuňa.
The strikeout is Nola’s 1,845th on his career, moving him to third place in Phillies franchise history. Robin Roberts is second on the list with 1,871, 26 strikeouts ahead of Nola. After Roberts stands Lefty himself, Steve Carlton, with 3,031 career strikeouts.
Nola’s day concluded with the end of the sixth inning. After a rocky first inning, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks, Nola settled in, allowing just two more baserunners in five additional innings.
The Rise of Schwarber
For a batter to hit two home runs in a game is a huge accomplishment. Three? Possibly a once-in-a-career occurrence. So surely, Schwarber did not have a fourth in him? He did. Bader hit a double to lead off the bottom of the seventh before being joined on base by Edmundo Sosa, who reached on a walk after entering in replacement of Turner. With two runners on, Schwarber became the 21st player in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in a game, hitting one 407 feet into right field.
Schwarber is the third player this season to reach that mark, joining Eugenio Suárez and Nick Kurtz. Suárez hit the mark with the Diamondbacks against the Braves as well. Schwarber also reached nine RBI on the night, setting a new single-season franchise record.
Now in the bottom of the eighth, the Phillies seemed determined to get Schwarber a shot at his 50th home run of the season. With position player Vidal Bruján on the mound, Kepler walked and Bader singled to begin the inning. Sosa then slipped a single into left field, scoring Kepler as the Phillies’ 19th run of the game, to bring Schwarber up. Schwarber locked eyes with a 57.4 mph eephus from Bruján, but got under the pitch, popping out to left field. Though he came up short on the fifth home run, Schwarber walked off the field to a standing ovation from the Phillies fans that remained.
“He’s in a groove right now, or tonight anyway,” said Thomson of Schwarber’s performance. “It was good to see because we needed it. He’d been hitting some balls hard right at people; they’ve been pitching him tough, so it’s good to see.”
The Boxscore
The Phillies combined for 19 runs on 20 hits on the night. They combined to go 6-for-13 with runners in scoring position, doubling the number of hits they had with RISP collectively in New York. Every Phillies starter recorded a hit with Schwarber going 4-for-6 overall with nine RBI.
Bader also notched four hits on the night, going 4-for-5 with three runs scored, going a home run short of the cycle. Realmuto, Kepler, and Harper each hit home runs on the night as well for the Phillies.
After a tough first inning, Nola clocked in six hard-fought innings of work. In relief, Daniel Robert and Lou Trivino, both recently called up, combined to pitch three shutout innings.
As a collective, the Phillies did exactly what they needed to in order to put their weekend in New York out of their minds.
“They just keep moving forward,” said Thomson. ”And that’s what you got to do. You got to grind through it. You got to make your own breaks. You got to just fight.”
Next up
Game two of the Phillies’ four-game finale with the Braves will be on Apple TV+ Friday night. Ranger Suárez will face off against Bryce Elder in the 6:45 p.m. start.
