Phillies Kyle Schwarber cant stop swatting postseason homers. Hes a walking October history

The Athletic has live coverage of Phillies vs. Diamondbacks in NLCS Game 7.

PHOENIX — It isn’t every day in October that we pretty much dedicate an entire edition of the NLCS Weird and Wild column to one man. But considering that man hit a home run Saturday night that looked like it might come down in Sedona, we’re suspending much of our usual programming.

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Phillies leadoff masher Kyle Schwarber definitely had his accomplices in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series — a game that ended Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 1, and put the Phillies in position to reserve their ride to a second straight World Series on Monday, back home in the decibel capital of the world. But we’ll get to them later, because first, this edition of the Weird and Wild column needs to pay a visit to …

The National Schwarbomb Museum

Ever wondered what a walking October history museum looked like? Well, it looks kind of like this.

The legend of Kyle Schwarber. #NLCS pic.twitter.com/EbnQ2fhpt7

— MLB (@MLB) October 22, 2023

That’s a 114-mph, 461-foot Mars probe launched by Mr. Red October, Kyle Schwarber, on Saturday night. And if you thought it was quite a spectacle to behold on your 72-inch flat screen, you should have been sitting in the Phillies bullpen in right field when that satellite roared overhead.

WEIRD AND WILD (TO RELIEVER MATT STRAHM): “What’s the view of that ball look like as it goes flying by you?”

STRAHM: “Oh, by the time it gets past the mound, you know it’s gone. It’s like a driver 300 yards down the middle.”

W&W: “I was thinking it might look like one of those (fighter jet) flyovers on Opening Day.”

STRAHM: “Right. A flyover in a dome. That’s about right.”

This was still a tight 2-0 game in the top of the sixth inning when Schwarber’s latest air show raced through the skies — or whatever that is hovering inside Chase Field. A Zac Gallen knuckle curve came floating his way, sitting right there in Schwarber’s liftoff zone.

The Schwarbarian flicked those Mr. America wrists — and the baseball disappeared so deep into the right-center field seats, it almost cleared the lower deck entirely before clanking off a railing somewhere in the vicinity of Old Town Scottsdale.

Watch the video again of that transcontinental blast, and I bet two questions will strike you: One, is this the strongest human in baseball? And two, how much voltage does this guy inject into the rest of his team every time he pounds one of these spark-flying missiles through the night?

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“It’s just a jolt,” said Schwarber’s close friend, catcher J.T. Realmuto. “It’s honestly a jolt of energy to the whole dugout. Same thing with Bryce (Harper). When those guys get into one, it’s just a different type of sound. And it’s fun to celebrate those in the dugout because not a lot of other teams have guys on their team that can do that.”

Not a lot of other teams have guys who can do that, huh? OK, it’s time for this important announcement from the National Weird and Wild Historical Society:

Every team has some big dude hanging around who can hit a baseball far enough to make a home run trot. But no team employs a resident masher who is doing all the unprecedented stuff Kyle Schwarber is doing this time of year.

You think we’re exaggerating? Nope. No reason to. We’ll get back to the reaction of Schwarber and his teammates shortly. But first, allow us to fill you in on what you’re watching.

He’s the greatest LCS slugger ever! Schwarber’s slugging percentage, through five games of this NLCS, is a ridiculous 1.353. His OPS, through the first five games, was actually over 2.000 before his last at-bat Saturday, but is still sitting at a cool 1.898.

So who does that? Nobody does that. And we can document that.

HIGHEST SLUG PCT IN A SINGLE LCS 
(minimum 20 plate appearances)

HIGHEST OPS IN A SINGLE LCS
(minimum 15 plate appearances)

(Source: Baseball Reference / Stathead)

Did we mention that Schwarber has compiled these outrageous numbers despite the fact that he’s hit only one single in this whole series — and it was his rip-roaring swinging-bunt dribbler (exit velocity: 30 mph) to lead off Saturday night’s game? Tremendous.

He’s whomped five home runs in five games in this series! Five homers in five games might seem like standard Schwarbarian material — but not at this time of year! Only seven other men have hit five home runs (or more) in any postseason series. And it’s a truly fun list.

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World Series: Reggie Jackson (1977), Chase Utley (2009) and George Springer (2017).

LCS: Nelson Cruz (six, in the 2011 ALCS) and Corey Seager (2020).

LDS: Ken Griffey Jr. (1995) and Juan Gonzalez (1996).

Schwarber’s five rockets have traveled a combined 2,085 feet — and averaged 112 mph in exit velocity. My goodness, he’s one mighty human.

He’s now in the 20-Homer Club (postseason division)! This is another sensational group. That long ball Saturday made Schwarber the fifth member of the postseason 20-Homer Club. But here’s your assignment. Check out the club members and see if you notice why one of these men is not like the others.

(Source: Baseball Reference)

Yes, Schwarber is the only left-handed hitter in that cool club. But while that observation is good for bonus points, it’s not the answer. What you should actually notice is that everybody else on that list has at least 200 more postseason plate appearances than Schwarber does. So here’s what that means:

Average HR ratio of the other four — one HR every 23.7 PA

Schwarber’s slightly different HR ratio — one HR every 12.6 PA

And one more thing: Everyone else on that list has played at least 100 postseason games. Saturday was Schwarber’s 63rd!

He’s hit 104 homers in the past two seasons! This Hundred-aires Club is another exclusive group. Over the past two years, Schwarber has now fired off 93 home runs in the regular season, plus another 11 in the postseason. Does 104 home runs seem like a lot? Let’s go with abso-bleeping-lutely!

I asked my friends from STATS Perform to look into this. They found only five other sluggers in history who have smoked that many homers over a two-season span (postseason included), if you filter out everyone who is suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs:

(FYI: I zapped out overlapping spans for Babe Ruth and Ken Griffey Jr., who actually did this over multiple two-year periods.)

OK then. This is just a sampling of Historic Stuff You Probably Never Knew About Kyle Schwarber. I know it left its mark on my brain cells after I’d finished digesting it all. My challenge was trying to impress Schwarber himself with it after this game. But good luck with that.

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Would it shock you to learn his place in history wasn’t at the forefront of his mind or one of his main goals at the moment?

W&W: “You’re turning into kind of a walking October History Museum. Do people tell you what your numbers are, and what your historic feats look like?”

SCHWARBER: “Yeah, people tell me — when we’re in these situations. I have reporters coming up and telling me stuff.”

W&W: “You mean people like me, right?”

SCHWARBER: “Yeah. And like I’ve always said, it’s cool. But I think the satisfaction of all that stuff will come after baseball.”

W&W: “Well, can I tell you some of the stuff you’ve done? Or do you not even want to know? I’ll defer to you. But it’s pretty amazing. Like, you’re one of only five guys in the Postseason 20-Homer Club, but everyone else has at least 200 more at-bats than you — which means you’ve basically got the greatest postseason home-run ratio ever. Is that something that excites you?”

SCHWARBER: “That’s cool. …”

W&W: “You’ve also got the highest OPS and slugging percentage in this LCS that anybody has ever had in any LCS.”

SCHWARBER: “Yeah, that’s cool, too. Sounds good. (Laughs). As long as we keep winning baseball games. (Laughs again.) And if we could get five more wins, that would be great. In fact, if we could get one more win that would be great.”

WEIRD AND WILD: “Sounds like that’s the kind of history you’re interested in. I get it.”

But just because the curator of the National Schwarbomb Museum doesn’t want to spend a lot of time reflecting on his historic ways doesn’t mean his teammates can’t reflect on it for him. So allow Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm to do that for you — and for him.

BOHM: “You know, for the most part, those are the kind of things you realize once you’re done and you’re reflecting back on it. But there have been a couple of times where you see things that make you think about the things that happened way back when, when we were watching the game as kids. And it’s just cool to kind of be on the inside to see a lot of the cool things that this guy, and some of the guys on this team, have done.”

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Look, they’re trying to win a World Series at the moment. I understand. Putting Kyle Schwarber history lessons in perspective isn’t their job. It’s the job of the Weird and Wild column. I just want them — and you — to know: We’re good with that gig!

Party of Three

Hold on. Don’t exit this theater yet. We have a few more important Weird and Wild NLCS tidbits to share with you. So stick around to read them. What do you say?

WORTH THE BRYCE — It was just another typical October day in the life and times of Bryce Harper, all right.

First inning: Stole home!

Collision at the plate as Bryce Harper scores to make it 2-0 pic.twitter.com/epTHbpc7tD

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 22, 2023

Sixth inning: Nine pitches after Schwarber’s park-rattling homer, Harper followed that act with a 447-foot long ball of his own.

HARPER HOMER pic.twitter.com/8l8hDIxqNH

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 22, 2023

So we could tell you a bunch of stuff here you probably already know — that Harper was the first Phillie ever to steal home in a postseason game, or that he became the sixth player ever to steal home in a League Championship Series. But here’s a way more fun tidbit:

The question I couldn’t stop thinking about was: Did Bryce Harper just become the first player ever to steal home and homer in a postseason game?

I fired that question at my friends from STATS. And that answer was … not quite! But he did become the second, joining Randy Arozarena, who did it for the Rays in Game 1 of the 2021 American League Division Series. Nevertheless, that’s what you call a productive night at the office!

WHEELS AND DEALS — Every time Zack Wheeler takes the mound these days, it’s another chance to remind you that he’s now in the argument for Best Pitcher in Baseball. And Saturday, he again did what aces do in games like this:

He started a massive October baseball game, in a series tied at two wins apiece, and never gave the Diamondbacks a chance to breathe, let alone win.

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Seven innings … one run … eight strikeouts. Don’t take starts like that for granted. They don’t happen much.

In fact, Wheeler became only the fifth pitcher to start Game 5 of a best-of-seven LCS that was tied two games apiece, then spin off seven innings or more, give up one run or none and strike out eight (or more). Check out the other four men to do that:

• Nolan Ryan (Astros), 1986 NLCS (9 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 12 K)

• Liván Hernández (Marlins), 1997 NLCS (9 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 15 K in what is still remembered as The Eric Gregg Game!)

• Masahiro Tanaka (Yankees), 2017 ALCS (7 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 8 K)

• Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), 2018 NLCS (7 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 9 K)

Aces don’t let their teams lose on nights like this. As always, Wheeler got the memo.

PAGING HAN SOLO — On one hand, the Phillies are outhomering their opponents in this postseason, 23-6. And yes, if that holds up, it’ll be the biggest home run differential in any postseason ever, because of course it will. But …

This wasn’t supposed to be a solo act!

Yet somehow or other, the Phillies hadn’t hit a home run in this postseason with a runner on base in a week and a half — since Harper’s epic three-run homer in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. After that, they mysteriously ran off a streak of 16 solo home runs in a row. So was that a record? Of course that was a record.

Longest previous solo act — 12 in a row, by Joe Morgan’s 1972-73 Reds and a decade’s worth of Astros teams (2005-15).

Longest previous solo act in the same postseason — 10 in a row, by last year’s Padres team that lost in the NLCS to … the Phillies.

However, the streak is over, thanks to Realmuto, who went deep in the eighth with a man on … and had no idea what he’d just done! So wasn’t he fortunate that we were there to update him.

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W&W: “Were you aware you guys had hit 16 solo home runs in a row until you went and messed it up.”

REALMUTO: “No. I wasn’t. But see, I messed another streak up.”

Yeah, he did. But luckily for him and the team boarding a plane home late Saturday night, that was about the only thing the Phillies messed up in the most pivotal game they’d played all postseason.

GO DEEPER

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How the Phillies snatched Game 5: Double steal and the little things paved way for big win

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In NLCS battle of aces, difference between Zac Gallen and Zack Wheeler could doom D-Backs

(Top photo of Kyle Schwarber: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

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