Schwarber had the night of his life in the Phillies’ comeback win over the Dodgers Originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
LOS ANGELES — With his team on the verge of a seventh straight series loss, Kyle Schwarber had the night of his life in a spirited Phillies comeback to end a big three-game series at Dodger Stadium.
Schwarber hit a leadoff homer, a two-run double in the fifth, fired a rocket into the right-center field seats for a three-run homer in the sixth and capped it with another solo shot to center in the ninth.
Three home runs and seven RBIs.
The Phillies won 9-4 after entering the fifth inning with a three-run deficit. They lost the series opener on Monday but rallied to win Tuesday and Wednesday to take the series. They have won three of four games and appear to be getting back into form after losing 14 of 19.
The Phillies are 68-46 with a 2½-game lead over the Dodgers for the best record in the National League, and again own the best record in the majors.
Schwarber, perhaps quietly, is having a career year. He hasn’t hit for as much power, but he’s made a lot more contact and has become a more complete hitter. He’s hitting .260/.390/.504 on the season with 27 homers, 73 RBIs and a NL-leading 82 walks. The only other major leaguers to match or surpass his OBP and home run total are Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
Schwarber also hit .340 against left-handed pitching to raise his career mark against lefties from .183 to .223 in less than a season.
“The fact that he wanted to cut down on his strikeouts this year cleared all that up,” manager Rob Thomson said before the game. “He’s staying on the ball now, he’s cut down on his two-strike swing, there’s a little bit of a two-strike approach there. The average is up, he’s putting the ball in play more and the on-base percentage is up because he’s getting more hits. It all works together.
“The fact that he’s done this at this stage in his career is really smart. It shows me how much he cares and how adaptable he is.”
He didn’t have as brilliant a night as Schwarber, but Johan Rojas’ footprints were present in Wednesday’s win. Rojas came on in the third inning after Austin Hays went down with a hamstring injury and finished the fourth with one of the Phillies’ best defensive plays of the season, a 64-foot gallop and a leap off the right-center field wall to steal extra bases from Teoscar Hernandez.
In the next half-inning, Rojas hit an infield single to turn the lineup around and send the tying run home with one out. He stole second base and scored when Schwarber doubled.
When he came back on, Rojas got a walk from Joe Kelly to load the bases for Schwarber in a tie game. Kelly threw a wild pitch that scored Brandon Marsh, and a few pitches later, Schwarber added his exclamation point.
The Phillies’ big inning was facilitated by an obstruction by third-base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, who ruled that Kiké Hernández interfered with Alec Bohm’s slide to third on a bunt by Marsh. Hernández did so unintentionally as he ran toward the base to tag the ball. Such a call is not reviewable, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was ejected after a heated argument.
Nick Castellanos stayed on track with two doubles, a walk and a pitch. He had multiple hits in the three games of the series and is batting .288 with 20 doubles, two triples and nine homers in 242 plate appearances since May 29.
All the offense was needed to overcome an early deficit, but starting pitcher Tyler Phillips also held up his end of the bargain by settling in after two shaky innings. The Dodgers got him with two runs in a long first inning and scored two more in the second on Freddie Freeman’s single, but Phillips allowed just one baserunner in his final three innings. He also retired Ohtani quietly in the infield all three times he faced him.
It was a big bounce back after Phillips allowed three homers and eight runs without making it past the second inning Friday night in Seattle.
The Phillies now move into Chase Field, a stadium with painful memories of the 2023 National League Championship Series. The Diamondbacks are the hottest team in baseball, with a 12-2 record over the past two weeks and an average of more than 7.0 runs per game.